Oi, Prince; no! Why upper-middle class people should stop taking the mickey out of the working classes
Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 11:09AM 
When, exactly, did it become acceptable for wealthy upper and middle-class British people to take the piss out of working class and poor ones? Was it when the millionaire Kate Moss began dressing up as Vicky Pollard the character invented by wealthy, privately-educated Matt Lucas and David Walliams. Or when Prince William and his friends from Sandhurst held their Chav party to celebrate the end of their first term at Sandhurst? Or perhaps it was when middle class people who contribute to sites such as Chavtowns began using “council” as a sort of derogatory adjective? I could go on, but you get the idea.
For some of the middle classes, it seems to have become almost fashionable to openly ridicule those less well-off than themselves, and it’s becoming quite unpleasant. Yesterday Paddy Power uploaded their Chav Tranquilizer ad to YouTube saying that they’ll sort the chavs out at Cheltenham. Unsurprisingly it was banned after 4 days on TV but the current likes vs dislikes ratio on YouTube shows our passion for chav bashing remains unabated.
Last week a 20 year old student from a very comfortable background told me in an unconvincingly ironic tone, that she didn’t use buses (or “chav wagons”) “because most of the passengers smell”. As with many such comments, it was pretty clear that she not only really believed this, but also relished the idea of saying it because she felt it somehow boosted her own social status.
There are those who will accuse me of lacking a sense of humour here, but they can get lost; it’s one thing to uphold standards, but quite another for rich people to openly mock poor ones, and at the very least it is bad manners. That alone should be reason for self-superior middle classes to pack it in.
Reader Comments (5)
But it's perfectly O.K. for "Poor" people to mock and ridicule, often via the BBC, the affluent? Or is it they know not what they do?
Double standards from the middle class hand-wringing do gooders I fear.
Yes, there are a lot of poor people on the BBC, Curbishly. Perhaops you could share some examples for those who may have blinked and missed them?
To be fair, the fashion for mocking the working class is not really aimed at the working class, it is generally aimed at those who break the law and behave badly in public, hence "chavs". Programmes like Coppers, Road Wars, and Brit Cops give people an opportunity to see the dregs of society fighting and spending tax payer cash via using up Police time. This is what I believe to be the reason, rather than an excuse, for this type of mocking. There is no excuse for laughting at people who are poorer than you. Everyone is poorer than someone. (ooh how Guardian of me!)
@DMC OK, fair point. But I note that the wealthy people who break the law and behave badly in public are relatively untouched. If you've been on holiday to Cornwall in the summer, you'll know they do exist.
@Curbishly I am not a middle-class hand-wringing do-gooder, to use your Daily Mail cliche. Why do you put "poor" in inverted commas?
The entire “chav” phenomenon is – historically speaking- nothing new. During the Victorian era the working class was divided between the “roughs” and the “respectables” and in the era of the welfare state we heard about the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor, which implies that poverty is the fault of the poor themselves and not a result of economic or social factors. This is exactly what the ruling class want people to believe; the “chav” myth naturalises poverty and lawlessness by blaming the victims, rather than challenging the conditions which create such an environment, allowing the real criminals and cause of inequality to continue to divide and rule whilst lording it over the rest of us.
The fact is that there is not one so-called “chav” who has been as irresponsible or done as much damage to society as the bankers and their scumbag friends in the City matters little to the promoters of this poverty pornography . It’s all the fault of this feckless rump they say, as though getting drunk, swearing, wearing sports gear when you are not at the gym etc. is the cause of our ills and not a result of inequality and lack of opportunity.
Just look at Prince Harry (if you can stomach to). An archetypal “Chav”, Harry struggled at school -is thick as frozen pig-shit and only got his A level grades because he cheated- yet his life has not suffered one iota because of his background. Anyone who utters the word “chav” and thinks they are not indulging in the basest, most extreme form of class hatred is deluding themselves.
Right, now I’m off to get drunk, smash something up and generally act in as foul and obnoxious manner that I can. And before you ask- no – I’m not a “chav”. I’m just a fully paid up life member of the Bullingdon Club.