Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class

by Owen Jones

The new Briton created by Tha...

a property-owning, middle-class individual who looked after themselves, their...

‘Forget the community spirit and all that. If you can’t make a profit, then it has to be stopped.

Those working-class communities who had been most shattered by Thatcherism became the most disparaged. They were seen as the left-behinds, the remnants of an old world that had been trampled on

Disraeli had called working-class people ‘angels in marble’. ‘Salt of the earth’ was another phrase once associated with them. Today, they are more likely than not to be called chavs. From salt of the earth to scum of the earth. This is the legacy of Thatcherism—the demonization of everything associated with the working class.