Chav's , bottle blondes and 'class '

It seems that calling someone a chav makes it acceptable to mock and look down on the working classes . First there was the attack on 'chav's ' who just did not know their place and went to Goodwood races . I mean, shouldn't they be cleaning the lavs and making the tea, doffing their cap at the ladies in their summer frocks. They just don't respect their betters these days:

Ladies dressed elegantly in floral frocks, and on the arms of gentlemen spruced up in cravats and Panama hats, were welcome: Daves and Tracys from Dagenham emblazoned with tattoos and chunky jewellery under Burberry baseball caps were not.

But despite the Earl of March and Kinrara’s wishes, a chav or two did escape the style-police at yesterday’s opening of Glorious Goodwood.

The earl, heir to the Goodwood estate, had said he feared that this most English of meets was going the way of other racecourses “whose patrons dress as though they’re going to a nightclub”.

“I won’t be asking that visitors wear morning coats but I would like to see the ladies in nice traditional English summer frocks, with linen suits and Panama hats for the gentlemen,” he is reported to have said. “We have far too many chavs, I’m afraid. Perhaps we’ll have to have some spare jackets.”

It looks like this was brought about by the Grand National Meeting earlier in the year and reported on by the Daily Mail in suitably snooty tones :

His (the Earl of March, SB)comments are likely to have been prompted by the Grand National meeting in April when Ladies' Day looked more like the queue for fancy dress night at a Liverpool nightclub.

The footballers' wives and glamour girls of the North-West put on a display that spectators at Aintree will never forget.

Heaving bosoms were on show, along with acres of fake tan and extravagant headdresses perched on bleached-blonde hairdos.

To make matters worse, the shrieking hordes swigged beer straight from the bottle.

And what exactly is wrong with bleached blonde hair and swigging out of bottles! Yep, I know i'm not classy ;-)

Following on from this is the youtube video, albeit filmed two years ago, showing jolly japes at a top public school :

One of Scotland's top public schools has condemned a video which showed ex-pupils staging a mock "chav hunt".
"Class Wars" was posted on the internet site YouTube by former students at Glenalmond College, near Perth.

The film, which showed teenagers wearing shell suits being chased by classmates dressed as aristocrats, was partly filmed on the school grounds.

Officials have described the spoof as "deeply offensive" and said it did not reflect the ethos at the school.

It began with one teenager in a baseball cap being pulled out of a river before being subjected to a simulated beating by a couple of tweed-wearing 'attackers'.

Another scene showed a shell suit wearing gang being chased through the school grounds by two young men dressed as huntsmen and on horseback.

They were shown being 'shot' as they ran across a field and one of the 'victims' was then prodded by an aristocrat as he lay on the ground.

Apparently the pupils are no longer at the school, headed for good jobs running business and the country no doubt. The school says it does not reflect the ethos and they condemn it . It is no longer on you tube but there is still a clip on the BBC news page.

I would say it illustrates very well the contempt held for the working class by this group of privileged public school kids and the Earl, even if it is wrapped up in the term 'chav'.They may use this word, but they mean working class. They mean common, not one of 'them', 'look they don't know how to dress or use the right knife and fork'. 'They', the working class, have the nerve to ignore the rules and 'invade' our genteel world. Ignore all that Cameron nonsense, society is not classless and even if you have the money you don't have the 'class'.The message is don't step out of line and know your place.

The barriers are there, some more hidden than others, to ensure even if you can afford to play with the middle and upper classes you never really fit in.

Pic: Courtney.Well any excuse, but nothing wrong with drunken badly behaved bottle blondes !

Update

Of course even some on the left look down on the working classes, as evidenced by a comment left on this post and reproduced here :

I've often considered it a small tragedy that there are so many oiks amongst leftists. I find they are often happy to settle for a lot less than the higher price us ex public schoolboys demand.