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I Am Now Officially A Snob
Apparently a couple of 'nice' MPs have decided that anyone who uses the word chav is a snob. Being faithful to my Norn Irn heritage, I refuse to use the word Chav, but am no stranger to laughing at Spides!
A major plank of the rationale behind this is that the term is classist. Personally I have to disagree as there are plenty spides/chavs out there who are as well off as me - so either I'm working class too, or they're lower-middle class. Either way, my disdain for them can hardly be termed classist.
The MPs have been sickeningly self-reighteous in their comments I have to say. Lembit Opik says "people who think this is a genuine label are really only labelling themselves as snobs," while Ealing MP Stephen Pound goes so far as to describe himself as an 'aspirant chav'. Who knew Ali G Indahouse was based on a real life MP, eh?
So what's going on? Is it classist to find disturbing spide logic like "If we don't get to walk down the Garvaghy Road then next thing there'll be a united Ireland"? (that's an actual quote from a spide I used to know, who had nothing to do with Portadown LOL - my emphasis)
I think Lembit and friends are obviously speaking from a typically (for a politician) out of touch position. They clearly don't understand the true and full meaning of the word chav. They seem to take the dictionary definition, which is "a young working class person who dresses in casual sports clothing," when we all know the definition of a spide is something much more complicated than that. Perhaps its simply that these people have not spent enough time interacting with chavs, or those who use the term.
Note the description in the previous link above contains no mention of the word 'working' or the word 'class'. In fact I think to describe chavs as 'working class' is quite inaccurate as most chavs/spides seem to have something of an aversion to work!
Is this just an attempt to win a few votes? If so the exercise will most likely be fruitless since spides, as a general rule, don't exactly vote in huge numbers (except in Northern Ireland and here its more of a sectarian roll call than a considered choice). Hearing politicians or Michael Collins, author of The Likes of Us: A Biography of the White Working Class, refer to the use of term chav as snobbish is reminiscent of Ali G's famous "Is it cuz I is black?" line.
You'd nearly expect it from Lembit Opec. Being a Lib Dem, he may well just spend all day thinking up things he can deem offensive. Maybe Stephen Pound just has a lot of chav constituents to keep happy and his outburst was supposed to be a cheap votewinner? (This would also explain the similar sentiment espoused by Liverpool MP Louise Ellman)
Being a spide isn't about the class you belong to. It's about your lack of it.