Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class
Owen Jones
Verso, £14.99


This is a passionate book about an important subject, which has been ignored for too long. Owen Jones nicely expresses the frustration of working class communities. He’s right on the money about several things and wide of the mark about plenty of issues as well. Whatever your politics, this book focuses on a variety of issues that really deserve closer attention.

The title of the book draws attention to an insult that has become all too socially acceptable.Jones mentions a middle class dinner party where somebody asked “where would all the chavs buy their Christmas presents” following the closure of Woolworths. He noted that people round the table, who would generally define themselves as on the left, were mocking some of the poorest in society. For Jones this symbolised the ultimate shift away for many on the left from its working class roots.

He is certainly right that the term chavs is a shabby and offensive one. It can represent the powerful and wealthy mocking the poor and powerless.  It’s a horrible word that should join other derogatory terms in the dustbin of unacceptability. Having said that, ‘chavs’ is also a term used widely in the kind of working class communities in which I grew up (charver was the term of choice in Consett) and Jones should bear in mind that it is a term used as a differentiator in working class areas, as well as a term of abuse from the wealthy. That, of course, doesn’t make it any more acceptable.

The book also picks out some horrific pieces of media reporting, caricaturing working class areas and working class people. The columns of Simon Heffer and countless Daily Mail columnists are marshalled as substantial evidence that the media have created a crude demonisation of the working class. Some of the reporting of the Shannon Matthews case marked the shameful apotheosis of this kind of reporting. 

As the author points out, the utter detachment and lack of understanding of working class life is combined with tiny representation of people from non privileged backgrounds in the media and in politics. Media reports mocking an “underclass” are by and large written by journalists who attended a fee paying school, without  any real understanding of working class life. 35% of MPs, including 59% of Tory MPs, went to fee paying schools, as did 55% of top journalists.  This compares to only 7% of the population.

Very few MPs or journalists come from genuine working class backgrounds (although there are exceptions on both sides of the House – such as Grahame Morris and Mike Penning). Trade union sponsored MPs aren’t always manual workers from working class backgrounds any more – often they have come from middle class backgrounds and have acted in white collar research roles within trade unions. The gilded quality of both the media and politics has led to a detachment from working class life, which has led many people in working class communities to complain that politicians and the media do not understand “people like us”. This is a gulf that must be bridged.

The book is also right to draw attention to the effect of deindustrialisation on working class communities.  Not only did the decline of traditional industries have a devastating effect on employment in many towns (my home town of Consett had the highest rate of unemployment in Europe when I was growing up), but it also had a real and negative impact on every other element of life in working class communities. Often highly skilled engineering jobs were replaced with lower skilled and lower paid jobs. The effect of deindustrialisation on certain communities is something that needs to be acknowledged in this debate.

While there is much to be praised in this book, there is also much that can be quibbled with. While it talks eloquently about the devastating impact of deindustrialisation on many communities, it doesn’t really address how those communities can be revived. It correctly talks about the importance of housing and job creation to working class communities, but doesn’t really address how these jobs can be created by harnessing the growth potential of the private sector and how the new housing can be built in a way acceptable to local communities (other than a top-down house building programme reminiscent of those of Bevan and Macmillan). It doesn’t address where the skilled jobs will come from to replace the skilled jobs that have been lost over recent decades or how to ensure that the education system produces the right skills to compete globally.

‘Chavs’ also downplays the importance of welfare reform and ignores the anger about benefit fraud that is starkly felt in working class areas. While Jones is right that welfare reform without job creation is not enough, he is wrong to suggest that welfare reform is part of a systematic demonisation. Done correctly, welfare reform will be fairer on people living in working class areas and will help everybody to make the most of their potential.

This is a highly readable and very important book.  Although, as he suggests himself, Jones is from a middle-class background, he does understand and address many of the big issues facing working class communities.  The book correctly addresses the marginalisation of many working class people from political life (just look at turnout figures for lower income social groups as confirmation of this).  It has helped to ignite a debate about how to bridge the gulf between Westminster and working class communities and how to best turn round those areas most affected by the blight of unemployment and deindustrialisation.

David Skelton is deputy director of the Policy Exchange think tank. You can follow him on Twitter @djskelton

Tags: Chavs, Class, David Skelton, Owen Jones, Policy Exchange, Welfare reform