Now I'm not going to pretend that no other country on earth has chavs or a local equivalent. Here in Holland we have Tokkies and the like with their resplendent mullets, and anywhere in the world there are little groups of failed ugly little tulips who spend their days generally annoying everybody else, nicking stuff, vandalising stuff and so on.
The thing is, in most countries you only see a few of them here and there. But on my last 5 or 6 visits to the UK, entering through different airports or railway stations, I've noticed that the time-to-first-chav-sighting has fallen to about 30 seconds after alighting from train or plane. It then goes on; even in quite attractive towns and rather posh areas, groups of acne ridden greasy haired tracksuit wearers are to be seen on every corner, meaning it now seems almost impossible to spend more than one minute traversing a populated area of Britain on foot without seeing a chav.
What is it precisely about Britain, an otherwise rather splendid place that has given the world so many good things like railways, jet engines, decent rock music and nuns in latex outfits (huh? Zat voz ze Germans!), that has led to such a surplus of grotty little tulipes?
The thing is, in most countries you only see a few of them here and there. But on my last 5 or 6 visits to the UK, entering through different airports or railway stations, I've noticed that the time-to-first-chav-sighting has fallen to about 30 seconds after alighting from train or plane. It then goes on; even in quite attractive towns and rather posh areas, groups of acne ridden greasy haired tracksuit wearers are to be seen on every corner, meaning it now seems almost impossible to spend more than one minute traversing a populated area of Britain on foot without seeing a chav.
What is it precisely about Britain, an otherwise rather splendid place that has given the world so many good things like railways, jet engines, decent rock music and nuns in latex outfits (huh? Zat voz ze Germans!), that has led to such a surplus of grotty little tulipes?
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