No, I'm someone who, as I said above, thinks that the Streets are a one-trick pony, and that that trick isn't very entertaining at all. He's a hugely overrated musician in every way. You and I have the same opinion on the Streets, so perish the thought that I think Skinner is some kind of genius and should be praised on a cerebral, emotional and ironic level.

I questioned your comment that people put on Jamaican accents based on listening to 50 Cent. It's more likely that your comment was a throwaway one that doesn't have much relevance to anything. I know you're aiming both barrels at people who adopt a specific persona based on their current musical fantasy icon and that is pathetic. I simply found your wording to be somewhat suspect.

"True, but unfortunately that is how supposedly educated but ultimately mis-informed and uneducated people perceive the so-called working classes to be."

Quit with all the 'working class suffering' going on here. It's what all factions do. Each shitty group shits on itself and on those above and below it. There's plenty of misconceptions over what the middle-classes and the upper classes are, it isn't just the poor old working class that suffers. There's as much bigotry and hate at the bottom as there is at the top. In your opinion, who currently makes the biggest misconceptions as to what the working class actually is?

Every lead singer in every band postures! Jagger did, Lydon did, Gallagher does, Iggy Pop does... Is it only offensive when it's a group like So Solid Crew trying to act a bit tough? Honestly, after re-reading John Lydon's autobiography, some of the phrases you use totally echoes the feelings the establishment had about punk.

If the majority of So Solid Crew grew up on council estates and went through serious shit that gets reflected in their lyrics and posturing, I fail to see how that can be classed as being fake and false.

Your major failing is that you've lumped in MIA and, to some extent, So Solid Crew in with this spurious term 'chav', surely destined to be as hopelessly misused as the words 'facist' and 'Nazi'. I agree entirely with you on Skinner and his laddish image appealling to the thug mentality. I heard the same arguments when I was 19 against Oasis and those arguments did have a basis to them. The thug mentality always needs an icon, I have no doubt that some of them probably like a bit of Morrissey now that he's flirting with guns and a bit of scrapping. Yet you focus on the shitty points of Mike Skinner and that leads me to wonder how the fuck you can bring MIA into that same bracket. What traits do they share? Did I miss her limited edition LP espousing the virtues of Stella and kebabs on holiday? Was there a B-side I failed to grab entitled 'Cor, Look At The Tits On That'? I saw plenty of US and Canadian press on her, saw her perform in Toronto and she was fucking great. There was nobody quibbling over what class she ripped off, no worries about her authenticity. All they saw was a British Sri Lankan chick getting up there on stage and slamming out some top music. There was no Burberry present, no laddish element (quite the damn opposite actually, as befits Toronto's reputation as a homosexual Mecca), she made a few little political rants and everyone had a great time. It's only back here that I've heard a few rather wanky mentions of her being some art school fraud and that is disappointing. In a time when the right-wing elements are gathering thunder, where major's vision of a classless Britain have finally been pissed upon, and the main Opposition leader can evoke Enoch Powell in his election campaign, the fact that there is this rather talented ethnic lady making music should be something to be proud of, not sneered at. I fail to see how you can lump in a young British Sri Lankan female who spends much of her time hopping around about politics and terrorists in with the lager and shit sportswear brigade. It smacks of cheap generalisation and nothing else.