Common Problem: Julie Burchill Stumbles on an Age-Old Working-Class Dispute

Billen, Andrew, New Statesman (1996)

Chavs (Sky 1)

Now I have truly seen it all: Julie Burchill ticking off another columnist for being outspoken. On Sky 1's thorough and thoroughly entertaining documentary Chavs (21 February, 9pm), she and Vanessa Feltz got into a row over Lizzie Bardsley, the work-shy chav who achieved a perverse, Heat-level celebrity by admitting on Channel 4's Wife Swap that the state funded her bulging family. Feltz felt that, as a taxpayer, it was not her purpose in life to support the indolent. Burchill disagreed, suggesting (to the surprise, surely, of anyone who has ever been on the sharp end of her pen) that the purpose of life is to "spread the love around". "How much love has Lizzie Bardsley spread around?" asked Feltz. Burchill replied: "She's got eight kids--she's spread it around lots." To which …

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Publication information: Article title: Common Problem: Julie Burchill Stumbles on an Age-Old Working-Class Dispute. Contributors: Billen, Andrew - Author. Magazine title: New Statesman (1996). Volume: 134. Issue: 4729 Publication date: February 28, 2005. Page number: 49. © Not available. COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group.

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