I think that we need to label people just to help ourselves through life. We should be prepared to be surprised when someone we think of as being one thing turns out to be another, and that's cool, but without labels we wouldn't know what to expect from people around us. If you can look at someone wearing burberry and a tracksuit, and you instantly think "chav" then you're better equipped to deal with that person's actions because you can associate them with other chavs you've met, and you have a vague idea of what to expect from them.

For example, if I walk through a group of chavs one day, and get hassled by them and pissed off then the next time I'm walking along and spot a group of chavs up ahead, I'm gonna expect them to behave like the last lot and try to avoid putting myself in a situation where I'm gonna get hassled. Maybe they were different, maybe they were gonna be cool chavs, but I can quite happily accept the fact that I might not find that out because it also means I wouldn't find out if they were complete dicks, just like the last lot.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think we ought to label people and then stick fiercely by those labels and refuse to let the people show what they're really like. That's stupid! But whether I've labelled a person as "chav", "goth", "emo" or "John Doe", they're still gonna have to prove that they're a decent person before I'm gonna want to hang out with them.