The Chattering Classes

The chattering classes is a term often used in the media and by political commentators, particularly in the United Kingdom and Australia, to refer to a politically active, socially concerned and highly educated elite section of the middle class.

The term 'commentariat' is roughly synonymous with the 'chattering class', although it connotes more authoritarian manners.

* This group is assumed to have good connections with the politically powerful and the conclusion is made that its concerns can be quickly translated into political action. It is believed to have an influence on the political agenda out of proportion to its numbers.

* The term is often used in a derogatory sense, to suggest that those concerned have a soft-left agenda which is both unrealistic ('chattering' suggesting both a preoccupation with theory rather than practicality, and a lack of real experience of the problems under discussion) and unconcerned with the concerns and beliefs of the majority of ordinary, and hence by implication effectively disenfranchised, voters.

* The expression is first recorded by the OED in the writings of journalist Clive James in 1985."