Plus ca change...

I'm reading George Orwell's extended essay on northern working class towns, The Road to Wigan Pier, and just came across a passage which made me smile.
The author is describing how he first became aware of the social distinctions in British at that time - namely the antipathy which existed between "toffs" and those from the "lower orders".

"Anyone over 30 can remember a time when it was impossible for a well-dressed person to walk through a slum street without being hooted at. Whole quarters of big towns were considered unsafe because of 'hooligans' (now an almost extinct type) and the London gutter-boy everywhere, with his loud voice and lack of intellectual scruples, could make life a misery for people who considered it beneath their dignity to answer back."

Somehow it doesn't quite sound that unfamiliar. These days though, the gutter-boys (or "scroats" as they are affectionately referred to in parts of Manchester) would probably be handed Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) and sent on their merry way through the criminal justice system, never to return.