I READ with interest Sue Nelson’s column, headlined “The Chavs and Chav-nots” (The Press, January 20).

I dislike the word “chav” as it depicts a general group of lumpen proletariat and I believe the working class are far more complicated and diverse than this offensive description.

As a working class lad, I understand how difficult it can be to prove yourself worthy in the big wide world. I, too, have been unemployed and on the dole. It was a terrible experience that drew me to the writings of George Orwell.

However, I am not the only person to have been on the dole or the only working class lad to try to make a success of himself while trying to help many others do the same.

It pains me that there is a minority group of people who for three or four generations have never worked, have no intention of working, but still want and feel they deserve the safety net of the welfare state.

We parade them on Jeremy Kyle and berate them, as opposed to identifying and solving the root cause.

They know not hunger, they know not desperation and they know not the determination and pride that this ground-zero despair evokes. It pains me more because I grew up with many of these individuals who to this day contrast the difference between myself and them as the “system was against them”.

I have worked hard and have relished every opportunity that has come my way. People who are down on their luck need a hand-up and not a hand-out.

The only way out is to educate our young about the opportunities the world has for them.

Let them have work experience in the House of Commons rather than fast-food chains.

Let every working class lad spend a week in a top private school and vice versa.

Let them see their own potential.

Coun James Alexander, Holgate ward councillor, Prospective Labour MP for York Outer, Holgate Road, York.