Chippy – it’s such a clever insult, isn’t it? If someone calls you chippy and you reel back and shout “I’m NOT chippy”, you sound sooooo… chippy. It’s a tactic worthy of any posh, smirking movie villain – or perhaps the officials representing Britain’s independent schools. Some of their private emails have been leaked, sniping about shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson, who’s part of Labour’s plan to add VAT to school fees. Apparently, Phillipson “gets chippy” with people challenging her, “so it is very easy to make her sound unreasonable by keeping your cool”.
Class contempt, back-door slander among cronies, sneering at a powerful woman, a smirking plan to manipulate and humiliate her, it’s all there. These officials are drawing a line: she is not like us, she doesn’t get it, she’s not in the club, she’s a proletarian hothead who can’t keep her cool – so that’s how we’ll wind her up.
