The song, described by "The Guardian"s Dorian Lynskey as "the first great mainstream protest song in years," was written in response to the riots across England in August 2011. The song deals with both the causes and the consequences of the riots, concentrating on society's attitude towards the disadvantaged youth population of the United Kingdom. Drawing upon Plan B's own experiences of being expelled from school and attending a pupil referral unit, the song sarcastically attacks the media view of working class children: "Keep on believing what you read in the papers / Council estate kids—scum of the earth." The song, accompanied by a film of the same name are intended as the start of a project spearheaded by Plan B to address what he perceives as a class divide. In an interview with MistaJam on BBC Radio 1Xtra, Plan B explained that the use of the word chav was equivalently offensive to "terms used to be derogatory towards race and sex".