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The 'chattering classes' is a term often used in the media and by conservative political commentators to refer to a politically active, socially concerned and highly educated elite section of the middle class, especially those with political, media, and academic connections. It is typically applied to persons with (actual or assumed) liberal or leftist leanings.
The term is often used in a derogatory sense, to suggest that those concerned have a soft-left agenda which is unrealistic ("chattering" suggesting both a preoccupation with theory rather than practicality, and a lack of real experience of the problems under discussion), unserious ("He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat.") and elitist (unconcerned with the beliefs of ordinary people).
The term "commentariat" is roughly synonymous with the "chattering class", although it connotes more authoritarian manners. "Chatterati" is sometimes used in place of chattering classes.
This 'group' is represented as having connections with the politically powerful, in part through constituting a dominant voice in 'high culture' (e.g. arts, literature, theatre) and as a consequence, it is asserted that its concerns can be quickly translated into political action. In this sense, the label contains an implict and pejorative accusation that the people so described have an influence on national political agenda out of all proportion to their actual numbers -- hence they are often denounced as unrepresentative and anti-democratic, somehow responsible for forms of social change that are not sought by the 'massess'.
The first use of the expression recorded by the OED was in 1980 in the writings of the journalist and right wing polemicist Frank Johnson in ''Now!'' magazine, 21 March edition.
This near conspiratorial idea of a leftist cultural elite influencing social change in directions that are inconsistent with the opinions and views of a putative majority of 'ordinary people' stands alongside the expression political correctness as core discursive motifs within New Right and Neo-Conservative populism.
As such, the notion of 'chattering classes' can clearly be traced to the older idea of an unrepresented silent majority (made famous by the U.S Republican President Richard Nixon).

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'Elite Chatter' and the Nazi Party

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'Elite Chatter' and the Nazi Party

The use of this populist theme has a long history among right wing political forces, with perhaps the most notorious example being that of the Nazi Party in Germany. In this instance, a discourse of elite chatter was used initially to undermine parliament, and later any criticisms of fascism or of the war.
An early speech by Hitler in Munich (April 13, 1923) makes reference to ‘parliamentary chatter’ (as well as to ‘press propaganda’):

‘The German economic success was not created in Essen alone but by a man who knew that behind economics must stand power, for power alone makes an economic position secure. This power was born upon the battlefields of 1870-71, '''not in the atmosphere of parliamentary chatter'''. Forty thousand dead have rendered possible the life of forty millions. When England, in the face of such a Germany as this, threatened to be brought to her knees, then she bethought herself of the last weapon in the armory of international rivalry - violence. A press propaganda on an imposing scale was started as a preparatory measure'.

A similar motif emerges in a speech delivered by the key Nazi strategist Goebbels, also in Munich on 31 July 1932, the day of the national elections to the Reichstag:

‘Englishman Cromwell said as he dissolved Parliament: "The people elected you to eliminate their misery, and you have become their greatest misery. We are therefore '''putting an end to your chatter'''. Is there a virtue you still possess or a vice that you do not possess? You came to help the people, but I tell you that you were never a government." '

(Goebbel’s reference here is to Cromwell’s famous speech on the dissolution of the Long Parliament, given to the House of Commons on 20 April 1653. In fact, Cromwell does not actually refer to ‘chatter’ in his speech, though he does describe MPs as being ‘factious’).
Goebbels New Year speech of 1938 is of particular relevance. It does not specifically use the term 'chatter', but refers extensively to an elite minority ('a thin intellectual or social upper class' and 'so-called intellectuals') who engage in 'carping criticisms [that] generally focus on laughable trivialities' and who are also 'intellectual complainers'.
The following section from that speech is especially illuminating:

‘One cannot make history with such quivering people. They are only chaff in God's breath. Thankfully, they are only a thin intellectual or social upper class, particularly in the case of Germany. They are not an upper class in the sense that they govern the nation, but rather more a fact of nature like the bubbles of fat that always float on the surface of things.
Today, they seek to give good advice to National Socialist Germany from abroad. We do not have to ask them for it. They focus all their energies on the small problems that always are there, complain about the cost and believe that crises and unavoidable tensions are on the way. They are the complainers who never tire of bringing National Socialist Germany before the so-called court of world opinion [...]
The people want nothing to do with them. These Philistines are the 8/10 of one percent of the German people who have always said "no", who always say "no" now, and who will always say "no" in the future.’

Finally, in this extract from a two-sided flyer for party members in the Linz area published in 1939, shortly after the war began, a convergence is visible between attacks on political 'chatterers' and an undermining of the need for free speech:

‘In the National Socialist Führer state, the Führer and his advisers make all the important decisions without discussing them in advance in public. That is how our present situation differs from that of the World War. Then irresponsible party politicians in the German parliament could chatter about anything at all [...]
Thank God, we are protected from such examples of free speech.He who thinks he needs other information to evaluate the situation is like the soldier who sneaks over to the enemy camp at night to better "inform" himself. This is how to evaluate the Führer's speeches. The main goal is to strengthen and deepen the people's confidence in every way. That is best done through example and by forcefully dealing with all political muttering and complaining. We want the people to take a calm and sure outlook on things’.

External links

★ BBC wordhunt entry

★ OED entry from 1989

★ revised OED entry from 2006

★ Guardian on how the group may be expanding

★ New Statesman essay on the CCs Oct 2005

★ Daily Telegraph Obituary: Frank Johnson. 17 December, 2006.