The NED - a very brief intro

Bobbies, thugs and dynamism
To understand what this is all about you need a quick introduction to that wonderful thing known [in Edinburgh] as the Ned [i.e. Non-Educated-Delinquent]. This group goes by a wide variety of different names across the UK [also known as 'schemies' - people who live on local government owned housing schemes] but is an increasingly well known social group and the focus of growing social angst amongst the UK's chattering classes.

To caraciture/summarise, the pejorative analysis of neds is that of a social group [whose members are often, though not always, working class] whose members have absolutely no social skills whatsoever, who are regularly drunk in public [and not at the 'usual' times either...], willing to shout at and/or beat their kids in public [which I suspect is the basis of much of the push in the UK to ban smacking children], and who are utterly contemptuous of people outside their social/family group, and uncaring of their impact upon others around them. They are also often extremely skinny, extremely pale, often tattooed, the men often have earrings and short/very short haircuts/clipped hair, and characteristically dress in shell suits [a type of faux polyester sporting clothing, with matching jackets and pants] and often wear something closely resembling Burberry plaid, a fact which has (incidentally) all but destroyed large segments of the market for Burberry amongst the middle and upper classes in the UK. [Update: Pub-goers facing 'Burberry' ban].

I realise this may sound rather like an up-to-date description of 21st century punks, but I think that punk might have been a rather more of a middle class movement/rebellion. There is an increasingly visceral backlash against neds, e.g. City scheme cracks down on yobs.