Gammon (insult)
Gammon is a pejorative popularised in British political culture since around 2012. In 2018, it became particularly known as a term to describe either those on the political right or those who supported Brexit. The term refers in particular to the colour of such a person's flushed face, especially when expressing their strong opinions, as compared to the type of pork of the same name. There has been considerable debate over whether the term is racist.History
In 2012, Caitlin Moran wrote that British Prime Minister David Cameron resembled "a slightly camp gammon robot" and "a C3PO made of ham" in her 2012 book Moranthology.
In 2015, Ruby Tandoh called Great British Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood a "walking gammon joint".
In 2017, children's author Ben Davis tweeted a picture of nine members of a BBC Question Time audience and referred to them as "the Great Wall of Gammon", leading to the term becoming popularised, particularly on social media.Earlier use in literature
used the word in broadly the same context in his 1838 novel, Nicholas Nickleby:
