Trolls versus toffs

Areader wrote to say that, whenever she makes a regular visit to hospital, a senior nurse always greets her with: “Here comes the toff.” Sarcastic remarks are made about getting rid of the Rolls-royce. “I find this somewhat upsetting,” she confesses sadly. Her name betrays her as the daughter of an earl: she cannot help that. Peers and landed gentry have traditionally got on with working people on an easy footing that the middle classes envied. But in recent years a strain of class warfare has entered public behaviour, especially as reflected by television. What was once the aristocracy is mocked as disqualified from having an opinion on politics or culture. Many readers have now written in, rallying behind the earl’s daughter. Yet what we need most is not a victory in class conflict but courteous coexistence.