Class warfare is as indigenous to English culture as....er, anything else (diplomatically bland statement). It's been fermenting under the surface as long as there has been any form of society. Let's not forget that, for the most part, history has been written by the educated, privileged, landowning commentators. Fortunately, their views are being redressed by the likes of Tawney, Christopher Hill, Trotskyist historians like Reg Groves, Hyman Fagan and Rodney Hilton. They, of course, have their own axes to grind but at least they are redressing the balance of opinion.

For myself, I just echo the rallying cry of John Ball: When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?

A Merry Winter Solstice/Yuletide/Christmas/whatever to you all in your own concept of Merrie England, and peace and goodwill to all, except those miserable, greedy, unprincipled bastards who created the current economic crisis that's left me out of a job.