It’s no wonder that shoe-polish purveyor Kiwi is taking its products off British shelves, says Judith Woods in The Daily Telegraph. Put simply, “we’ve become a nation of slobs”. Offices are stuffed with trainer-wearing bosses who look like they’re “desperate for a Saturday shift at JD Sports”. Who can forget that “nightmarish” picture of Rishi Sunak preparing for the 2021 budget in socks and sliders? Even Liz Truss rocked up to the Conservative Party conference when she was prime minister in nothing more formal than a pair of white Reiss pumps. “Like almost everything else about her brief car-crash premiership, the optics were horrendous.”
This isn’t about convenience – it’s the “sloppy, outward manifestation” of an arrogant refusal to bow to the established rules. But dressing smartly isn’t just a courtesy, it’s an “index of self-respect”. Look at the late Queen: her outfits projected “dignity, authority and a recognition that, in order to be taken seriously, one must look the part”. Given the economic woes that beset us, our parliamentarians and businessmen ought to take note and swap their ripped jeans and hoodies for proper tailoring and polished shoes. After all, would James Bond have seemed so invincible and “quintessentially British” dressed in joggers and a pair of Yeezy Belugas? “No, he most certainly would not.”