Long life | 1 October 2015

When Robert Peston, the economics editor of the BBC, interviewed George Osborne on television in an open-necked shirt with collar awry and a wisp of chest hair on display, he was subjected to a barrage of criticism to which he responded with vigour. It was ‘bonkers’ to suggest that wearing a tie made a journalist serious, he said, or that a tie should be worn out of respect for the interviewee. ‘I didn’t not wear a tie out of disrespect for the chancellor,’ he said. ‘I just didn’t wear a tie because I don’t really like wearing a tie. I think these TV conventions are nuts.’

A report in the Times of this dispute, in which self-appointed British ‘etiquette’ specialists were wheeled on to pass judgment on Peston’s stance, seemed to side with him against what it called the ‘starched shirt and tie’ dress code of Britain, comparing this unfavourably with America’s sartorial informality. Britain, it said, was ‘still enmeshed in its dress codes’, while ‘Steve Jobs, the late chief executive of Apple, always dressed in jeans, trainers and black turtleneck, and Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, wears T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts to black-tie events.’

We are in the realm of fantasy here. How could anyone still describe Britain as ‘enmeshed in its dress codes’? All the social pressure in Britain is to dress down, or at least not to wear a tie. Peston is hardly alone. Our role model is Richard Branson, who has said, ‘I often have a pair of scissors in my top pocket to go cutting people’s ties off. It is time to say goodbye to the tie.’ So unfashionable is the tie that it’s not even worn much with dinner jackets any more.