Goodwood 4 Galway 5

The Torygraph’s shire readers are up in arms over the behaviour of M&S, which has, in a euphemistic sense, leapt into bed with Ann Summers. The resulting tryst has produced crotchless knickers, and the online readers’ comments have been a delight since the story broke.

Lady Carolina Etherington-Slaver was especially upset. “Tawdry” was hurled out in the direction of Oxford Street, together with “ghastly and vulgar.” On Mumsnet, Franny suggested that this was the equivalent of Bougie Street or the Reeperbahn being visited upon her impressionable 16-year-old daughter, who can only go to M&S for her FF bras. Apart from wondering how young Franny knew of either street, and whether her gap year might have been better spent as a chalet girl in Méribel, I was struck by the deep lack of historical knowledge that the subject had revealed.

So to remind you...