You can always rely on the Wintertons for a bit of light relief - remember Lady Winterton's ironing board? This week it's the turn of Sir Nicholas, who justified his first class rail journeys by explaining that there was a "totally different type of people" in standard-class train carriages.
It seems that, were Sir Nicholas forced to travel among the proles, he would be unable to work becuase "people would be looking over your shoulder the entire time, there would be noise, there would be distraction."
Moreover, the lower orders would actually have children with them so "there's noise, there's activity. I like to have peace and quiet when I'm travelling." It rather begs the question what do MPs do with their own sprogs when on the move? - perhaps they are consigned to sardine class with the (expenses-funded) nanny.
Unfortunately for Dave Cameron, Man of the People, the spectacle of Winterton defending the frontiers of privilege has played right into the hands of Brown's class warriors. HMS Tory has been quick to distance itself from this man overboard - "the out-of-touch views of a soon-to-retire backbench MP" - but the damage is done.
Update: you'll find a good post on this subject at the Diary of a Geek in Oxfordshire.
At least he was honest and didn't seek to portray himself as some sort of 'man of the people'...
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