I agree but Quentin Letts usually writes better stuff than that. Going sockless in town is naff and unhygenic. Thom Brown is just an over-hyped "designer" who sells over-priced tat to luvvies and gays.

Thank goodness our declining civilization has provided you guys with another thing to get wound up about. If not for that wretched neo-nazi royal, we'd all be wearing dark blue suits and black cap toe shoos and the world would still be safe for reactionary white male heterosexuals! sniff sniff, snort snort

This isn't the end of western civilization and the human race, although if you have too much free time and enjoying sticking your nose into other people's business, I suppose it could be mentally stressful. It's easy to deal with: If you don't like sockless, wear socks; If you don't like sockless people, then don't hang around with sockless people or invite them into your home.

Is this really something worth getting so worked up about?  I think it's perfectly ok if the shoes are deck shoes or loafers and the trousers are chinos or shorts. 

Obviously it shouldn't be combined with a jacket or tie of any sort or those awful too short and too narrow trousers that are all over the place these days.

It is sort of fun to see the DM getting back to its huffing, Victorian origins.

The sight of ankles in public! Funny they seem to think it's ok for attractive, Mediterranean ankles but not so for the pasty blue ones of home. That sort of loose, anti-British thinking has no place in the nation's conscience and should be immediately squashed by sending a dreadnought up the Po to bomb Milan. After that, someone in the House of Lords, sober enough to stand, should challenge Tom Ford to a duel.