Plumb line

John Tusa, writing in the Guardian, thinks Ed Stourton has been poorly treated by the Today programme - with Justin Webb riding in from the Wild West to oust him. "There is, it should be noted, an unpleasant strain of populist inverted snobbery wafting around the whole affair – namely that Stourton is a bit, well, too "middle class".

That may be pitching it a bit low for Ed. Ampleforth (Head boy) and Trinity College, according to Wikipedia. A descendant of the 19th Baron Stourton. He first married Margaret McEwen in 1980 in Kensington, the daughter of Sir James Napier Finnie McEwen, a Baronet. Then Fiona Murch in 2002. Stourton's Eton/Cambridge educated son Ivo James Benedict, born 1982, has recently published his first book; his other two children are Thomas Edward Alexander (Eton) and Eleanor Mary Elizabeth, and a stepdaughter Rosy. Posh, I'd say.

Justin Webb: Sidcot School, a Friends' school, then LSE, where he edited student rag The Beaver. Well hard.

PS Mr Tusa (or it might be a Guardian sub) describes Ed's voice as "plumby". Not a word, as far as I can tell. Probably means "plummy". But surely that goes for both of them - and Mr Tusa ?