New Delhi, May 23: Does Sonia's sacrifice justify a new defence of the aristocratic upper classes? Do the well-born, well-bred or the impeccably-married really have a right — indeed, a duty — to rule? Is it appropriate to have Lord Snooty and Lady Smug back in power and public life? Could these be the only people who can afford to cultivate the old aristocratic values of unselfishness and duty? One asks because Sonia's sacrifice comes barely three weeks after one of England's stiffest upper lips quiveringly put forward this very idea. Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, former editor of The Sunday Telegraph , old Etonian, son of a banking heir and one of England's most noble Catholic ladies, has just published his eponymous defence of aristocracy. And suddenly we are back with the newly-fashionable Aristotalian argument that government should be by those people with enough time on their hands to pursue virtue. At first glance, the idea sounds superlatively silly. We live in an aspirational age, which enshrines the classless society. No one is meant to be any better than anyone else. As we move to abolish class consciousness across the planet, everyone is meant to be re-born Citizen Kaiser; king of his castle; monarch of the meritocracy; equal under the law. The glamour of noble birth has freely and fairly passed to high-wattage celebrity. Soon, everyone should be able to pass with equal ease under McDonald's golden arches. Everyone can be famous for 15 minutes or 15 seconds. DNA does not count. It is the death of the double-helix. At least that is the theory. It sounds insane to want to change it all back again to the old world order. Sir Peregrine acknowledges it is difficult in the 21st century to justify a yearning for aristocracy. It is thought to be rooted in ancient regime inequality, he wails. It is considered the beautiful flower that grew out of a soil manured with privilege. And yet, he argues, aristocracy was always an aspiration, not a reality. Calling someone noble expressed a hope. The end of class consciousness will end all class conscience. Democracy, he says, works best when there is active participation by the few and passive trust by the many. Though he is not talking about India, this almost exactly captures the spirit and sense of the Congress Party's dynastic obsession and that of its supporters. Some of this is pure drivel, of course. No one would want to re-wind history in an India that kicked out its princes and a Britain that has just turfed its hereditary peers out of the upper house of parliament. And yet, Sonia performed her sacrifice. No professional politician, emerging from a culture dedicated to self-enrichment, could have done as much. Whatever the other reasons for her renunciation, at least part of it was because she could easily afford to give everything up. So is there something in this overdone caterwauling? Yes, but only this much. We do need a propah ruling class. But it's family tree will be less about genes than a grounded political philosophy and a public-spirited unity of purpose.