red tommy-toes

"It's red tommy-toes for the gentry and bloaters for the likes of you”

(from Larkrise to Candleford)

There was a time in Merrie England when tomatoes were expensive and fish was cheap.  Now it’s the other way round.

Bloaters, by the way, are ‘whole’ smoked herrings - the whole is signifcant.

Kippers are also smoked herrings, but as well as spliting the fish in two, they’ve also had the decency to remove their guts first.  

You can therefore insult someone by calling them a ‘kipper’ if you consider them to be two-faced and gut-less.  

Politicians may be ‘double kippers’, if they also fall asleep in the Houses of Parliament.