If you have ever sailed on a European cruise line ship, as opposed to one aimed at the UK market, they do not allow officers to sit with the passengers in the MDR except at the ‘Captains Dinner’ and then only once per cruise.They also have ‘Hotel Managers’ as opposed to ‘Executive Pursers’, which in today’s cruise industry they actually are. My experience of the ships purser in the old days was that he was inevitably a bit of a jack the lad and into all the fiddles. I could tell you some tails about pursers, but I will rest my case by reminding you all that John Prescott was a purser!!
Brits really are just, too snobby for their own good and if some sensible mortal were to interject and make comments about overbearing, overdressed, upstairs downstairs attitudes then they are lambasted as being an “inverted snob” by those who aspire to be something they are not and never will be.
Fortunately there were some on the table who kept him occupied. 
