I have managed to cause a stir with my dismissive comments on estuary english on the BBC in my last post. I do not think the estuary english phenomenon should be confused with a regional accent. I have absolutely no prejudice against regional accent. I sport the remnants of one myself. The genuine regional accent of Essex is very pleasant, and not too dissimilar to that of Suffolk. It is not a bastardized version of cockney adopted by the weak-minded because it is redolent of a set of identifiable and fashionable cultural attitudes, of which materialism and anti-intellectualism are the most prominent.
Is it snobbery to despise estuary english and those who speak it? No. It is something called taste.