Bring back Beeching

Simon Nixon says that we must build more motorways – and scrap railway lines

Perhaps the most important discovery I have made over the last few years is that the way to stay sane in Britain is never to use public transport. The Department of Health tells us to eat five portions of fruit a day and to give up booze and fags. But what it dare not tell us is that the best way to reduce the risk of a heart attack and a host of other stress-related ailments is never to use the bus, Tube or train when you can drive a car or ride a bicycle instead.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this in the weeks since my fiancée and I found ourselves – for reasons we’re still arguing over – facing the wrong way down one of the approach roads to the M11. Shaken but otherwise unhurt, we were able to get ourselves to Stansted to catch our flight.