Diary - 20 September 2003

I recently passed into a new decade. With this passing has come some rather surprising advantages, most of which are of a financial nature. My Senior Railcard, which costs £18 a year and gives me a discount on all trains, has already paid for itself handsomely. I would not have done anything about getting one had I not received a letter from the government telling me that I was entitled to it and also to a cash sum to help me with my heating bills during the winter. All this was very nice, but a message from a friend telling me that it is now more difficult to lose weight, impossible to run more than 50 yards without getting out of breath and, worst of all, impossible to persuade girls that your flirtation is anything other than a ‘good try’ brought the truth of the new age home with a bump.

While traffic on the roads this summer has been quieter, my experience has been less than quiet. A few days ago I was waiting to cross the road in the City by the Museum of London when one of Ken Livingstone’s new ‘bendy’ buses, unable to turn the corner without mounting the pavement, ran over the toes of three of us standing on the pavement. I don’t know why we must have these wholly unsuitable buses, imported from Germany and subsidised by the Mayor to the tune of £20,000 each on the grounds that they are more environmentally friendly. We make excellent single- and double-decker buses in this country, which seem to me to do the job just as well – and they provide employment in both England and Scotland.