Proper Station

Peter Hitchens writes:

Last May, I got into a televised spat with Transport Secretary Mark Harper over plans to close railway station ticket offices.

He patronisingly dismissed the large numbers who still prefer to buy their tickets from human beings as a small minority. The strong implication of what he said was that this minority (which very much includes me) were doddering oldsters who ought to get with the internet revolution.

I've been using the internet since 1990, before most people had heard of it, and I don't trust it to sell me the train ticket I want, amid the maze of complex dodges and fiddles which privatisation has created.

Some of the audience (on the BBC's Question Time) even applauded when he said this. Well, an enormous wave of protest has now forced him to back away from this plan, which anyone could have told him would annoy many voters.

People like personal service and are sick of being told to do without it. And I would ask Mr Harper what he thought was conservative about the plan in the first place.

The word 'Minister', as few now know, actually means 'servant'. Who did he think he was serving when he tried this on?