I can't take the strain any more, so I am learning to drive.(Thought For the Day)

Publication: Spectator

Publication Date: 24-APR-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)

I don't know how come the train companies lost me, but they have. And if they've lost me there can't be many people left still travelling by train. I can't drive, for a start. Sitting in a car makes me feel like I feel when I watch Peter Mandelson on television. I hate it, l claw at the windows and champ down on the bile, sometimes unsuccessfully. And then, trains are in the family. My grandfather was a train driver; my dad worked for British Rail and so did my uncle and I was eight years old before my family bought a car. Cars, you see, in our view, were nowt. My dad came from Stockton and his dad from Darlington--you can't get more locomotive than that. My grandfather would let me sit with him in the cabin of the big steam trains sometimes, and as a small child I spent whole days hanging around Darlington station, just watching and talking to the drivers, who were my heroes. I loved trains. Still do.

But,...

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