Fair do's

The other day I moaned about under-30s not wearing masks when it is now mandatory in shops. I don’t want to be accused of ageism, so now I’m going to moan about aged drivers who have long ago forgotten how to change into third gear. This follows a news item about a suggestion from some group or other that older drivers shouldn’t be fined for e.g. running red lights but should merely be offered training and testing. No. If you’ve got to that stage stop driving. An 88 year old woman driver was interviewed saying she was up to speed (forgive the pun) with all the legal requirements and felt no need to hang up her keys. She revealed she was stopped by the police  once for driving at 30mph on a 60mph speed limit road. She said she told the police officer that there was no minimum speed limit, and indeed that is true, no legal offence was committed. She said that tractors often don’t go any faster than 30mph. Have you ever been stuck behind some old codger doing 30mph? Been in that tailback, as the lead car blithely motors along in second gear? At least tractor drivers generally know that when they can they pull over to let the tailback get past them. But old codgers don’t realise how slow they’re going, and the mayhem, pile-ups, deaths and injuries behind them will not be seen in their rearview mirror, which is probably rarely looked at. So older people can be just as selfish and inconsiderate as the under-30s non-mask wearers. I’m pleased to set the record straight. I’m not ageist after all.