First class fun on the trains

I've heard Nicholas Winterton speak up about travelling first class on the trains and I am probably a lone voice here but I think he has a point (even if he put it in a vigorous non-PC way!). Not only that, but most of the gainsayers are hypocrites. I can't for the life of me think that Rupert Murdoch would travel on a train in Britain in second class (or is it standard class?). It is quite right to say that first class offers the benefits of an office environment. The Radio 5 presenter was just trying to be provocative. I've travelled on a train down to London by standard fare. Stop at Coventry, Rubgy, etc and all sorts get on, piling up the numbers. Yes Radio 5, all sorts. People eat sandwiches from paper bags that stay on the tables, they listen to radios with earpieces sounding like a telephone on hold with an impatient caller trying to establish contact, children get tetchy, luggage is strewn in the gangway, and you get the trolley (if it is on board!). Most train companies have only one objective. Getting trains to the destination on time with as many passengers on board as possible. Having a seat is not necessarily a right. If you have to stand all the way to London, so be it. In that, nothing has changed since Doc Beeching's days.

When it comes to MPs expenses it seems we have passed the serious criticism stage and gone into the petty jealousy stage. Hypocrisy abounds. I hope never to see a Radio 5 presenter or a Daily Maily reporter in first class. In fact, why have first class. Apparently there is no need for it. Everyone is equal under Harriet Harperson's diktats. Let everyone go in one class of train. There is not a person in the land who is so important that he/she can't jolly themselves with the "ordinary people".

We need to get a grip in Britain. Either expenses are fair to have or not. If MPs are deemed unfit for first class travel, what about quango chiefs and any other government person? This story just reflects the base level certain sections of society are seeking to set their lovely equality theories at.