Around every big town or city there are areas where the city folk live, and from which they commute to the city to work. Those ares tend to be very pricey.

There are also areas which the City folk leave alone, and which are therefore quite inexpensive to live in. In case you are wondering why the City folk ignore them, it's because they have little public transport, and what there is will not serve anyone who has to go to work early, or at a considerable distance.

Also, of course there are fewer jobs available, so it is necessary to travel, and what transport there is does not cover any cross country journey, only up to the City and back again. My last job was in Sevenoaks, just fifteen miles from my home, across country. To get to work at nine, I had to leave home at 6.40am, take three buses, or two trains, then walk a mile and a half (and Sevenoaks is mostly at a thirty degree angle from the horizontal).

Fares for this £12.50 return by train, or £16.00 bus fare in, with my pensioners pass covering the return. Non pensioners would have to pay a total of £12.00 to get home.

Before you try to tell me I know nothing about the comparative costs, let me say that I lived in London for the first thirty years of my life, and at the time I moved down to Kent my mortgage for a three bedroom house cost virtually the same amount as I was paying in rates in London. The London rent was double that amount.

So I'm in that place, and I an't do much but merely exist, unless I use a car. My car is off the road now, having been damaged by some halfwit in a carpark, and my attendance at folk clubs is reduced to daytime sessions, or evenings when I can cadge a lift.

The only holiday I can afford, since Gordon Brown mugged me for two thirds of my pension, is in a caravan, which actually suits me fine, but you try dragging one of those down to Sidmouth without a car.

When you City folk talk about using public transport it makes me laugh. You are lucky Shimrod! You have the option!

And, BTW, I live just thirty five miles from London.

Don T.