Given all the discussion about the problems of the privatised railway system, it gives me pleasure to say that I went to meet the 11.57 at Bodorgan Station, which must be one of Britain’s more obscure stations, opened, I assume, only to serve the local country house, but with a service every two hours, halting on request and arriving on the dot:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
Do you remember the Flanders and Swann song, SLOW TRAIN? ( About the Beeching cuts). Tony Benn chose it as one of his Desert Island Poems at Ledbury the year he died.
Flanders was his best friend at Westminster, both married Americans and they remained close friends to the end – always having Thanksgiving together. Stephanie Flanders, the economist, is Michael’s daughter.