Retarded access

You don't want to be written off as someone who thinks everything was better in the past, says my daughter on the phone, against the sound of growing tumult from the twins. I understand that, I say, and I don't think that — there's a great deal that is far better than it used to be — but I've got to write my column today and it does seem to be an opportunity …

An opportunity to pass on what she's just been telling me, that is. Not that she wanted to worry me. In fact she's as cheerful as she always is. But she has just told me two depressing stories in succession, and you've probably guessed what they're about — access. Not about Advanced Access, of course; ordinary people have never heard that silly phrase and don't use it. But if they have heard it, it would never occur to them to associate it with …