I have included this letter to highlight the decline in manners since Bernard Levin’s era.  He at least had the courtesy to respond.

Dear Melissa,

May I get the ‘brown-nosing’ sycophancy out of the way at the outset … I do enjoy your articles and column in The Spectator very much. How you manage to be on top form most weeks is astonishing. Thank you.

Your recent rant at that idiot at TFL about picking up your dog food in a ‘Red Route Loading Bay’ struck a chord – so I have attached my thread some time ago with a similar complaint which I hope may amuse you. I was a minicab driver for many years so accumulated many tickets, most of which I ‘challenged’ successfully … eventually.

Overleaf on this page is a recent failure. My girlfriend treated me to supper at The Caprice, Arlington Street on my 60th birthday & we were greeted with a ruddy parking ticket on our exit. What a dampener to an excellent meal.

If you have a moment please visit my WordPress ‘blog’ – www.shirtyletters.com where we are posting some of my ‘Henry Root’ stuff – it’s all very well and easy to slag off Tony Blair but perhaps some of my epistles to ordinary folk may be more interesting ? Any comments gratefully received.

Thanks again, Melissa.

Yours,

Jamie Summers