Leader: Welcome to Britain, the lousy value nation.

Take train fares, for example. Next week they will rise by an average of six per cent. And, according to a transport pressure group, commuters here pay up to 10 times as much for season tickets as some European counterparts.

Rail fares here are among the most expensive in Europe and yet politicians and environmentalists are calling for ordinary members of the public to use trains and buses more.

For public transport in Britain read expensive transport, with so few creature comforts that if you make the rail journey from Wolverhampton to Telford and Shrewsbury you may find yourself having to stand all the way on what is dubbed the “Sardine Express”.

But when you get old in Britain you are treated with dignity and fairness, are you not? Well, actually, you are not. Those who get home care – things like help washing and dressing – have faced big increases in their bills.

Someone not qualifying for state help and getting 10 hours of home support a week is having, on average, to pay over £7,000 a year.

It is like a tax on independent living which has to be endured by the elderly who want to avoid the prospect of going into a care home and seeing the home they hoped to leave to the family having to be sold to pay all the bills.

What is galling about all this is that nations offering cheap public transport and which look after their old properly include some that are supposed to be economic basket cases in comparison with Britain.

Despite their financial plight they have chosen to invest in public transport and their old.

Britain has that choice too, but seems reluctant to make it.