Peter Rhodes on wedding chops, rubberneckers and the intoxicating pleasure of Beer

I wrote recently about a man who fell, injuring himself in the Tube, and not a single person stopped to help. In righteous indignation, a reader declares: “People in days gone by would wade in and help their fellow citizens without a second thought.” Oh really?

I once wrote another angry column concerning rubberneckers, this time about a motorcyclist who came off his machine at a roundabout in the rush hour and lay motionless in the road. No-one helped him. Some commuters even drove around him. This was way back in 1971

So how far back in history do we have to go to find that golden age of selfless citizens wading in without a second thought? I suspect the truth is that most people have always been rubberneckers but there's a human tendency (it dates back at least 2,000 years) to assume that about 50 years before the present time, everything was better, people were nobler, kids respected their elders and all that stuff.

There never was a golden age. And while you're tut-tutting, how many of you have read this far without even wondering how the injured biker fared all those years ago? After a while, bruised and still unaided, he got up and limped away.

This will be my last column for a while. I am off for my annual immersion in Beer (fishing village, Devon). I have travelled all over the world and still get more excited about Beer than any other place I know.

A few days ago I rang to confirm our booking. The receptionist greeted me as “Sir” but on discovering I was coming to stay, called me “m'lovely”. You don't get that in Vegas.

Normal service should be resumed on Mon June 19.