Send not to know for whom the bell tolls

Populist politicking promises vast cuts in public expenditure with no evidence that they can be achieved. What's more likely is a bonfire of essential services, to be replaced (if at all) by less efficient private alternatives - for those who can afford them

- Phil Wisdom is a DC Media sub-editor.

In what I suppose is a sign of advancing age, in the past year I’ve attended four funerals and a wedding (which, though emotional in different ways, were still a lot more fun than Four Weddings And A Funeral; for unbridled mirth Richard Curtis’ magnum opus scores slightly below having a dislocated shoulder put back into its socket, if you ask me, but perhaps I’m just getting old).

The breakneck pace of life, crammed with urgent trivia, means opportunities to ponder our proper priorities are few and far between; funerals force us to take a step back, and after number three I found myself thinking about what really matters.