Is it just because I’m a boy?

Yesterday, somewhere in Kent, a train reached 200 miles per hour. When I was a kid – long before the tunnel – I used to find it exciting to stand on the concourse at Victoria Station and see the exotic destinations on the big board – Moscow, Paris, Vienna, sometimes Istanbul (I had a sheltered upbringing).

The thought of actually boarding one of those trains took my breath away. Likewise the Eurostar at its proper speed on British soil! (and, incidentally, much more important than the cock-eyed European constitution and Gordon Brown’s pointless tests).