Sir, - In this age of equality and all the trappings that go with it, I think that some of the innovations that have been invented to discourage the owners of motor vehicles from leaving them in the wrong places could be applied to pedestrians. The pavements are often obstructed by people loitering and engaging in idle chat, so I think that the parking wardens should be able to clamp them, or herd them off to a central pound. It is becoming virtually impossible to walk down any of the capital's streets, what with all the stalled or badly parked members of the chattering classes. - Yours, etc., Vincent Flannery,
Tinahely, Co Wicklow.