There are plenty of things about life today that I would like someone to explain to me. And when I say ‘explain’ I don’t mean justify, I mean really explain how things that worked fine in simpler forms have become complicated, unhelpful or don’t work.

Why do referral letters written by GPs or consultants need to be sent away to be typed, often taking a week and longer, when they used to be written on the day and in a world in which we have instant electronic communication and indeed voice recognition software.

The doctor has to dictate the letter – so what’s the difference between dictating directly to the appropriate software rather than into a tape that is then sent to another town or even India to be typed and often needs correction and resubmission for typing again.

A consultant told me that the sub-continent scenario is for him a regular occurrence. Why do large organisations require immediate payment for their services, but take months to pay when the indebtedness flows the other way and we have no redress but they do?

Why is small print several pages long allowed, when the really important bits they have hidden in the reams of tiny (not small) print could be conveyed more simply and even legibly?

Why is it cheaper for me to drive alone in my car to, say, Carlisle, than to use the train? As it takes twice as long by train – why would I?

How have we allowed situations where the rich and the powerful can always triumph over the ordinary citizen by fielding an army of corporate lawyers to ensure they escape any liability?

How have schools and hospitals reached a point where more and more of their time and dwindling funds are committed to risk avoidance, necessitating the replacement of common sense with check lists and detailed defensive procedures that would have stopped those intrepid explorers Columbus or Cabot from ever setting sail for the new world and left the indigenous population of the American continent in charge of their own land and without the dubious benefit of gunpowder, religious intolerance and alcohol.

At least we would have then been spared the proof that orange is emphatically not the new black – Donald Trump.