Spending a penny

When I was a lad, public toilets were free except for using the cubicles which cost 1d - hence the phrase 'to spend a penny.' (For those of you too young to remember there were 240d in £1)

Yesterday I went into the gents at Charing Cross and was charged 20p for a pee. That is the equivalent of four shillings or 48d. In the days when I was a child, that would buy you a paperback book and still give you change, and at the same rate of inflation a paperback novel would now cost you over £15.

In other words, we are being ripped off for what is a basic need in life, something that should be available free as a service to citizens.

Saltaire Sam