Free Bus Passes.

This is a Devon Wide Travel Pass. It entitles the holder, me, to free travel on all local buses after 9 am Monday to Friday and all day Sat and Sun. The original idea was for old age pensioners to get free travel on the buses. So why have I got this pass, I'm not a pensioner?

To get to the point, an elderly lady who I would guess is a pensioner got on the bus to day and told me that she had heard on the radio ( not the one on the bus I should add) that the free travel scheme was going to stop as it was costing the Local Authorities much more than they expected and far more than the Central Government are providing. Well it isn't going to stop. It can't stop. The Government says pensioners can travel free on local buses. So pensioners will continue to travel free on local buses. What is going to change is what exactly the local authorities will define as a local bus. What they are also going to look at is the number of passes that have been issued. Not only pensioners get free travel, and men over 60 even if they are not pensioners but also other groups. Torbay it would seem have issued 27 000 passes; the population is only 145 000 and that it would seem is part of the problem. So some passes might be withdrawn. Will I loose out? No, that would be discrimination on the basis of gender. In this country women become OAP's at 60, men at 65. But because women get a pass at 60 so must men or we would be discriminated against. Which is why I have a pass.
PS. I can travel free on the local buses anyway so I don't use it and become a burden on the local council tax payers, of which I am one.