It occurred to me last weekend, while at a meal for my father’s 60th birthday, that the entire fabric of this country has gone completely mad.

Like most people, I had not given a second thought to the firefighters who went on strike last week.

I have no vested interest in the outcome. In fact, the only encounter I can recall having with the fire service is when I have braked at traffic lights to allow them to drive past on their way to a “shout”.

But then a joke remark somebody made at my father’s 60th birthday meal got me thinking: “Sorry Dad, but 60-year-old firefighters! Are we all going totally insane? I would have thought anything over 50 is too old but 60? Come on.”

Who dreams up these absurd schemes? Monty Python perhaps?

You would like to think that when the idea was first tabled, somebody might have the brains to say, “But isn’t that a bit old Minister?” It seems not. And I’m a lifelong Tory voter.

We all realise money is tight at present and that public life requires some degree of austerity.

But most of us have grown up accepting that the elderly and disabled need extra care, that too much sugar rots your teeth and that firefighters are fit, strong individuals who are there to risk their lives when we need them.

Or did I miss something and wake up in a world gone completely insane?

Jenny Weir, Hillside Way, Withdean