I suppose I could be called an old fuddy-duddy for looking back on the days when life was gentler and we got our enjoyment from simple pleasures.

When I first came to live in Brighton at the beginning of the Seventies, I was lucky enough to live in the marvellous flat at the top of what was then the ABC cinema at the bottom of East Street.

My husband was the general manager and we were fortunate to have such a central home. My friends all envied me, not just because I could go to the cinema whenever I felt like it by simply walking downstairs, but because I had a grandstand view of everything which went on along the seafront by simply hanging out of my lounge windows, or better still by going on to the roof where you could get a bird's eye view of the town.

One of my favourite spectacles was the Carnival procession with the wonderful floats, the pretty girls in their fancy costumes no matter what the weather, not to mention the pretty costumes with large gentlemen almost inside them, covered in loud make-up and having the time of their lives.

The pavements would be full of onlookers, the money would fly into the buckets held out for your small change and the only people getting annoyed were those trying to drive along the seafront against the tide of noisy humanity.

There was a carnival queen and her handmaidens - something which would not be allowed in these politically correct days I fear - and there was a real festival atmosphere. Large companies and societies entered floats and there were prizes in different categories.

Now it seems that too many rules and regulations, not to mention steeply rising costs to hire the floats etc. have joined a rising tide of apathy to kill off this happy occasion. There will be no carnival procession this year and many local charities will be the poorer. The carnival procession will be joined by a more recent invention, The Burning of the Clocks, as it slips gently into the annals of history.

No longer can the would-be leading ladies from the dramatic societies show off their undoubted charms; no more use for the trainee comics to accost the crowd with their jokes down a less than perfect sound system.

At a time when the Notting Hill Carnival is growing at a terrific pace, Brighton and Hove carnival is withering on the vine. The young people who should be providing the ideas and the backbone of the procession are too busy with their Game Boys, stereos, mobile phone texting, to take part in the vast amount of planning needed for the event.

When there are organisations like Same Sky, who have put so much effort and encouragement into stimulating young imaginations into going out and actually doing something positive, it seems such a pity that it should all end like this.

No doubt I shall be told by those who know better that I should not waste time looking backwards but should be pressing forward with vim and vigour into the new century. I would be happy to do so if I felt there was anything to stimulate my imagination.

But when I read that the city council is not planning to do much to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, an occasion for some rejoicing I innocently thought (bearing in mind the scrum there was to see HM when she conferred city status last year), I wonder if the new city has a heart of just a swinging brick at its centre.

For the first time for a long time I am beginning to feel the Fourth Age may not be too far away!