And here I was, thinking that when my bus fare went up by 25 per cent - far above the rate of inflation - and the managing director of Brighton and Hove Bus Company said the whole purpose of it was that we would all be able to get aboard quicker, he meant he would be providing bus conductors.

When that proved not to be the case, I thought perhaps it meant paying for the hordes of time-and-motion experts proving that drivers can count a pound's worth of small change faster than 80 pence worth.

But now I understand! It's so that I can subsidise people coming in from the leafy suburbs. Hooray! I walk home sometimes just to celebrate.

-Paul Davey, Great College Street, Brighton