He drifted from ageism to left wing envy to sexism and then to fascist vitriolic. He lowered the tone of what I regard as a family newspaper.

You should get rid of him if that is the best he can do.

Harrogate is a Spa Town, what type or age of person does he expect to find there, if not the older generation?

To state that, because of the presence of his despised geriatrics, it is more dangerous place than Beirut, Kabul or Baghdad can only be the ranting of a bigot if not an imbecile.

He derides the fact that the 'geriatrics' drive white knuckled at two miles per hour below the speed limit.

Then in the next statement derides them for causing more than their fair share of accidents and says they should not be on the road.

He tars every person over 70 with the same brush, making statements that are not backed up by facts.

I am one of the geriatrics that his description refers to. I am not white-haired though, I am bald which if I am not mistaken is the fashionable preference of today's youth.

I don't drive around in a 12 year old 'top of the range' banger either.

I change my car every five years. I have never driven anything in the last 45 years less than 2.5 litres. capacity.

My current car is a 2.5 litre, 0 to 60 in 9.5 seconds, a rates top speed of 140 miles per hour and cost £25,000 new.

It is now three and a half years old and I have already clocked up 60,000 miles.

Only two years ago this geriatric collected two speeding tickets in the space of 12 weeks.

On the first occasion it took a police patrol car 14 miles to catch up with me. I do not take any credit for breaking the law; it was disgraceful actually, particularly as I had never been done for speeding in 50 years behind a wheel.

Nor have I been responsible for an accident since 1981 (on the M1 at Northampton) and only once , a very minor tupp in 1965, before that.
How old am I? I'm a 78 year old geriatric that's how old I am, and, there are many thousands more like me.

I take offence at Sir David's unverified assertions, scribed ranting and subsequent ramblings.

I'll tell you what; I drive fairly regularly to Southampton. I take a 30-minute stop on the way down at Stony Middleton, but an unintererrupted journey back.

The journey back takes me three hours and about 15 minutes for 224 miles.

Perhaps Sir David would like to accompany this 78-year-old geriatric on his next white knuckled ride down, at an average speed of 69 miles per hour or one mile below the speed limit (motorway or major A road all the way of course).

If he's over 40, perhaps he might like to take some Phyllosan or even Viagra to pep himself up for the ordeal.

Finally, I have one thing left to say, directly to Sir David. B******** you patronising sod.

Dennis Buxton
Arthur Street
Bentley