Letter: Pandora's box?

Sir: On my way to Parliament, I change on the Underground from Bank to Monument station and, through long habit, have waited for the train on a wooden park- type bench.

Today, the bench had vanished and in its place there is a tall, dark green rectangular box bearing the legend 'First Aid Stretcher'. Is this a sign of the terrible times we live in, even worse a portent of things to come?

Yours sincerely,

BROADBRIDGE

House of Lords

London, SW1

11 February