LORD, IT’S A GOOD POINT

Many peers in the House of Lords have first-hand experience of disability. And last week they got their ermine in a twist over shoddy treatment by airlines.

Crossbencher Baroness Campbell (right) was very cross to be left on a plane for two hours because staff wouldn’t bring her motorised wheelchair to the aircraft door.

Lib Dem Baroness Brinton was stuffed in front of a Madrid airport brick wall when her wheelchair couldn’t be found.

Labour Lord Berkeley’s stepson had no privacy when forced to remove his artificial leg while going through security at

Newquay. A Civil Aviation Authority survey showed that of three million requests for disability assistance, 500,000 passengers complained it wasn’t good enough.

When costly wheelchairs are lost or smashed up it’s devastating for the user starting a holiday.

Transport minister Liz Sugg promises consultation. Not good enough. Wheelchair users travel on buses and trains with ease, Liz. So keep kicking air carriers in their tailplanes until they do the same. The £10 Christmas bonus for pensioners and some benefit claimants should be worth £128.15 today. Since

Ted Heath (left) introduced it in 1972 – when the state pension was £6.75 a week – Scrooge governments have refused to uprate it.

A tenner then bought 62 pints of lager, or nine of that year’s best-selling Christmas gift, the

Uno card game.

Now it’s just enough for nine Christmas cards plus postage.