We flew to Gatwick and hired a car – a stout, orange car, a vehicle verging on tangerine. “It’s an upgrade!” the lady on the rentals desk said brightly, a little too brightly. Our own car doesn’t have satnav; it has a hearing aid and incontinence pads. When they moved away, I saw the object of their ridicule, a young black man, rough-sleeping, curled into a stained sleeping bag under a Chaucerian portal. Looking along the street, I saw one homeless man after another, gloved and hatted, hunched in doorways, shrouded in blankets, eyes wide open to the night.

Source: The Irish Times March 30, 2018 04:52 UTC