The Wiki Man: Manual labour

I am writing this in the brown-carpeted lounge of Phoenix Sky Harbor, which claims to be America’s friendliest airport — and indeed that may well be so.

I am writing this in the brown-carpeted lounge of Phoenix Sky Harbor, which claims to be America’s friendliest airport — and indeed that may well be so. Enough to make David Cameron gag with envy are the people of retirement age helpfully wandering about wearing badges which declare them to be unpaid airport volunteers, in which role they offer assistance to bemused travellers. You don’t get that at Heathrow Terminal 2, as far as I can remember.

One of the reasons I like to visit the United States frequently is to gather ammunition against that majority of Europeans for whom it is an article of faith that America’s economic success comes at some intolerable social price. In fact, especially in red states, the level of kindness and consideration puts Britain to shame.

To be frank, with the single exception of health care and gun control, the number of areas where Europeans can feel smug in relation to the United States is vanishingly small (although I suppose it is possible that it is America’s widespread gun possession that makes everyone so polite). So I would now like to tackle one of the last great areas in which Europeans cling to a feeling of smug superiority versus the US — a sense of superiority so deeply ingrained that I may be the first person in any British publication to make this assertion.

You see, I truly believe that automatic transmission in cars is much, much better than manual transmission. And not only better for the owner of the car, but for other road users and pedestrians too.