Put that baby on your lap!

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Fold up the baby chariot and put the baby on your lap, says Jennifer

But one thought keeps you going, which is that this situation will not last for ever. One day, all being well, these tiny children will be able to put on their own safety belts and even travel on public transport all by themselves.

People who use wheelchairs don't have this to look forward to. Their circumstances tend not to change as time passes.

There has been immense progress in attitudes towards disability but it's still a battle for those who are disabled to perform the routine tasks that the rest of us do unthinkingly.

We marvel at Paralympians but don't give much of a thought to those who have to use a ramp to catch a bus every day.

Which brings us to the case of Doug Paulley who tried to board a bus from Wetherby to Leeds.

The space for a wheelchair was occupied by a woman with a pushchair who wouldn't budge even when the driver asked her nicely. So Mr Paulley had to get off and wait for the next bus.

He won his case for discrimination but now that ruling has been overturned following an appeal by the bus company.

The judge's explanation was: "I do not believe that the fact that some passengers will – albeit rarely – act selfishly and irresponsibly is a sufficient reason for imposing on bus companies a legal responsibility which is not of their making and which they are not in a position to prevent."

How depressing it is when people behave so meanly but what can you do

He added that the law should rely on the "good sense and conscience of individuals". In other words the woman with the buggy was a complete cow … but, uh, what can you do?

Of course this mother should have recognised that Mr Paulley's needs trumped hers and that the space was primarily intended for wheelchairs.

So what if her baby was asleep? Fold up the baby chariot, woman, and put the baby on your lap.

But too many mums with buggies now imagine that the world owes them space and deference and to inconvenience them in any way whatsoever is tantamount to child abuse.

But I understand the point that we have enough laws and at some point you have to rely on people to behave in a civilised and considerate manner. Some hope.

The judgment also acknowledges a vanished aspect of British life. In the past the word of guards, drivers and bus conductors (mostly long gone) was law.

They were figures of authority in their own domain.

Yet now if anyone is told what to do they regard it as an outrageous infringement of their civil liberties. I'm sure the buggy woman thought she was well within "her rights" when she refused to move.

How depressing it is when people behave so meanly but... what can you do?

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YES it's annoying when waiters fuss round you (identified by a survey as the greatest irritation in a restaurant).

But after a weekend in Paris with my daughter who is studying there I can tell you that the British attitude to service is vastly better than it is there.

For a treat I'd booked a table at La Coupole, the famous Parisian restaurant (the poor child hasn't had a square meal since October).

Somewhat touristy but bustling and fun - or so I thought. For rather than bustling or fun it was like witnessing a deafening hall full of distressed refugees or Napoleon's retreat from Moscow.

Though we had a booking we still had to queue and were finally met by a furious woman in black hauling armfuls of coats to the cloakroom who looked at us with frank loathing.

Her colleague, another sneering bitch, marched us to our table which might as well have been in the service lift. We complained, mildly. If looks could kill we'd have been toast at that point.

Finally the one with the coats told us - as if she was doing us a huge favour at great personal cost - to wait by the bar while they processed another frazzled troupe of refugees/diners who were all at the end of their tethers. In the end we walked out and found somewhere else for steak frites.

What's more this wasn't the only restaurant we had an argument in over the course of one weekend. British restaurants aren't perfect but they're in a different league from those in Paris.

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USE a Kindle and nobody can tell if you are reading a sex and shopping novel or something deeper.

But there's a record of the books you download of course and now Kobo, which makes e-readers, reveals big brother also monitors how much of the book you get through, which is creepy.

Surprisingly only 46 per cent finished Gone Girl which is - I think - a can't-put-it-down read. I'm always slightly ashamed when I can't get to the end of a book but perhaps I should give myself a break.

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POOR Malala. The Pakistani teenager who was shot by the Taliban for the crime of attending school is feted wherever she goes.

This week she picked up a Nobel Peace prize and the school uniform she wore when she was shot has gone on display in a glass case as if it was a religious relic.

She says she wants to be Pakistan's prime minister and she will be. She campaigns for the right of girls to have an education and a childhood.

But 17 year old Malala herself long ago gave up her right to a childhood. You can't imagine her doing anything young or silly like spending the afternoon in Claire's Accessories or sighing over boy bands.

She is earnestness incarnate, a teenage Mother Teresa.

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