The last bastion of quiet time for the busy executive is about to fall. Inmarsat, Britain’s satellite operating champion, has announced plans to connect European airline passengers to the internet by the end of 2016, with British Airways set to be the first airline to sign up to the new service. Wi-Fi access will be available on screens on the back of seats, as well as on passengers’ mobile phones and tablets. “The internet is already available mid-flight in the US and has proved popular.” But the days of winding down, safely undisturbed, “with a glass of pinot, shoes off and the latest John Grisham” look to be over. (Robert Lea,The Times, London).

Returning from Paris on the Eurostar train the other day my ears ended up sore from the incessant chatter and loud laughter from the adjoining compartment. It was impossible to read my book. (If you have never read a book you probably can’t understand the problem). I was tempted to ask them politely to lower their voices, but my wife told me there was nothing I could do. It is, it appears, the right of everyone to do precisely what they want, whether it annoys, inconveniences or deafens other people. “Liberty”!

The above is trivial, but now we will experience worse horrors in planes. Cramped, uncomfortable and culinarily challenged though they are, at least one can, at the moment, have some time to think on a plane, some peace. In future we are to endure, loudly and intrusively: “Now we are at cruising speed”, “I can see the Washington monument” and “We’ll land in about twenty minutes, I guess” – running commentaries from the same gormless idiots that chatter on their phones in trains, soon throughout every flight. Oh for Epicurus, a donkey and a quiet olive grove!

Am I becoming an old grumpus?