ON the topic of the free bus pass for under-22s, I am willing to bet that the likes of Jim Fairlie has never been barged around by half a dozen youths who would not be in a bus station save for a bus pass, then followed onto the bus and threatened all the way home (Spectator editor links free bus travel policy to death of bus driver, Feb 6).

These youths didn’t live in the same village as I do, but because of a free pass they could afford to follow me. I only escaped because I knew the driver, who stopped at a pub door where these youths could not follow me.

I’m 64 now and have voted SNP all my life, but come on, the nasty 10% of the young ones wrecked it for the rest, so realise it’s a failed experiment and take the bus passes back before someone gets seriously hurt by a bunch of yobs whose only reason for being in a late-night bus station is because our government enabled them.

G Thomson
East Ayrshire