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But back to the driver who took me to the station. He worked as a compositor at the newspaper for more than twenty years (compositor = a person who set and corrected type and assembled text). He was a ‘hot metal’ man when newspapers were produced with metal letters. He did a 7-year apprenticeship with 12-week release courses every year. He was a member of a print union. He had professional knowledge, had acquired a skill, and was a member of a proud trade. But all that is gone. With modern digital printing there is no need for his skills anymore. So he drives a taxi, and the question I ask myself is whether I should mourn the passing of his trade which, as so many others, has disappeared under the weight of modernity.