How dare you live in a village?

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I heard today about a truly crass statement made by somebody who should have known better. A lot of people in my own village and those nearby are up in arms about alterations being made to the bus timetables, which means that many of the services we rely on are not going to run in future. The half-hourly service has been cut to one hourly and the four buses that took people to work in the morning have now been cut to two. A group of people went to the bus information office in town to express their concerns and point out how important these bus services were to people living out in the villages who are being increasingly isolated as services are cut back. And what was the response? "If you choose to buy a house in a village, that's what you have to expect". Just how insensitive can you get? Many of the people who are now suffering from these cutbacks have lived in their villages for years, and round here a sizable proportion of people were born in the villages where they still live. So are we all expected to sell our houses and move into the city? The alternative is for people to rely on private rather than public transport, which goes completely against the grain of making the roads less crowded and reducing carbon emissions. We really need to stop cutting taxes and instead make it possible for local authorities to subsidise bus services properly. Bringing bus companies into public ownership rather than leaving them as cash cows for shareholders would not be a bad idea either!