By Bagehot
BAGEHOT is overseas just now, researching a column on foreign policy. But checking the headlines from home I felt a keen pang of homesickness when reading a series of news reports discussing the slow demise of the British zebra crossing. The black-and-white striped road crossings turned 60 this week, and the daily press duly wheeled out the expected shots of the Abbey Road crossing made famous by the Beatles, but also the unexpected statistic that 1,000 of the crossings have vanished in the last five years.