THEY say the older you get the more right-wing you get.

Age is having the opposite effect on me. The older I get the more bleeding-heart liberal I get: hoodies, trees, bears - you name it, I'll hug it.

The other day on the bus I was stuck in a seat in front of two older ladies, who started off chatting about their grandchildren but moved on, somewhat tangentially, to the terrible number of Asians you see nowadays on Victoria Road, "standing around". Swiftly, from discussing the rainbow variety of faces to now be found on Glasgow's south side, they moved to how discriminated-against the poor, maligned BNP are. Yes, that BNP.

Apparently one of the ladies had seen some BNP supporters trying to give out leaflets outside Central Station and being moved on. It wasn't fair, they tutted - those Yes supporters are allowed to hand out leaflets.

"Country's going to the dogs." I'm not kidding, she actually said, "Country's going to the dogs. It's finished."

And then they carried on hissing a host of other poisonous opinions back and forth, of the sort it feels complicit just to type out.

I spent the journey poised to turn round and say something, trying to channel my inner Jane O'Toole. Ms O'Toole, of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, pictured, caught the local police commissioner calling Barack Obama something completely unprintable. She confronted him without ­knowing who he was and, later, when she found out his position in the town, she made a complaint. Commissioner Robert Copeland remained unrepentant. Referring to the noun he used, he said: "For this I do not apologise - he meets and exceeds my criteria for such."

On hearing racism, should you do as Ms O'Toole did? Is there any point? Chiding people, putting them on the defensive - is that going to change their stance or, rather, will it reinforce their negative opinion of the liberals among them?

I see constantly on Facebook people sharing posts by Britain First, a breakaway group from the BNP. It's always jarring to see someone propagating such miserable propaganda. Are they just ignorant, or are they quietly outing themselves as racist?

Online, where everyone is braver, I always respond. In real life, I'm no Jane O'Toole. Still, it's something to work up to.

Custom dictates that you cannae shove a granny off a bus. But if they're a racist granny? I think there's just cause.