NOBODY dies on Oxford streets these days. So says my old pal Neville, a civilian guard from the glory years of Bicester Garrison. “It’s 2016 now. You’ve been reading too much Charles Dickens.”

“Don’t be so sure,” I replied. “The facts might tell a different story.”

I’d just been to the annual memorial service for the homeless in New Road Baptist Church. More than a dozen had died in the past year and were remembered as their names were read out by Oxford’s Chaplain for the Homeless, the Rev Mary Gurr. Candles were also lit in their memory.

More than 40 people were there, most of them helpers in Oxford’s shelters for the less fortunate. It was a brief service – barely 30 minutes – but it was moving as well as thought-provoking. Obviously Neville didn’t know all the facts. I wonder how many do. More to the point, how many really care?

* EARLIER I met a couple of Scousers – one a Liverpool FC supporter, the other a disciple of their arch rivals, Everton.

The waters of the River Mersey courses through their veins and on Tuesday it was mixed with contents of a large bottle of white wine. I turned down their offer to join them; 11am was a bit early for me.

Both were middle-aged, clean and smartly turned out in a casual fashion. Their topic of conversation was rough sleepers around the city centre. They pinpointed half a dozen spots less than 100 yards away where doorways and pavements were occupied. Sympathy was in short supply.

“There’s plenty of work around here if they want it,” said the Evertonian.

“They’re mostly young and are turning sleeping rough into a job,” added the Liverpudlian.

Both thought they should be cleared off the streets. Someone, presumably the police, ought to “do something about it”.

What I didn’t ask was what work they did or had done and how they justified knocking back a bottle of wine in public before midday. After all, to some people this was as unacceptable and unsightly as sleeping rough.

* WITH world tension rising by the day, the decision of the Ministry of Defence to sell three important Army sites in Oxfordshire could be seen as unwise. Might I advise those with sensitive hearing to avoid Bladon churchyard where Sir Winston Churchill will surely be revolving noisily in his grave?

No-one listened to him last time.

* IT’S been a funny old year. The Brexit brigade winning against the odds only weeks after 5,000-1 Leicester City topped the Premier League. Now the bookies’ outsider Donald Trump has won the White House.

What a wallet-filling treble for the bravest gamblers among us!