Railtrack Emulates Procrustes

Yesterday I visited Bletchley Park, travelling by train and changing at Bedford.

On the return journey there was a discouraging announcement that we had been relegated to the slow line to avoid another train that had broken down.

As we approached Wellingborough there was an announcement that some passengers must have found even more alarming. We were to use the short platform at Wellingborough, presumably because we were still on the slow line, so there would be room for only the front of the train. Passengers in several of the rear coaches would therefore not be allowed to alight and, those whose destination was Wellingborough were bidden to travel on to Kettering, alight there and wait for a train to take them back to Wellingborough.

If only trains still had doors passengers could open at will, those inconvenienced could just have jumped down onto the track and walked to the platform.

Summer Heat

This is the first year I've needed to switch on my heating at Midsummer. I'm using only one heater, the one in the kitchen where I have breakfast, but it's still a first.

'Black' Market

What is called a black market is the result of a failed attempt to avoid a market.

One of today's news items was about a so called 'black market' in tickets to Olympic events.

Had tickets been auctioned there would have been no black market and the proceeds would have been greater diminishing the final loss (or increasing the profit, in the unlikely event of there being a profit).

Our Versatile Police

I notice that undercover police are now allowed to have sexual relations with those they are observing, to help maintain their 'cover'

see:this article in the Standard

I wonder if the bishops will have anything to say. Perhaps they are so obsessed with the spectre of gay marriage that they haven't noticed.