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.

Profligate Economics

Listening to BBC Radio 4 this morning I heard an economist suggest that we needed higher inflation to revive the economy.

The Keynesian remedy for recession is a combination of budget deficit and inflation. However we have both, and the economy is still in recession, though only just.

It does appear that what stimulates the economy may be not deficit and inflation per se but increasing deficit and inflation, so the proposed remedy risks precipitating hyper inflation.

Jumbled Languages

News broadcasts keep referring to an entity they call 'Bayern Munich'

I suspect that the name is actually 'Bayern München' Rendering that into English would give 'Bavarian Munich' Either the German form, or the English, would be acceptable, but the mixture of languages irritates me.


I wonder why the umlaut was followed by a change of font and ink colour.

Google Analytics

I was alarmed by the EU restrictions on the use of cookies, fearing that without Google Analytics I should have little idea how frequently my site is visited.

I checked the statistics collected by company that hosts my website, and realised that everything I need to know is available there. I also found that Analytics seems to have been detecting only about a third of the visits to my site.

I guess that many people set their browsers to reject cookies, so that their visits are not recorded.

Apparently I shall be better off without Analytics.

An Expensive Way to Produce Books

I recently asked a bookshop if a particular book was available. After some investigation, they assured me that it was available only by a procedure called 'print on demand', at a price of 90 pounds, which seemed a lot for a 310 page book originally published at 20 pounds.

It would be better to offer it in digital form.

Innumerate Journalism

I've just looked at the BBC web site to see the results of the first round of the French Presidential Election.

I gather there were ten candidates, so I hoped to see a list of the candidates stating the vote won by each.

I couldn't find anything of the sort. There were long chatty articles, with a percentage thrown in here or there, but there was no systematic treatment.

It often appears that journalists dislike precision.

Abuse of Monopoly

I've already blogged in complaint at the increase in postal rates, but I find the attempt by the Post Office to prevent people stockpiling stamps especially infuriating.

The post Office has a (partial) monopoly of the handling of small items, and that monopoly is not something that has emerged from the operation of the market; it is enforced by the law.

An excuse for maintaining the monopoly is that, were competition allowed, competitors would concentrate on the easy wok of delivering in urban areas where houses are close together, and neglect isolated houses in the country. As it's much easier to deliver to houses in rows, it seems to me reasonable that post to urban destinations should be cheaper.

The monopoly should end.

Meanwhile I shall use the post only for communications that I cannot make in any other way. I shall send no more picture postcards, Christmas cards or chatty letters.

My First Simnel Cake

I'd often heard of Simnel cakes, but until two days ago I'd never tried one.

Noticing some in Sainsbury's just before Easter, I reflected that they'd be available at half price after Easter. They were, so I bought one.

I found it quite agreeable, but a little too sweet.

I'm glad I waited till after Easter.

A Lingering Moment

"This moment may last for several months yet" I heard someone say on the BBC Radio 4 news.

When I hear such comments, I wonder what may be going on in the mind of the speaker.