So farewell then the spear-carrier of pop

On my way to the station this morning I passed two schoolgirls in animated conversation. One said to the other "My mum told me Michael Jackson was dead. I was, like, Mum, I didn't even know he was still alive"

The first 6 minutes of the BBC Radio 4 news at 8:00 was devoted to this story. Apparently he was known as the "King" of pop. Well, I never voted for him.

Guessing Game

Here's a nice puzzle from the kind folks at London Underground. Where do you think the trains are going? You will search in vain for SBP and QUP on the tube map.
Answer:
SBP is Stonebridge Park and QUP is Queens Park and some idiot has configured the indicators to show the internal LU station codes instead of their proper names. I wonder how many baffled tourists were hanging about on the Bakerloo platform tonight.

Beating the strike

The RMT union began a 48 hour strike on Tuesday evening, cleverly coinciding with the England vs Andorra game at Wembley the following night.

scene: RMT HQ, a month ago. Bob Crow takes a phone call.
Crow "Yeah"
Caller "Boss, there's a big match coming up. Lots of the lads want to watch it. They don't want to be driving trains when they could be in the pub watching Rooney falling over"
Crow "I think we could swing a day"
Caller "Even better if we can have the next morning off, there'll be a few thick heads..."
Crow "Leave it to me. Time we had a few days off anyway."  (Thinks) "Now what stupid pretext can we use to manufacture a dispute this time..."

Well, sod them. I managed to get to an important meeting in central London by driving to a nearby station and catching a Chiltern Railways train to Marylebone. Oh, and a 40 minute walk as the buses were jammed, taxis all taken and the roads at a standstill.

I must say that the train was very comfortable (very full in the morning, naturally but I came home early and had a seat), is smooth and fast and even offers a toilet. And the journey was even faster than scheduled coming home because the public-spirited railway decided not to stop at Wembley Stadium, thus removing the last easy way for people to get there. But it is not a practical way to make my regular journey to Waterloo so let us hope that the tube dispute is settled soon.

Kings Cross

Had to go up to Camden Town this evening and came home on the Northern Line to Kings Cross and then on the Met. Jeepers. The state of Kings Cross is staggering. That intersection requires two escalators, steps up and down and a narrow crowded corridor and the full length of the platform to get to where I needed to be. The raw, crumbling concrete, exposed power lines and beams and the general decrepit state of the place are a shock. I'm sure my fellow commuters are fully inured but this is the first time I have done this particular journey and I am seeing it as through the eyes of a visitor. Who the hell designed this station?

Gordon and the Gurkhas

I don't normally comment on politics. I break with tradition today because I am so disgusted by the Government's attitude to the Gurkhas. We owe much to soldiers from all over the Commonwealth but especially to those who have been so loyal to the UK for so long. Nick Clegg got it right this morning on the radio - You used to claim to be guided by morals, Gordon. Let's see a bit of it. Do the right thing. And please don't mumble about "affordability" when your government is happy to waste billions on ID cards and other futile IT systems.