With the unfortunate news that Boris Johnson is to be the next prime minister, I thought it a good opportunity to highlight a post from 2007. Johnson had written in his Telegraph column how bad he considered the bus network in London to be, suggesting that London should adopt the system common throughout the rest […]
At last a piece of good news. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has finally withdrawn support for the proposed Garden Bridge across the River Thames, effectively killing the project. After a report by a committee of MPs earlier this month said the bridge should be scrapped, any other decision on the part of the mayor […]
It has been reported that most MPs are in favour of renaming the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster as the Elizabeth Tower in honour of Her Majesty the Queen, on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee. The large square tower at the other end of the building was renamed the Victoria Tower to […]
Imagine you are on an airliner and due to land shortly, and you have the window seat for the view. But there is no being held in a stack, no seemingly endless circling while below you see houses of all the people whose lives are blighted by aircraft noise, no seeing all sorts of famous […]
I hadn’t intended to watch it, but then I thought, it is history in the making, and there might not be another one for 30 years, so why not? Then I discovered the live stream on Youtube, and it was fantastic simply because it had the live video from the BBC, but no commentary. That […]
One of the protesters taking part in the G20 protests in London claimed yesterday, “The only violence I witnessed that day was police violence.” Clearly he didn’t see the pictures on TV of people smashing the windows of a bank, while crowds of other rioters looked on and cheered. I don’t think the people breaking […]
It has been widely reported that a leap second was added to clocks at midnight to prevent the time from drifting with respect to the Earth’s rotation. Big Ben, or more precisely the Great Clock at the Palace of Westminster, had to be adjusted in advance of the night, to ensure Big Ben chimed at […]
Following the Olympics, it was hard to escape the return home of the “Olympic Heroes”, which was the main headline in the media, which seemingly found this far more important than a major air disaster or a war in the Caucasus. While not wishing to disregard the undeniable achievements of the Olympic athletes, and recognising […]
With the 2008 Olympics under way, it is becoming increasingly irritating to hear presenters on TV and radio pronouncing the name of the Chinese capital with a French-sounding “j”. It is as if they think, “Beijing is a foreign word, so it must be pronounced in a foreign way”, and as French is the most […]
When booking tickets for a concert or the theatre, there is often a “booking fee” to pay on top of the advertised ticket price. This can add 10% or more to the cost of the ticket. Now, I’m not referring to the fees charged by ticket agents here, but to tickets bought direct from the […]
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