Before Overground – Clapton
Another Station For Those Not In The First Flush Of Youth – Rating 2/10
Clapton station is another with access problems for the disabled, buggy-pushers and the elderly.
Unfortunately, the station also seems to have a touch of the Japanese Knotweed, although this could be one of the few stations in the Lea Valley Lines, where simple gardens could make the station much more pleasant.
I’ve been trying to imagine this station in a few months after a deep clean and a good painting, London Overground double orange handrails, some better standard seating and some tidy foliage at the far end of the platforms.
It will be much better than it is now.
Before Overground – Hackney Downs
Could Be A Great Station With Imagination – Rating 3/10
Hackney Downs station is rather a dump at present, as the pictures show.
But because it is four platform station with rooms all over the place, it could with imagination be turned into the Crystal Palace station of the North.
The pictures show how the bridge over Dalston Lane has been restored, so at least a good start has been made. As the station has a lot of ironwork, I wonder if a Leadenhall Market solution could be applied. Instead of using expensive painters for all the ironwork, the City of London laid down the scheme and paid art students to do it. Hackney Downs obviously isn’t as grand, but if some of the ironwork in the station and others on the Lea Valley Line were to be properly painted, it might liven up a series of otherwise drab stations.
I also think that the large island platform, may be a suitable place to put a nice bronze sculpture that is deemed to be too valuable to display, as it might get nicked.
The station is a bit like one of those large rambling Victorian houses with umpteen rooms, that are advertised with tremendous potential.
We’re Back To The West Lothian Question
A good leader always picks the issue, place and time for their battles to ensure that he or she wins in the end. Planning should be meticulous and hopefully it all works out as they want it.
Compare Margaret Thatcher and her government and military’s response to the invasion of the Falklands by Argentina with other campaigns fought in Iraq and Afghanistan recently. The Falklands was a smaller conflict, but very little was left to chance, although it could be thought of as a close run thing.
Other British Prime Ministers and influential politicians have brought contentious legislation through to law, by making sure they plan and win every battle. Take Cameron’s law on same-sex marriage as a recent example. But then there are many others.
So when Alex Salmond proposed a vote on Scottish independence, I thought if he got it right, he could win.
His mistake was that he didn’t plan and get decent concessions on tax and spending, before he even called for the poll. That way, if Devo max had been successful and acceptable to all parties, after a few years, Scotland would probably have had an agreed separation, in much the same way Slovakia separated from the Czech Republic.
But he pig-headedly called the referendum as early as he could.
And he lost. So we’ve now been kicked back to the West Lothian Question, but with more variables than it ever had before. Tam Dalyell must be laughing from his grave.
It has been suggested this morning that large cities have more powers, something that I agree with.
But Scotland now has the Glasgow Problem, as surely what is good for London, Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle must be good enough for the one of the largest cities outside London in the UK.
Alex Salmond, who in a overly-passionate campaign led us to this mess, should resign!
The Anonymous Widower 