The Shame Of Forced Marriage
There has just been a piece on Radio 5 live on the BBC, about forced marriage. They interviewed a lady, who many years ago as a thirteen-year-old, was taken to Pakistan and told she couldn’t come back until she was pregnant. She said that little had changed in all those years and now works as a counsellor.
Surely, the behaviour of parents like this is little different to some of the high-profile sex abuse cases we’ve had in the news lately. They should be prosecuted now, if they are still alive.
All of these practices must be stamped out.
My late wife, who dealt with a lot of child abuse and abduction cases, once said that a lot of problems could be helped or even stopped, if every time a child was taken out of the UK, the passport was checked and noted.
Crossrail Don’t Just Dig Tunnels
This report on the BBC, gives the latest progress on the archaeology program, that runs alongside Crossrail. Similar reports have also turned up all over the world including this one from India. So perhaps Crossrail is showing the world how to dig in more ways than one!
You have to congratulate Crossrail on their attitude to the past, which seems to be much better than other projects.
I suppose you could also be cynical, and say that they see the public relations as beneficial to getting the project done on time, as it minimises objections.
But who cares, if the project comes in on or under budget? Everybody!
It Was A Good Day Out!
In my view, Liverpool is always one of the best days out in the UK. It is an easy train journey from London. I went First Class, but a ticket in Standard costs fifty one pounds with Virgin Trains, if you book a few days before.
The three exhibitions; St. George’s Hall, Tom Murphy and the Chagall cost me four pounds for entry in total (I’m a Member at the Tate in London) and my only other expenses were lunch at Carluccio’s and a sandwich and a drink for the journey home in Marks and Spencer.
The walking was easy, as it’s gently downhill from the station and St. George’s Hall to the Pier Head, the Ferries and the museums there.
Even walking back up isn’t a steep climb, but it is totally pedestrianised and if you know Liverpool like I do, you can even cross into the station by a subway and an escalator. Or should I say, you normally can, but at present the underground part of Lime Street station is being refurbished. This refurbishment will also mean you can get the train back to the main station using James Street station at the Pier Head.
If you want to visit the cathedrals and the University, there is a bus at the Pier Head, which takes you right up the hill. So it’s then an easy walk downhill back to the station.
If ever a city, was laid out for visitors, it is Liverpool. It’s also difficult to get lost as generally from most of the city centre, you can see the cathedrals and/or the Liver Building.
There are lots of finger posts, but a few maps and better information on the buses would be a great help for visitors.
A Station With Twin Clocks
Is Liverpool Lime Street station, one of the few where you are greeted two large clocks?
But then Liverpool loves its big clocks and seems to have more than most cities.
I went to the Second City today, to see two unique exhibitions; the revealing of the floor in St. George’s Hall and the Marc Chagall exhibition at the Tate Liverpool.
Lib Dems Get It Right On Cars
There has generally been negative reaction to the Lib Dems proposal to ban diesel and petrol cars by 2040. The story was reported here in the Telegraph. This is the first paragraph.
Nick Clegg’s party has unveiled proposals to only allow ultra-low carbon vehicles on UK roads by 2040.
The controversial measures would mean millions of petrol and diesel cars being forbidden.
Only electric vehicles and ultra-efficient hybrid cars would be allowed on UK roads under the Lib Dem plans.
However, petrol and diesel vehicles would still be allowed for freight purposes.
I don’t think they will or should be banned, but by 2040, most vehicles will not use fossil fuel.
I’m not speaking here as a wishful thinking non-driver, but as an engineer, who follows innovations and economics strongly.
Various developments will gradually eat away at the market for conventional vehicles and new ultra low emission vehicles will in the next couple of decades be cheaper to buy and run than anything else.
One thing that will help the transition is in cities like London, where there is a large market to replace the black cabs. This article in the Guardian describes Nissan’s first attempt. Seeing and using viable and well-liked electric taxis will convince people, that electric cars can work.
However any party that wants to bring in a ban on petrol and diesel cars would be committing political suicide.
All politicians need to do, is provide the infrastructure that ultra-low emission vehicles will need.
Cambridge Tries Its Hardest To Discourage Visitors
I changed trains in Cambridge yesterday and as it was a convenient time for a meal, I took the opportunity to go into the centre to have a late lunch in Carluccio’s.
Every time I go to the city, these days, it would appear that the bus stop layout is different and further from the main entrance to the station. And there’s no simple information, which has a map of the various stops and go to bus stop X for the city centre.
The first stop you come to, tells you all about the Cambridge Busway, but I know that the bus-way at the station goes to Addenbrooke’s and not the city centre.
After waiting at the wrong stop for a couple of minutes, only to see a couple of buses I could have taken, go past. So I waited ten minutes, when if there had been proper information, I’d have waited one.
When a bus did arrive, it was the usual scrum at the single door used for all entrance and exit. Visitors from London, who use the capital’s buses must really fume at the slowness. It’s even worse for people like me with a Freedom Pass, as you must take it out of your London folder to put it flat on the reader on the bus. Surely, we could have a touch and enter system based on Oyster technology all over the country now, as it’s been working in London for several years.
I knew where I was going, but I didn’t know exactly where the stop I needed was. I guessed wrong, as Cambridge buses don’t display the stop names or announce them as all sensible buses do. It must be a nightmare if you’re blind!
Coming back it was a repeat of the process; guess the stop, ask the driver, fight your way through the scrum and then walk farther than you used, to get to the train station.
It really is rather Kafkaesque and how much does it cost the city in lost visitors?
I suppose the only beneficiaries are the taxi-drivers, as those probably get a lot more business.
The Hitchin Flyover From The Cambridge Line
I went to and from Cambridge yesterday and got good views of the new Hitchin Flyover, which will take Cambridge-bound trains over the East Coast Main Line.
It is a simple, but impressive structure, that should give a lot of benefits to rail passengers.
When Are The Hackney Eight Going To Be Reinforced?
The latest news, as reported here, that London bus routes 9 and 390 are the two next routes to be taken over by New Buses for London is good news for some. The trendy areas beloved of the chattering classes, like Notting Hill, Hammersmith and Archway, will now be targeted by the Boris buses.
But as East London is one of the areas of London with the highest level of bus use, isn’t it about time, that another route in the East was converted, or the much-loved Hackney Eight were reinforced?
At least though LT7 is back on the day job after it’s few days as a television star on Top Gear.
And what about my friends in South London, who have no routes, either converted or scheduled to be so?
One Of The Hackney Eight Appears On Top Gear
The seventh New Bus for London,LT7 has appeared on Top Gear tonight, driven by James May.
This link points to a picture of the actual bus, waiting at Victoria.
This is probably the only time, I’ve ever sat in an actual vehicle featured on television.
You Don’t Get Behaviour Like This On The Dalston Omnibus!
This tragic tale from Biggleswade, shows what you get when you mix two men of my age, shopping and an argument over parking.
You certainly don’t get any behaviour like this on the Dalston omnibus to or from Waitrose at the Angel. The most outrageous behaviour I saw, was a guy laughing at two ladies sitting beside each other who were probably about fifty years old; one black and one white, who’d both hurt a leg and their hospitals had furnished them each with one crutch. Everybody saw the funny side! Especially the ladies!
I do wonder sometimes, why people bother with driving. I miss it like a hole in the head!
I’ve actually never been to Asda and if you get killed in their car parks, I doubt I will now!
The Anonymous Widower 