Jottings
News from the UK and around the World
. . . the wild, the wacky, the wonderful, the weird and the downright infuriating
Victor Meldrew moments
Managers at the UK’s largest railway
operator are being told to use air travel
to get to meetings. Why? Because
travelling by train is usually too
expensive. Network Rail has stipulated
that staff should go by plane, not by
train, when it saves money.
The policy has emerged after rail fares
in the UK rose 3.4 per cent last year and
3.1 per cent this year, despite the worst
punctuality figures for more than a
decade. The Sunday Times last month
published details of savings made by rail
executives including their star bargain
from the last couple of years: Cardiff to
Anglesey by air for £19.99, compared
with £84 for a single flexible rail ticket.
However, the operator says 98% of its
business travel, which totalled £1 million
over two years, is by rail which, it claims,
“more often than not represents the best
value.”
On July 1, a street in Southampton was
targeted by vandals who smashed the
front and rear windscreens of at least ten
parked cars belonging to residents.
Witnesses reported seeing a vehicle
driving down the road with people
leaning out of the windows and attacking
cars with hammers, causing thousands of
pounds of damage.
Hampshire police sent neighbourhood
officers in response to calls from the
victims, but then announced that
following their “risk assessment,” no
further officers would be deployed to
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the scene because the crime was not
continuing and there was no immediate
threat to life.
A civil servant in the UK’s Northern
Ireland complained that he was offended
by having to walk past a portrait of the
Queen each day. He argued that under
human rights legislation he should not
have to work in an office that featured
paintings of the Queen and the Duke of
Edinburgh. After his complaint, the
portraits were removed and replaced
with photographs of the royals meeting
people in Northern Ireland during
official visits. The senior official’s
dispute was then settled in secret with
the then-Northern Ireland Secretary,
Theresa Villiers, who approved a
£10,000 compensation payment for