The guy sitting opposite in the London bound Chiltern service was annoying. He sat in the aisle seat working on his lap top with an air of self-importance. His computer case rested on the seat beside him and he remained oblivious to the rapidly filling carriage. Enter Jackie a young woman in a cap reminscent of Jimmy Crankie. Her imperious voice requested that the computer case be moved. My neighbour hastily complied putting the case on the rack and moving seats for Jackie to sit down. He continued to work, but Jackie had other ideas. She knew all about computers and began to interrogate our friend. What do you do she enquired. “I’m a management consultant” he answered grandly adding that it was highly technical. “Sound boring” came the response from Jackie. The management consultant shut his computer and attended to Jackie. The rest of the compartment meanwhile were trying to keep a straight face. Jackie was an avid video viewer so she wanted to know if Andrew – we now knew his life story – had seen her favourites. At Banbury Jackie was called by her mother, who had taken a seat some way from Jackie. Her mother enquired whether Jackie had been annoying anyone and said that she had told her not to speak to strangers. By this time everyone was rolling in the aisles. Andrew assured her that everything was find, except he had learned that he had a boring job. By this time he too had entered the spirit of the merriment. I’m wondering though if he will continue to take up more than his alloted space.

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There’s always someone around to pontificate and tell us what we all ought to be doing expressing our deep and undying gratitude for being British. Now some idiot has come up with an oath of allegiance. To the Queen? Nah, that would upset those with Republican sensibilities.
Of course those at the top are blameless. They’re in a position to dictate what’s good for us (them) and (sometimes) able to keep their exploits under wraps. That can go wrong big time of course as the Mayor of New York has found to his cost.

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“They were defeated, not by the terrorists, but by the lack of basic equipment” – that was the coroner’s verdict after the death of a British soldier in Afghanistan. Andrew Walker – who has some form on criticising governments, especially the Americans – spoke out at the end of the inquest into the death of Captain James Philippson, who was killed in a fire fight in which British forces were heavily out-gunned by the Taliban. The inquest was told that before the battle, soldiers had repeatedly complained about a lack of proper equipment. We will be speaking to a defence minister.
Thus spake Snowmail in advance of Channel 4 News on 15th February. They went ahead and spoke to a defence minister , who was, well er.. defenceless. “But we are putting more into supporting our troops”…”the supplies were there but someone forgot to give them to the troops.” You could cry.
Never mind that the troops should never ne in Afghanistan or Iraq in the first place, but when you place them there the least you can do is to ensure the maximum personal protection.
This week protesters visited Downing Street to remind Mr Brown that more was expected of him than he’s delivering. With Tony Blair out of the way it was thought that there was an end in site. Something appeared to begin to shift in Iraq, but it’s gone dead quiet now (well not for the poor, long suffering Iraqis). Afghanistan? It’s the Taliban. Condi came hotfoot to ensure there’s no stalling in the “war on terror”.

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