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We have just been told by our GP surgery that we won't be getting our second jab by the 12-week deadline. The problem seems to be supplies of the Pfizer vaccine to rural GP centres. If you booked an appointment for your first jab online you got an appointment for the second one at the same...

Interesting story in the Guardian this morning which suggests that the Greensill saga has a long way to run...

The following image was posted on the "Historic Hampshire in Photographs" Facebook page. It shows 34039 "Boscastle" crossing Edinburgh Road (now Bishop Crispin Way) on its way from the Dockyard at Unicorn Gate to Portsmouth & Southsea station - date unknown. My question is - what was it doing...

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/integrated-review-of-security-defence-development-and-foreign-policy-2021-nuclear-deterrent So we need more nuclear warheads “in recognition of the evolving security environment, including the developing range of technological and doctrinal threats”. And we are going...

There is a modern tendency to categorise and give everything labels and then to emphasise difference, and the fact that this is being applied to generations worries me. Calling the WWII generation "the greatest" sounds OK, but how would the WWI generation have felt about that? And they weren't...

In my small collection of vinyl LPs I have a Transacord World of Railways disc just called "LMS". It contains some great tracks - Euston in 1955, an 8F on the Long Drag, Shap Summit in 1959. I love listening to them. In some ways they bring back the memories better than pictures. My absolute...

Presuming that Priti Patel isn't going to resign, should Johnson sack her if she has broken the Ministerial Code and bullied Home Office staff? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55010929

If St Pancras had been demolished in the 1960s, where would MML services have gone?

The following article in "New Civil Engineer" a couple of days ago is worrying: https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/10bn-rail-enhancement-pipeline-to-be-reassessed-for-post-covid-world-17-09-2020/

The following table shows the now well-known fact that the UK is second only to Belgium in its Covid death rate per head of population. It also shows some interesting facts associated with that, and I am racking my brains to work out what's going on. The UK also has the highest number of...

Britain was a very slow adopter of the track circuit. The first fail-safe track circuits were developed in the USA in the 1870s, but it wasn't until after WWI that railways in Britain started to use them widely. One reason I have seen given for this is the use of the Mansell wheel, which had a...

I heard Boris Johnson announce, with lots of trumpeting, the change of social distance from two metres to "one metre plus" from 4th July. But that isn't what the government guidelines say, if I am reading them right. I am responsible for doing the risk assessment for the reopening of our local...

It's worth listening to Sir Philip Rutnam's resignation statement verbatim : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51687287 Here's his statement verbatim He accuses Priti Patel pretty directly of bullying and aggression to his staff, then when confronted by him, running a campaign of...

I had read in a number of places that the C&HPR never offered an "official" passenger service, just allowed locals to ride in the guards van, but I recently purchased the book "The Cromford & High Peak Railway" by A Rimmer (©The Oakwood Press, 1985). What it has to say suggests that it was a...

The resignation of Sayeed Javid and the sacking of Julian Smith both suggest a wish to centralise power in 10 Downing Street and not to tolerate any opposition within Government. This ruthlessness doesn't seem in character with the cuddy, laid back persona that Boris likes to show to the world...

A number of things seem to be happening in the UK media and government world just now. The government is launching its review, aiming at decriminalising failure to pay the BBC licence fee (which, whether you think it's right or not, will reduce the BBC's net income by £millions). At the same...

Despite my (fairly) ancient status I still sometimes travel at somebody else's expense and am expected to produce a receipt or the cancelled ticket showing where I have been and what I paid, so that I can get the money back. Until a few weeks ago buying a ticket at my local SWR station and...

A lot of the problems being encountered by the industry currently seem to be associated with the delivery of new trains, whilst service reliability remains poor. Of course Ministers love them because they are worth several photo-ops per fleet, but is too much being invested in buying new...

It may be obvious to others, but not to me. Why is Network Rail currently running a half-hourly bus service from Peterborough to Dereham, calling at Wisbech, King's Lynn and Swaffham?

I have noticed in talking to some of my grandchildren (ages 7 to 13) that they have absorbed a simplistic and very one-sided view of the English Civil War. Cavaliers are seen as exciting, brave and fighting for freedom. Roundheads are seen as baddies, trying to stop people doing what they...