In the news

Channel 4 News did a nice comparison of what they could buy with their money. One of the options was to pay off 0.05% of Greece's debt, another was to fund the NHS for around an hour and a half.

http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/display/playlistref/140812/clipid/140812_LOTTERY_14

quite pleased to hear beardy branson spouting off after losing the right to overcharge the fuck out of everyone using the west coast main line,
now we can have a laugh at worstgroups attempts to drag it onto the shareholders wealth generator system that they operate on every network they run in the UK

Some chance of getting people to use trains rather than cars by dropping.fuel prices.
Transport in the country has been a worse.joke than anything for years, just check Hammond last minister, who apperently now.knows about defence, so Justine Greening is having.her go at keeping.things on the.tightest tightrope possible.
Makes me sick

Can't wait for all the hotties in the papers tommorrow, wouldn't want the press to change at all would we now.

quite pleased to hear beardy branson spouting off after losing the right to overcharge the fuck out of everyone using the west coast main line,
now we can have a laugh at worstgroups attempts to drag it onto the shareholders wealth generator system that they operate on every network they run in the UK

To be honest I'm quite disappointed by that. I'm not a fan of Branston at all, but the West Coast Main Line is what connects me with my parents' place, and in all the years I've lived in London I've never paid much more than £45 for a return journey, it's now 1hr50mins to get all the way up to Runcorn, and I think I've only ever been seriously delayed once, which was something to do with the track rather than the rail company. Their bike booking was always easy and efficient as well.

Virgin Trains seemed to me to be the exception that proved the rule about the catastrophic privatisation of our transport network.

The new idea from First, trying to pack more seats into the same crowded trains, and presumably raising the prices while they're at it, isn't very good news.

I've used Virgin trains for business trips pretty frequently- one thing that has always confused me is that 70% of their trains seems to be first class, with ~3 people sat there, whilst the rest of us (i.e. 99% of the travellers) are wedged in the 3 standard class coaches.

Maybe if they'd had, say, 3 first class and 7 standard class, and made the tickets a bit cheaper then they'd be in a better position?

There is no way on earth that the 3 first class travellers paid for the seven carriages they sat in, unless they paid £7,890 per ticket.

Some stupid bint gets told that she can only have 1 seat with her wheelchair space at the Paralympics, and gets completely the wrong end of the stick. No, love it means you only get one FREE seat. You have to buy the seats for your kids, but because you left it till two weeks before they have sold out of ones near the wheelchair spaces.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/08/14/disabled-mothers-anger-paralympics-wheelchair_n_1775536.html?utm_hp_ref=uk
Still, let's kick up a fuss, insist the man from LOCOG is lying and start an Internet petition, so that 10,000 angry but stupid sheep can highlight your idiocy.

Also got sent an email about this. Fucking rubbish. Just be grateful you got a ticket at all!

Oh and Daily Mail in Nazi sympathising shock:

http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/sdxS0jljlYafrrz3VgWirMw/view.m?id=15&gid=media/greenslade/2012/aug/13/dailymail-twitter&cat=most-read

Faceplam to greatest extent. Even The Torygraph was horrified.

good to hear yours has been positive Tommmmm,
your clearly prepared, happy online booker ,also done well getting bike on a train that is vastly smaller pendolino than the guards van equipped trains that used to be on that line.
unfortunately, many people remember the services before virgin galactic, and didnt have to get used to joining a ridiculous situation where half the time, reservations arent followed, booking is a pain in the neck, and turning up to do something as simple as making one hour journey costs the earth.

Yeah I'm glad I've never had to turn up and buy a ticket on the day, and I'm also saddened that as of this December I will no longer be a 'Young Person', which has also skewed my impressions of rail travel somewhat.

Dammit, I was often one of those 3 or so people in First Class, due to a happy quirk which meant if booking in advance, the tickets are usually cheaper than standard.

Oh and Daily Mail in Nazi sympathising shock:

http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/sdxS0jljlYafrrz3VgWirMw/view.m?id=15&gid=media/greenslade/2012/aug/13/dailymail-twitter&cat=most-read

Faceplam to greatest extent. Even The Torygraph was horrified.

The guy who wrote that Torygraph blog is my friend's cousin. He's a left-winger who has found himself trapped in a quite well-paid and respectable job, but he normally just writes about grammar and things like that and doesn't have to sell himself out too much.

I know a chap who used to be the arts correspondant at the Daily Fail.
I went to the press screening of Queer As Folk with him when it came out in the 90s, he had to go to the producer and director afterwards and tell them that it was a wonderfully produced drama with grit and humour but because of where he worked he was going to have to pan it.

Whenever I read any of the attention seeking antagonistic articles I always think of some poor liberal English graduate having to write toxic bile.

Pretty much. Friend at my old paper worked there as a sub for two years. Said most of the workforce are liberal, and the conditions/bosses are horrible.

Tom, props to your mate. Deus Ex Machina. Also, renew your yp railcard the day before your birthday for another year of 1/3 off travel.

In the news, epic fail, epic win:

Hungary Far-Right Leader Discovers Jewish Roots.

A Hungarian neo-Nazi leader has had to retire from professional antisemitism because he discovered he was Jewish

"It was then that it dawned on me that my grandmother really is Jewish"

That's a great story!

I had a similar experience when I discovered my great uncle was in the Irish Brigade who fought on the side of Franco in the Spanish civil war.

Also, renew your yp railcard the day before your birthday for another year of 1/3 off travel.

This, but buy the 3 year card online and get it for 3 more years!

Special note
As long as you are aged 25 at the time that the Railcard is purchased, you may still travel at the discounted fare throughout the validity period of the Railcard, even if you become 26 years old during that time. Likewise, 3-year 16-25 Railcards purchased online up until the day before your 24th birthday will be valid for a full 3-years.

http://www.16-25railcard.co.uk/buy-16-25-railcard/railcard-terms-conditions

Rain companies in a* being reasonable* shock.

Rain companies in a* being reasonable* shock.

rain?

This, but buy the 3 year card online and get it for 3 more years!

I remembered that about 2 days after my 24th birthday. Rubbish.

Oops ... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/us-loses-its-3600mph-hypersonic-x51a-waverider-jet-8050597.html

This, but buy the 3 year card online and get it for 3 more years!

http://www.16-25railcard.co.uk/buy-16-25-railcard/railcard-terms-conditions

surely that would expire the same day as a 1 year railcard bought the day before your 26th birthday?

this is awful, poor bloke

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/16/locked-in-syndrome-right-die?newsfeed=true

Oops ... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/us-loses-its-3600mph-hypersonic-x51a-waverider-jet-8050597.html

That was the last of I think 5 they were testing, which were all built to be ditched in the sea after the test.

Still unfortunate but not a disaster, considering the previous tests were mostly successful.

So, this Assange geezer...can someone give me a quick synopsis

He's apparently raped someone but he's escaping to another country to 'get off'??!