Credit where credit is due

I'm the first to complain about South West Trains, so let me be the first to praise them today. I went down to Woking station and there was a skeleton service running to Waterloo, stopping at various places along the way. I got a seat, and it only took me 40 minutes to get to Waterloo. And on the way back, I only had to wait 10 minutes at Waterloo for a train back to Woking. It stopped at a couple more places, so took a bit longer, but I really didn't care because

1) It was neat looking out of the window at the snowy landscapes of Surrey and

2) Because the train had power sockets in Second Class so I was able to work all the way home. Excellent. I got a lot done and had a pleasant journey.

If I could get a comfy seat and a power socket every time I take the train into London, I would get twice as much done in an average week.

In the future, everyone will be famous to fifteen people.
[posted with ecto]

Fair trial

One of the strangest aspects of life in the cold, damp lunatic asylum formerly known as the United Kingdom is the "justice" system. Some of the reports of court cases, police actions and government strategies are utterly beyond parody. I imagine life as a satirist must be even more depressing than life as an investment banker at the moment, since it's impossible to make up anything more ridiculous than what is already happening. There was a case recently when a British judge let a defendant off because he (the judge) thought that the fact that the victim had identified the perpetrator in a police line-up would prejudice the jury.

he ruled that her evidence against a lout she picked out in an ID parade was so compelling it would unfairly sway the jury

[From Judge throws out robbery case: Victim is too honest | The Sun |News]

WTF? Why have an ID parade then? In fact, why allow the prosecution to bring any evidence at all, since presumably any evidence connecting the defendant with the crime would prejudice the jury.

In the future, everyone will be famous to fifteen people.
[posted with ecto]