Saturday, 29 December 2007

The Train Not Departing

I am not sure that really should have been a 58-hour shutdown of the public transport network "over Christmas" (Christmas is in fact still going on, for 12 days), although it is worth noting that such a thing would be inconceivable in the secular country that Britain is routinely alleged to be, that the apparent lack of demand for public transport on Boxing Day even in Scotland (where it is not a public holiday) feeds the mounting perception that in practice the Scots now take all the English public holidays along with their own, and that the public transport network (especially the trains) long ago stopped going anywhere where there were many people who could not afford cars. Ponder these things.
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous30 December 2007 at 12:57

    Good God.

    In what way is the Scots NOT taking a public holiday that the English do contributing to an impression that they get MORE public holidays?

    Please.

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  2. David Lindsay31 December 2007 at 22:39

    But they ARE taking it. If there's no demand for trains there on Boxing Day, then a lot of people there can't be going to work on that day, can they? Yet the Scottish end of the rail network will still be shut down on 2nd January, too.

    This is not the first time that I have had cause to think this: that the Scots are in practice now taking both English and Scottish public holidays. Compare that to the way in which New Year's Day as a normal working day used to be enforced mercilessly by employers in England, in the public as well as the private sector.

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  3. Anonymous2 January 2008 at 12:05

    You're ignorant on this matter I'm afraid. Almost every employer in Scotland is fully staffed on Boxing Day. Some of the top-level employers give their staff the day off, but in the public sector it's as normal and in almost every private job. My work organised car pooling for the people that usually used trains. I am the first to point out when us Scots are unnecesarily advantaged by devolution, but you are so wide of the mark on this one.

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  4. David Lindsay2 January 2008 at 15:06

    Well, I don't see how if there are no trains (due, lest we forget, to "no demand"). They're probably supposed to be there, but have all phoned in saying "Oh, well, there are no trains", much as one does when there is heavy snow. Except, of course, that no one demands heavy snow.

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