Solvency at last (for a while)

Well, my pension has eventually come through. some reward for those pre-university days of toil in former life as a railway clerk. The lumnp some won't pay off the all the debts but it will keep the wolf from the door for a couple of months in these unusual 'credit crunch' times.

It also means that we shall eat this Christmas, and, bonus of bonuses, I may even be able to afford a new sofa and tickets to see Leonard Cohen.

My next step is to see if as a 'pensioner' I am entitled to any railway travel facilities as my service with the railways was before all this privatisation nonsense, when, at least some elements of our public transport system were actually owned by the public, rather than the Richard Bransons (and the rest of the ragbag army of 'entrepreneurs') got their grubby hands on our trains. Then again, when I worked for the railway, the midget roadbuilder Ernest Marples had already got his hatchet man, the incredibly non-telegenic Dr Beeching, to close most of the lines, with little regard to the communities and businesses they served.

Still, self-seeking scheisters are nothing new in politics; we have had the Church of England in its present form since 1689 and the Tories for just as long. Renaming them the Conservative Party in 1848 changed nothing. Now, just as then; still the enemy of the people.