Lonely

Today I am lonely because my wife and the boy have gone to visit friends on the other side of the country. Last night I ate by myself, read for a while, surfed almost without purpose on the internet, and finally went to bed alone. It seemed very wrong. But the odd thing is, I lived on my own for many years and I never remember feeling lonely during that period of my life. I must have changed.

The British rail network has descended into chaos this morning as it emerged that First Group, the world’s most incompetent train operator, has won the West Coast line franchise. They won the franchise because they made the highest bid, but no-one except apparently the British government, seems to think that First Group can actually deliver. Indeed the First Group share price dropped six percent in a matter of minutes. Richard Branson’s Virgin Train company lost out to First Group. Sir Richard is clearly livid, and he’s mounting a legal challenge.

First Group have of course promised lower fares, faster trains, more capacity, and an all-round improved service. First Group however have a history of hiking fares as high as they can to reduce passenger numbers and thereby avoid increasing capacity. They also have a history of creative reporting (lying) about their punctuality on the Great Western line to avoid penalties. I only realised today that First Group also terminated their Great Western franchise early to avoid £800 million in payments to the government. They will continue to operate the disastrous First Great Western train service on that line until next summer. I am overjoyed that I will no longer have to use FGW after that.

Apparently there are now 21 foreign Olympic athletes officially missing or claiming asylum. I didn’t realise that this was a problem, but it would seem that a significant number of athletes simply vanished into the ether after the closing ceremony.

We’re told today that Julian Assange, who is currently holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, may be forcibly removed by British authorities. Assange is wanted in Sweden to answer sex offence charges. The Swedish charges are a joke. I won[‘t go into the details, but they were brought only because the US wants him and they can’t extradite him directly from Britain. The US want him for his part in the leaking of thousands of confidential documents on the WikiLeaks website.

I don’t know that I like Assange very much. He clearly has a personal libertarian or anarchist agenda, depending on your point of view, and he would appear to be pretty ruthless. But I have to support anyone who attempts to expose corruption in government, and he is very good at that. I therefore have a slightly embarrassing admiration for the guy. The thing about Assange however, is that he is incredibly clever (or perhaps devious) and I’m not sure that the British or American authorities have worked that out. It would be amusing if, when the British police go steaming into the Ecuadorian Embassy, they find that he has already left. And I would suggest that it is quite possible. Assange is the sort of person who may well have contingency plans. I’m interested in how this pans out.