January 2006

The moment of decision in the Government’s atrocious ID cards scheme is fast approaching. On the 16th and 23rd of January, the Bill goes into its report stage in the Lords (where the House of Lords will debate and vote on the outcome of the committee hearings on it). Every amendment that passes here will…

Read More The Last Push

Over at Airminded, Brett Holman’s PhD blog, we were discussing Rudyard Kipling’s rare excursions into science fiction, With the Night Mail and As Easy as ABC. Both of them deal with a future dated to round about now, aviation, and the integration of the world’s political economies into one seamless technocratic whole. They are cracking.…

Read More Global Rudyard!

Today, my railway season ticket went up by 7.5%. And, as if to thank me, tonight I returned home in a seat next to this charming pool of unidentified dark liquid! Mind you, at least I’m not yet as stupid as Conservative transport spokesman Chris Grayling, who found his plaice in history yesterday by announcing…

Read More At Last, Live Coverage of the Piss-Ridden Realities of London!

The ever-helpful Sharjah Airport website reports that old friends British Gulf International’s flight BGK1222 from Bagram AFB is delayed, expected in at 1630. The Irbis flight from Riyan is also running late, but the corresponding BGK1221 to Bagram got off all right, as did another to a destination given as “unknown”. Would passengers for the…

Read More BGIA: Off to Bagram