Friday, December 19, 2008

On the buses with 007

At the risk of sounding trivial (though I hope not trite), which will irk Anonymous who thinks I have to be serious and world-changing all the time, I've been amused by Boris' buses today.

It's been pretty full on over the past couple of days with people and preparation, so light relief is welcome. And Boris has provided it. Now I'm all for public spending in a crisis but I'm not sure £9bn on Boris' vanity bus project represents value for money.

One of the prize winning designs for his 'let's replace the Routemaster because we don't like bendy buses' bus is by Aston Martin. James Bond meets Reg Varney - it's priceless.

He also let slip at the press conference that he might not be able to put conductors on all the new buses so thinks he might use community support officers. That's clearly why people become PCSOs, so they can collect on the upper deck of an Aston Martin.

Well, it made me chuckle.

Now, I've got to get back to saving the world (though I thought that was Gordon Brown's job at the moment!)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

trivial - maybe; trite - never! I liked the Christmas cake story.

Anyway, I presume the Bond bus will run only from Russell Square to East Acton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Buses_route_7

Will we now have to Q for buses rather than queueing?! Sorry. I can take trivial to new levels.

Anonymous said...

Simon

What a smug, self satisfied and sanctimonious response.

How it typifies the shallow attitude of contemporary church leaders to criticism and comment.

Perhaps Quentin Letts was correct in his original piece which we discussed: "The sturdy hymns of England, musical embodiment of the stoicism, resolve and undemonstrative solidarity of our nation, are in severe peril, and all thanks to ill-shaven remnants of the late Sixties - grinning inadequates who have never got over the fact that they weren't Cat Stevens."

What a sad and sour note on which to start Christmas week.

I'll say cheerio and good luck with your church. It won't be one I'll be joining anytime soon.

simon said...

The thing about blogs is that they are a place for musing on life, commenting on stuff going on around us, exchanging ideas and occasionally debating deep things.

They won't change the world. People do that through the choices they make and the stands they take.

Blogs are light relief really and on the day of reckoning, I'm not sure God will bother to enter them in evidence - though I could be wrong (they are, after all, idle words).

I'm not sure I rate rate Quentin Letts as a guide to what matters. Stoicism has precious little to do with the Christian faith, still less does being British and maintaining a stiff upper lip and singing songs at least 200 years old.

Last time I looked the 'undemonstrative solidarity of our nation' a) was about nationalism, not the Christian faith and b) doesn't exist - just look at the plight of the poor in our communities and ask where the solidarity is.

The world is going to hell in a hand basket and it will not be saved by smart alec remarks, nostalgia and casual judgmentalism of the kind the Daily Mail and, it seems, Anonymous specialise in.

It's Christmas that'll save it: the coming of a child to a home in Bethlehem - not a glitter and tinsel stable with the ox and ass standing by (as if poor carpenters and their ilk would be able to afford such upper class animals).

And Christmas saves the world becauise we come like the wise men and the shepherds to the crfib and we say we can't manage this responsibility on our own. we need a shot of grace.

Thank God that's the business he's in because I need it every day.