Facing in the opposite direction?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Warning ... stoking the fire for a potential political thread.  From The Guardian

Corbyn to launch transport campaign with rail pledges

Labour leader will promise to renationalise railways and save passengers up to 10% on fares, while also seeking to give councils more control over bus routes

Jeremy Corbyn is to renew his pledge to renationalise the railways and promise fare savings of up to 10% for passengers under a Labour government. ...

The illustration shows a group of demonstrators behind a banner - "Bring back British Rail" - with this logo:



What do members think of this use of the reversed (starboard side of Sealink ships only) logo?

[patch38]

Is it a mistake, or is it clever because it signifies 'back'? I can't decide.

Also - puts pedant's hat on - wasn't the reversed logo on the port side of Sealink ferries, not starboard...?

[grahame]

Is it a mistake, or is it clever because it signifies 'back'? I can't decide.

Also - puts pedant's hat on - wasn't the reversed logo on the port side of Sealink ferries, not starboard...?

Oops - yes.   From Wikipedia

On the ships' funnels the symbol was reversed on the port side but correct on the starboard side, so the 'top' arrow was always pointing towards the bow of the ship.

If the banner is clever because it signifies "back" then it's also a mistake as even bright people may not 'get' the message.

[TaplowGreen]

Is it a mistake, or is it clever because it signifies 'back'? I can't decide.

Also - puts pedant's hat on - wasn't the reversed logo on the port side of Sealink ferries, not starboard...?

Corbyn supporters "clever"?

[Bmblbzzz]

The original logo depicts trains travelling on the left and the reversed one used by Corbyn supporters above shows travel on the right. This is symptomatic of the topsy-turvy times we live in, in which the left demands we switch to the right while the right goes on sticking to the left, and all the time the passengers are left right behind!

[TonyK]

It's a better way to get away. Simples!

[grahame]

From The Daily Mail

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn spent a three-hour train journey sat on the floor along with several other seatless commuters after backing more walkouts by rail workers.
The leader of the opposition was filmed sitting on the floor of the train with a coffee, brown paper bag and a copy of Private Eye magazine during the London to Newcastle journey.
He was on his way to a debate with Labour MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) Owen Smith in Gateshead but found himself without a seat on the 'ram-packed' Virgin East Coast train.

From The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

Virgin Trains has questioned footage showing Jeremy Corbyn sitting on the floor of a "ram-packed" service.


In a film shown on The Guardian, the Labour leader said he was experiencing a problem "many passengers face every day" on the London to Newcastle train.

But Virgin said CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) showed Mr Corbyn and his team walking past available seating before starting filming.

[TonyK]

In a film shown on The Guardian, the Labour leader said he was experiencing a problem "many passengers face every day" on the London to Newcastle train.

But Virgin said CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) showed Mr Corbyn and his team walking past available seating before starting filming.

Now why would he want something so capitalist as a seat? Surely that would show possession of something on a personal basis that should be owned by the whole nation.

Tough on seats, tough on the causes of seats!

From that BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) article again:

Asked about the CCTV footage apparently showing Mr Corbyn walking past seats without "reserved" signs on them, the Labour leader's team said some of these seats had bags on them which appeared to belong to people who had gone to the toilet.

How many people can you you fit into a Virgin khazi?

[bobm]

See it's already being called Traingate. 

[Brucey]

Virgin have put out a press release: https://www.virgintrains.co.uk/about/media-room/#/pressreleases/virgin-trains-clarifies-labour-leaders-claim-of-ram-packed-service-1530005

There is an attached Word document containing several CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) stills.  Mr Corbyn passes many completely unreserved seats.  After filming his piece, he is then seen to return to a seat.  So much for being seatless...

[Tim]

The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) has suggested that this story may have been broken by Branson in order to distract us from the positive publicity BA^» (British Airways - about), his old and bitter enemy, was getting yesterday thanks to flying the Olympians home. 

[TaplowGreen]

Corbyn supporters have put out a press release alleging that this was the true situation - as you can see JC managed to squeeze on, although it was a little cosy............

[grahame]

We've mentioned it before, but there remains the whole fallacy of passengers not taking the last (proper) seats even when they are available.  It's very common for me to count how many people there are on a train ... and come up with (say) 75 on a 79 seat train.  That's - err - 68 seated, 7 standing and 11 seats unoccupied.  "Full and standing" reports not really accurate in this case!  A good sanity check on numbers as it's hard to loose count if people stop and talk and move around is to count empty seats, standees, and do a bit of maths based on total seats. Understand some train crew do that!

Reasons can be various - "been sitting all day", "bags on seats", "don't like to push pass someone", "couldn't get seats together so one of us is standing", "person in adjoining seat to space is large and overflowing / smells / gives me the creeps / wants to talk / is my ex", "don't like middle seat of 3", "don't want to play footsie at table", "seat wet from previous occupant", "want to be near / within sight of my luggage".

[TonyK]

The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) has suggested that this story may have been broken by Branson in order to distract us from the positive publicity BA^» (British Airways - about), his old and bitter enemy, was getting yesterday thanks to flying the Olympians home. 

That one doesn't wash - they flew home on flight BA2016, in a British Airways Boeing 747-436, G-CIVA. Not a Virgin to be seen in any of the pictures, of which we have all been reminded following the attempt to help us forget. And whilst it is not the confessional, Virgin risks being accused of political bias by releasing such detailed information and CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) footage.

"seat wet from previous occupant"

PMSL^▸ (I found that most hilarious)! Oh, hang on...

[TaplowGreen]

The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) has suggested that this story may have been broken by Branson in order to distract us from the positive publicity BA^» (British Airways - about), his old and bitter enemy, was getting yesterday thanks to flying the Olympians home. 

That one doesn't wash - they flew home on flight BA2016, in a British Airways Boeing 747-436, G-CIVA. Not a Virgin to be seen in any of the pictures, of which we have all been reminded following the attempt to help us forget. And whilst it is not the confessional, Virgin risks being accused of political bias by releasing such detailed information and CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) footage.

I don't doubt that there will be accusations of bias, however it was quite proper of Virgin to release the information & CCTV footage, it is clearly in the public interest to expose someone who aspires to the highest office in the land if he tells lies or half truths to further or promote his own ideologies.

I wonder incidentally if he and his cronies had asked permission before making films on the train?

I suspect a bit more thought will go into the next Corbyn PR^▸ (Public Relations) stunt.