Things that might be good about today

First Great Western has agreed to put £29 million into improving their train service. Ruth Kelly, the poison dwarf and transport secretary, has called the train service "unacceptable". FGW have recently been caught lying about the number of cancellations they have made, and I personally sent them 100 identical complaint letters to their free post address because they wouldn't refund my unused season ticket.

FGW are attempting to put a positive spin on the situation by pointing out how this £29 million is going to radically improve their service. The truth is, £29 million is less than 1% of their turnover and if it is this easy to solve the problems, why didn't they do it before now? And of course, they didn't chose to spend this cash, they were forced to by the government who sold them the franchise and can equally well remove it. And I hope they do.

Something interesting is happening in Europe today. In fact, there are a couple of interesting things. First, the MEP expense dossier, which uncovers dodgy expense claims made by European politicians is being kept confidential, despite calls for it to be published after some embarrassing leaks occurred recently. It's been suggested that some MEPs are claiming salaries for staff that don't exist. I'd say keeping it hidden is likely to cause as many problems as publishing it. Let's hope so.

Perhaps even more interesting than that is the case of two British men who are campaigning to have their DNA records removed from the UK national database. They are due to appear in European court today. Currently anyone who is arrested in UK has their DNA record added to the database, even juveniles. It is never removed, even if the suspect is not charged or later cleared. The two in question were both cleared of any wrongdoing and are claiming that their human rights and privacy have been violated. If they succeed in having their records removed from the database, it will mean thousands of other records will have to be removed. Guess what I'm hoping for!

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On the way home I found that I was sharing a train with Sir Malcolm Rifkind. This will mean nothing to anyone outside the UK, but he was the Foreign Secretary during the last years of the John Major government.



He's also been Scottish minister, Secretary of State for Defence, and Transport I think. I didn't see him on the train but a driver was waiting for him at the station holding up a notice with his name on. Not much of a driver if you ask me. I'd have recognised him. Anyway, there you are, I shared a train with someone famous today.

And here is a picture of us mucking about in Taipei, just in case anyone cares.