An End, a Middle, and an Answer

1 July

Someone decided to end it all beneath a train this morning. It was either the train I wanted to catch, or the one in front of it. One was cancelled and the other was delayed by over an hour. I got on a later train which was also delayed. I suppose that someone so desperately depressed is unlikely to be greatly concerned by the disruption their actions are likely to cause, but watching someone bounce off a train windscreen has got to affect onlookers, and particularly the driver in some fairly drastic ways. And it does cause a certain amount of general chaos. It's not a method I would choose.

I met a colleague on the train. When I told her why there was a delay she gestured out of the window and remarked that it was a day too beautiful on which to kill oneself. Indeed, the sun was shining and I had to wonder just what made the guy do it.

This morning the future of Europe appears a little less certain than it did yesterday. France is poised to take the rotating presidency. There were big plans to use the 6-month period to move the Lisbon Treaty forward, but that has all changed now that the Irish have trashed it. The Irish are apparently not the only sceptics. There are legal challenges to the treaty in Britain, the Czech Republic, and Germany. The Germans have said they won't sign until the challenge has been through their highest court, and the Polish President has also said he's not signing, despite the ratification process having gone through parliament, because it would be 'pointless' now that the Irish have voted no. I can't see how the Lisbon treaty can ever be ratified.

2 July

Hundreds of lorry drivers are bringing London to a standstill today in protest at the huge price of fuel. I bet Gordon is wondering why he took the job on now.

David Cameron has accused Gordon of doing deals to secure support in the 42-day detention plan vote. A leaked letter between Geoff Hoon and Keith Vaz has been published in the Telegraph. It's apparently been hand written by Geoff Hoon and implies that Vaz would be rewarded for reversing his decision to vote against the government. I don't think anyone believes that those ministers who changed their minds at the last minute and voted with the government did so out of sudden realisation that the PM was right all along. They must have been offered something. The Telegraph makes a very strong suggestion that Vaz was offered a peerage. If that was the case, Vaz must now be cursing the day he shook Gordon's hand and accepted the bribe, because he sure as hell won't get his gong now.

And finally, Mr Philosophy Punk asks me how I can be so cheerful with a heavy child on my back. And the answer Mr Punk, is very simple. He's my son, and as such, every second spent with him is better than any second spent without him. This you can't possibly hope to understand until such time as you have a child of your own. Until that time. You'll just have to take my word for it.