It's not just Police that Harass Photographers.

 

Another story of how jumped up Jobsworths can harass your average citizen by making the law up as they go along.

This time it is in my own county of Kent and the culprits are "Rail Enforcement Thugs Officers. Obviously a cheap version of the British Transport police without the knowledge or adequate training.

This time it is about a Blogger, Olly Cromwell who falls foul of these cretins, by daring to take pictures of the REO's for his blog, on a Railway station. Both he and his partner are removed from the train by these idiots before finally being "freed" by The British Transport Police. Just click on the Olly Cromwell link for the whole story plus updates.

It's about time the forces of law and order actually obeyed the law of the land. Not just made up law to suit themselves. I thing Anna Raccoon has the right remedy.

 

Rail Enforcement Officer

Job Description

35 hours weekly not including Sundays, Early and Late shifts, weekend and bank holiday working as required

Description

Job Purpose:  To work as a member of the Safer Travel Team, in conjunction with British Transport Police Officers, RPO's and other Southern employees to deter crime and anti social behaviour. To offer outstanding levels of customer service to passengers whilst supporting Southern staff as required. To provide assistance with crowd control and respond to emergencies, providing assistance as required to the police and other emergency services. Ensure compliance with the Criminal Law, the Conditions of Carriage and the railway byelaws by people on the railway, minimising fare evasion and supporting other team members in their responsibilities. Act as an authorised collector within the Southern Penalty Fare Scheme an issue tickets to travel.  Issue Penalty Notices for Disorder and Fixed Penalty Notices in accordance with the law.

Join the Resistance

 

Facebook site here

Bans and Burqas

 

Interestingly in light of the furore about bans for face veils and Burqas I came across a poll in the Muslim Women's Network asking the following question.

Should the Face Veil/Burqa be banned?

What surprised me was the answers.

Yes  63.2%

No   36.8%

All I can say is I am surprised. Obviously the women are not as fond of it as we are led to believe.

Offshore bird mincers

 

I've just been reading a 114 page document on the development of offshore wind farms. Now as my one reader knows, I was a marine engineer for 43 years. One fact I quickly came to realise is that sea water is highly corrosive. therefore I was interested to see what the projected maintenance costs would be over the life of these turbines and supporting structure.

What a wealth of information awaited me in the document.

This:

2.21.Operating and maintenance
The main concern with the regards to maintenance work is the high costs involved with access to the turbines for maintenance and inspections. Furthermore the maintenance can only be conducted during the right weather conditions, which means that the wind turbines can be unproductive for a number of days.
O&M will become more of an issue as we approach the Round 2 and beyond wind
farms, which will be significantly, further offshore. The industry should embark on study to identify as many steps as possible that can lead to a reduction in requirement for access.

Basically it would appear that they haven't a clue. It was just about the smallest paragraph in the document.