Up to town

A man got off the train carrying two coffee cups. He returned, similarly laden, two minutes later and just as the doors were closing. As he moved forward, the station staff attendant who had blown the whistle, shouted to him to stand back. “You can’t just get on and off when you want”, he added. “Do you think I care?”, replied the man in shirt sleeves, eager not to lose face too much as he disappeared up the footbridge steps. Somewhere in coach E, his companion must have been wondering what had happened to his or her drink as they continued their journey to London alone.

Stragglers were drifting away from the Pro-Brexit demo’. One of the bulky, short-haired, middle-aged men resembling a rather raucous football supporter had a megaphone. There were spasmodic chants of “Oh, Tommy, Tommy. Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy Robinson.” Thin, disenchanted young men who had found a convenient peg to hang their multitude of grievances on, mooched around, draped in flags - Union, St George, Royal Ensign and a more ominous looking black and white one. Purple UKIP leaflets and a few placards littered the pavement, “Treason May”, “EU dictatorship ruled by a drunk” and “Brexit means Exit”. The police, meanwhile, sat in their large fleet of vans in side streets playing on their mobile phones. It appeared that they had not been required.

The metropolitan elite Remainers in the National Gallery probably outnumbered those on the Brexit demo’. I found two old railway paintings - amongst the oldest of all in fact - Turner’s “Rain, Steam and Speed - the Great Western Railway” was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844 and “The Gare St Lazare”, by Claude Monet, dates from 1877.

The glaringly visible problems of homelessness, failing to empty the bins frequently enough, inadequate street cleaning and patchy service in the hospitality sector took the edge off the excitement of coming to town. The sparkling pre-Christmas lights just served to emphasise the contrasts. It’s difficult to see how choosing to make ourselves poorer is going to help with any of that.

At least we won’t be living under a dictatorship any more. Phew!