A plague on all our houses

A sobering thought for those, who like me, try to move away when a passenger with a bad cold gets on the train and sits beside you.

An al-quaeda cell in Algeria have apparently been wiped out by the medieval disease, the black death. The chilling prospect is that they were developing a strain to spread in Western cities. We can only hope that the specialist knowledge to do this, died with them. Certainly it is a grim thought that terror may not come in bombs but simply in an infected person spreading a deadly disease by walking around a city. Al-quaeda is noted for its creative thinking and the absence of recent significant attacks in the west is no real grounds for complacency.

I will certainly try to keep things perspective the next time I think I catch someone's cold on public transport. It could clearly be a lot worse.

Police on the Trains

There was quite a novel excuse for the delayed train this morning. Police had to search the train at one of the earlier stations.

That was the only explanation given. This could have been anything from escaped priosoner, fare dodger ( a bit over the top if it was) to suspected bombs.My train starts in quite a sleepy outer London suburb. It is an unglamorous and largely unknown part of the city. However that does not stop it being on the track to the centre (Victoria, Charing Cross, London Bridge and Cannon Street are all on direct lines). So maybe in this time of terrorism, it is a real possibility that terrorists could start their morning at the sleepy extremities of the capital. This was certainly the model that Al Quaeda operatives adopted to deadly effect in the Atocha bombings in Madrid, March 2004. Nearly 200 died in that attack.

Of course, I hope this never happens and there was some other explanation for the Police search of the train this morning.
However in this time and especially after the tube bombings of last year, anything seems possible on the journey to work.