Religion as a Conspiracy Theory

The Mafia killed JFK. The moon landing was filmed on a backlot in Hollywood. Bush planned 9/11...

Why are conspiracy theories so much fun, and catchy? The more elaborate the plot, the harder they stick, and cold hard facts rarely serve to dissuade it's believers. Arguing with conspiracy theorists is much like playing Whac-O-Mole, no matter what you say they'll pop up with something else, and still believe what they want.

Sound familiar..?

I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, they're fun to think about, and make you feel like you know something that no one else does. But at a certain point you have to come to the realization that the government is not testing chemical weapons on us with Chemtrails...

The problem with conspiracy theories is that, by definition they require too many loose ends to be held together. For any one theory to be true, hundreds - if not thousands - of people would have to be involved in planning, coordinating, carrying out, and then covering up the whole operation. That means that for the rest of their lives, none of these people could ever (even accidentally) utter a word about any of it.

Then there's the issue of outsiders getting wind of what's going on, now we've to start making people "disappear" so they don't blab, and on and on...

The other problem with conspiracy theories is Occam's razor, while it's a lot more exciting to believe that there are Aliens and flying saucers in Area 51, the simpler explanation is that the government tests, and builds experimental aircraft there. But who wants to here that? That's so lame...

Which brings me to religion.

Much like conspiracy theories, religion is full of great stories, complicated plots, twists and turns, and an answer for everything. But when you starting looking closer, things make less and less sense. The difference is that we snicker at people who believe certain whacky things - like conspiracy theories - but respect them for believing other whacky things, like religion. maybe it's time we stop being so accommodating, and tell people how we really feel when they tell us they believe in a talking snake, or that the earth is six thousand years old.

Just a thought...

12 Days of Rail Mess - Southeastern Carol

A group of disgruntled rail commuters gathered at Charing Cross station Wednesday to stage a festive protest about Southeastern trains.

Adam Halall, from St Leonard's, East Sussex, regularly travels on the Hastings to Charing Cross line, and organised the sing-a-long to an inspired version of The 12 Days of Christmas.



Here's the lyrics in case you couldn't make them out from the video above.

On the 12th day of Christmas Southeastern said to me,
12 hundred stranded
11 porky pies
10 trains are cancelled
9 power failures
8 dodgy heaters
7 flakes are falling
6 dirty toilets
5 broken trains
4 missing drivers
3 signal failures
2 points are stuck
And there's no trains the rest of the week.

A Southeastern spokesman said: "We always welcome all feedback from passengers, in whatever format it may come in."

Hat tip to @BCCletts for letting me know about this.

If TfL chief Peter Hendy had a magic wand

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have a chat with TfL's Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy. Due to partial incompetence on my part & problems on the District Line, I was late. Fortunately London Reconnections and IanVisits were on time, so hopefully, they'll have more on Hendy's opinion on what the Comprehensive Spending Review will mean for London's Transport. When I arrived the discussion had moved on to Hendy's thoughts of how most of the world's transport systems were actually surprised London had a long term strategy for transport & that it was (finally) being carried out.


Hendy struck me as a person who was extremely keen to get on with the upgrades needed & speed them up. He's well aware of the perception of bad communication of improvements and the seemingly endless engineering work. He's clearly not a fan of those posters which show cartoons of men carrying out work on the London Underground.

Transforming your Tube by Richard Parmiter
In the future we'll see less of these and actual photos of broken rails, points, signalling and the like, in an attempt to show us what work is physically being done & how long it takes. We got the impression there will be fewer block closures on the Tube than TfL's new strategy just announced (first of which District & Circle Lines between High Street Ken & Edgware Road). Mainly because there's actually few parts of the Tube which you can close down for weeks at a time without causing complete chaos and offering reasonable travel alternatives.

Hendy's obviously a mine of transport information having worked for London Transport since 1975. I must admit my brain partially switches off when people talk about buses, but Hendy's attention to the new buses went right down to making sure it was easy to clean sick (& other nasty stuff) off them! Probably something a lot of Transport commissioners wouldn't talk about.

We also learnt that before stations on the former North London Link were closed overnight, a whole colony of down and outs lived at Kensal Rise station.

Even though it's December, inevitably you can't talk about the Tube without talking about air conditioning. Ian asked how much of the plans to cool the London Underground were at risk with the funding cuts. Hendy wasn't sure, but said the challenge was more about trying to create a system that generated less heat in the first place. That was easier than getting warm air out. So the plans are for lighter trains like the new ones on the Victoria Line.


With Tube passengers numbers at a record high of four million journeys a day, I asked Hendy if he had a magic wand, what could he do about capacity and how he could make our Tube journeys more comfortable & pleasant.

He said "Firstly I would wish that Trade Unions would recognise they shouldn't continually threaten to go on strike". Hendy said that union leaders seem to think that as the Tube is publicly owned, that money will come from somewhere and demands will be caved into. "Don't get me wrong, the vast majority of staff are fantastic," he added, but he obviously felt that the bargaining tactics used by unions were influenced by the thought of a bottomless public vat of money.

"Secondly, work on improving the system has to be done and it has to be done now. There's no easy solution to increasing capacity. Sadly there isn't a magic wand. But we need to explain properly what work needs to be done.

"I think we're on our way to a pretty customer-friendly system. On most stations hopefully you'll notice that staff normally make eye contact with you. This didn't happen 10 years ago. I'm convinced we need visible people on and around the system, being seen and being helpful. Being stuck behind a screen doesn't do this.  (Another clue- as if more were needed - as to what he thinks of the unions' dispute over ticket office closures)

"Finally I'd wish that no new governing methods like PPP were invented. Hire the right management teams and leave them alone to do the work. We don't need arbiters and regulators as this slows things down. We just need people who know what they're doing."

I'd like to thank Peter Hendy for spending time with us and we hope to be able to chat to him again next year. Look out for IanVisits and LondonReconnections posts as they're sure to cover more of our conversation including Hendy's thoughts on mobile phone coverage on the Tube, how TfL works with National Rail in London and what he thinks about Boris Bikes.

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Tube Map 2100 - London on Sea

One alternative London Underground map I didn't want to see. Remember the kerfuffle when the Thames was taken off the Tube map last year. Well here's what the Thames could look like on the Tube map in 2100 if no action on climate change is taken. Just a four degree rise in temperature could raise sea levels dramatically.



Margaret Gardner, Director of Practical Action, the organisation who put the map together, said: "If no action is taken against the temperature and sea levels rise as predicted, large areas of London could be underwater by the end of the century – a frightening thought.  Not great news for our children or grandchildren.


"In London we have an insurance industry and the necessary capital to do something about increased flooding risk. We can build barriers and do whatever is necessary. But in Dhaka and other cities in the developing world, there isn’t the spare cash to just invest in infrastructure to help people to adapt to climate change. So the answer has to be to avoid climate change in the first place."

Certainly brings home the ominous lines from The Clash who sang:  "Cause London is drowning and I live by the river".

For more information and to sign up to Practical Action’s climate change campaign ‘Face Up to 4C’ please visit www.practicalaction.org/face-up.

Santas on the London Underground

Once again there's many Santas (or should that be Santae) having fun on the Tube in the annual London Santacon on Saturday. Where hoards of Santae zoom around central London and give parents nightmares trying to explain how "there's really only one true Santa Claus and the people taking pictures of each other on escalators, getting stared at by policemen and cramming themselves into phone boxes, are only pretend Santas"






Thanks to by the light divided for letting me use his great pictures from his Santacon set!

Many more London Santae on the Flickr stream for the event.

ASLEF vote for Boxing Day Strike

London Underground drivers have voted by 9-1 to go on strike on Boxing Day in a management disagreement over Boxing Day pay. London Underground claim 26th December is an normal working day and a longstanding agreement has been in place with trade unions over pay and drivers would get a day off in lieu or work reduced hours.


Photo by Tom Roper
Terry Wilkinson, the EC member for District 8 from the union said: "It used to be almost guaranteed that if you worked one bank holiday, you would not work the next. But the increase in service levels (and that Boxing Day is a Sunday this year) has meant this is now no longer possible."

The union is claiming triple pay and a day off in lieu for its members for working on December 26, saying LU is refusing to offer any extra pay.

ASLEF general secretary Keith Norman said: "It is painfully obvious to any reasonable person that Boxing Day is not an ordinary working day and therefore it is no surprise that Aslef members have reacted in the way they have."

The vote was 1,025 for strike action, with 127 against, a 9-1 majority in favour of taking action on Boxing Day.

As yet there's nothing on ASLEF's site to confirm when the strike action will actually take place and no statement from London Underground on the impact this will have on the Tube service.

Update from ASLEF's site: ASLEF members employed by London Underground Ltd will be withdrawing their labour for all turns commencing between 00:01 and 23:59 on Sunday 26 December 2010.

‘I am prepared to discuss this with the company but if they want a meeting they are going to have to have something to put on the table,’ says Keith Norman.

Update from London - 16th December - a statement was issued on their site "We have a long-standing agreement which all of trade unions are signed up to and which we have published today, which covers staff working arrangements on bank holidays, and Boxing Day is included in that agreement. To tear that agreement up and seek to disrupt the festive period for Londoners in this way is just cynical.

"We have made every effort to resolve this issue with the Aslef leadership, which has refused to attend talks at ACAS to discuss its claim for triple time and a day in lieu for its members."

Update - 22nd December 2010 - TfL emailed Oyster card holders with the following today:

Note "there is likely to be significant disruption to Tube services throughout Boxing Day".

Dog plays Mornington Crescent

Where do dogs go when they get lost on the Tube?



Samuel Powell spotted this neatly penned notice at Kentish Town London Underground station this morning.

Wonder if it was using the Rexley-Ruff rules to get there?

Update - Here's what happened to the dog. He was found by Rosy who said in the comments "My boyfriend and I were in fact holding the dog! We ended up taking him to work with us as Mornington Crescent station would have had to close its doors if it took on the responsibility of looking after a dog for a couple of hours due to staff shortages. We named the dog Frank, fed him sausages and gave him lots of attention! He was reunited with his rightful owner a few hours later. Frank had an eventful morning and everyone misses him at the office!"

What a lovely ending!