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A prominent sub headline in today's Sunday Times p.18:

The death of serial rapist Malcolm Fairley, who built 'dens' in his victims' homes to lay in wait for them, may finally bring peace to...'

The lie/lay battle is gradually being lost.
Oh, the enormity of it, chrise! (cf previous post).

Kate Forbes, SNP and Deputy First Minister for Scotland, says on BBC Breakfast that her party's tax policies have 'mitigated againstsome of the worst of austerity'.

I don't think 'against' should follow 'mitigated'. People sometimes confuse it with 'militate against' which means something different. 'Mitigate' simply means to soften the effect of...

I quote her words from the BBC News app. I assume it's not faulty subediting.

Paul

I agree. There has been plenty of poor English in this campaign.

Grunger
Sorry for the delay in answering your question, but I have been away.
The return journey was indeed more pleasant, but there was one curious incident.

After an hour, I fancied a drink and the “train manager” told me that the “shop” was in the next carriage. I went along, and as I stood at the counter, a member of staff rose from her seat, turned through 90 degrees and shuffled a couple of paces, so as to stand between the counter and the coffee-machine, but with her back to me.

I was surprised, and I must admit that I did not know the etiquette of the situation. Should I beat a retreat, cough or say something?

After a few seconds of silence, she said, without turning, “Yes?”

“A white coffee please,” I spluttered.

As she was facing the machine, she soon produced this and then took two steps to her left, turned through 180 degrees, two steps to the left and plonked the cup on the counter.

“Three pounds”.

There was no further conversation and as I considered the incident, I realised that there was no room between the counter and the machine in which she could turn. Of course, if she had moved into place to face me to take my order, she would have needed to retreat, turn and advance again, in order to face the machine. Experience had told her that it was more efficient to face the machine rather than the customer. Has anybody else had similar encounters?

Jigjag,
Your recent experience with limited space for serving staff in the restaurant car is due to the early adoption of the 4ft 8 1/2 inch railway gauge - the Stephenson Gauge - adopted in 1845.
If only we had stuck with Brunel’s 7 ft 1/4 inch gauge, used on the Great Western Railway between 1835 and 1838 - think of the extra space we might have had!

Yes, four foot eight and a half inch railway gauge. I have just checked my suspicion about its connection with Roman chariot wheels. I trust this link despite the lts/it's error in the headline.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/roman-chariots-influencing-train-tracks-how-history-karthik-nagesan

Paul

Thanks for that. Interesting to read about the connection with chariots. I loved that the space shuttle's design had to fit in with railway tracks!

Simple simon

I used to travel on the GWR. Loved the Castles, Halls etc. Pity that Stephenson did not foresee the problems of modern train travel. Clearly Brunel did, but I suppose he had to fit in with others.

jigjag

I loved your train story. I imagine the lady was, er..., not exactly petite. I suppose she must have got stuck between the counter and the coffee-machine on a previous occasion, so has adopted the back-to-front customer service position to reduce the chances of it happening again.

I hope the coffee was worth £3, but I doubt it. I recently paid £1.59 on a North Wales train and it was excellent.

I was going to ignore the female cricket commentator saying "honing in" when she meant "homing in", but now Atherton has said it....