Driving through Llandovery this morning I was struck by a sharp contrast. Just past the supermarket was a huddle of cold postmen and women, picketing outside the sorting office, trying to preserve their jobs, get few more quid, have better working conditions and whatever else. I expect they would rather be inside working, or off in their vans fending off sheepdogs and wading through mud.
A few hundred yards further on I met a queue of traffic at the level crossing. Normally the wait is about 30 seconds as the single carriage train passes through. This time the wait was longer. Then I realised it was the 'Royal Train', eight or more carriages long (I couldn't tell exactly as it seemed to stretch the entire length of Llandovery).
How bizarre, why on earth is this enormous train needed to transport one man, Prince Charles. The massed police presence, complete with helicopter, enures a continuing royal carbon footprint roughly the size of Wales. It rather cancels out the noble efforts of the 'organic' mattress factory he went to visit. Not that Prince Charles really worries about all that or why would he be planning to concrete over several acres of Bath countryside to add to the Duchy property portfolio which pays his ever growing handsome wage?
Aside from green issues, the sight of this train was completely incongruous with the realities of life in a small welsh town in the 21st century, with it's picketing postmen and it's secondary school about to close. Oh, we do have a brand new police station though - I wonder why?!
My thought for the day?...get rid of the Royal family and all it's nonsense and give the postmen what they want. There are some 'traditions' we really don't need.
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