PARKING: THE LUNATICS HAVE TAKEN OVER THE ASYLUM

This is what is clearly wrong with modern life. Check this unbelievable nonsense from the parking mavens at Hounslow. The District Line is suspended to Richmond at Turnham Green. My wife comes to pick me up. Thinking she can't stop at the zig zag line, she rolls forward to the single yellow line over which a taxi rank dotted line has been painted. I get in and zoom away. The whole operation, as captured and corroborated on CCTV, takes 13 seconds. For this we receive a £55 "parking" fine, generated automatically by the We Will Soak You Because We Feel Like It department. I have of course appealed. This amusing vignette sums up what has gone horribly wrong in London.... Public Transport which fails on a consistent basis (signalling problems between Richmond and Turnham Green 4 days out of the last week). It seems that such a technological challenge can't be overcome despite billions of investment. Not so the ever present CCTVs and algorithms which capture every waking moment, and in some cases (this one in particular) "enforce" indiscriminately. 13 seconds? Parking? Come on......