Month: June 2020

Law

Trading Standards

Since the 10th century there have been laws on weights and measures to minimise differences from one town to another in, for […]

Since the 10th century there have been laws on weights and measures to minimise differences from one town to another in, for instance, the quality and width of woollen cloth, the size of an acre or a measure of ale. Today, a Trading Standards Officer (TSO) covers various aspects of commerce and ‘weights and measures’ is but one of many issues, from animal welfare to product labelling.

Although the numerous business and consumer protection laws are national, Trading Standards departments are operated by local County, City or Borough Councils. The downside of this is that the levels of monitoring, guidance and prosecution are dependent upon those councils’ budgets. However, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute provides UK-wide advice services, accreditation for businesses and training for TSOs.

Over 3 million British subjects, mainly the elderly, fall victim to scammers each year, making liaison with banks and support services a significant part of a TSO’s work. Cheats also endanger the lives of children through, for example, the sale of sub-standard toys at Christmas, or introducing them to cheap counterfeit cigarettes. The TSOs are in some ways the unsung heroes of the economy, working in the background to ensure fairness and safety in the marketplace.

(Image: Gerald England at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

03/06/2020
3 min
4 years
210 words

Inventions

The London Underground

The London Underground, or ‘the Tube’, was the world’s first subterranean railway network and without it and its 270 stations, London would […]

The London Underground, or ‘the Tube’, was the world’s first subterranean railway network and without it and its 270 stations, London would be engulfed by cars and extra roads. Of its 253 miles, 45% are below ground, as much as 221ft. down. During WW2, Tube stations doubled up as air raid shelters and even housed makeshift factories for the manufacture of aircraft components.

It opened in 1863 with the Metropolitan line. The trains were steam-powered and had three classes of carriage. In 1890 the first electric railway was introduced as more lines were added. In 1900 the Central line was the first to lie entirely underground. The whole system was unified in the early 1900s and the flat rate fare was launched. The Art Deco design of stations and signs became the corporate style and journey time was cut by installing a driver’s cab at each end of the train.

Inevitably, tunnel construction disturbed cemeteries and goodness-knows-what-else from centuries past. This, along with disused stations and the many suicides committed on Tube tracks, has led to numerous accounts of ghostly sightings and strange noises! These generally occur when the almost 4 million passengers per day have left and the Tube is shut, 12am-5am, for maintenance and cleaning.

(Top image: Rossographer at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

01/06/2020
3 min
4 years
212 words

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Quoting Neil Oliver...

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