- he decides that he can take the train after all, maybe copying the
Deputy PM and using a less obtrusive black or brown box

It is of course not the colour of the box but the papers being read -
and the risk of other travellers reading the papers which are being
dealt with if they are classified. Civil servants face the same problem
with working on trains etc.

Oddly the GBP seem never to have similar problems with the vast numbers
of private sector directors, local authority chief officials, NHS chief
executives etc who have cars and drivers available for home-to-work
travel. By comparison very few Ministers and top civil servants get
such perks and IME they work much longer hours. I do not hold Ministers
as a class in very high regard (and as a grumpy old man consider they
are on average worse than previous generations) but the one thing most
do still put in are the hours, especially when you combinetheir work as
Minister and as constituency MP.

--
Robin
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