On Thu, 08 May 2008 18:00:52 +0100 someone who may be Paul Corfield
wrote this:-

Alternatively next time this happens - as it surely will - you can pull
the cap off the brolley and fatally stab them with the poison tip and
then make good your escape ;-)

No need to pull off a cap, which might give the game away. The
poisoned ball is fired through the end of the umbrella by compressed
air.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

On Thu, 8 May 2008, Ian Jelf wrote:

As I was leaving, I was stopped by two PCSOs and asked what my business
there was. Surprised at being asked, I was staggered when they said
that their grounds for suspicion was that I was carrying.......an
umbrella!

Well, the events in Stockwell did establish that the police are quite
touchy when it comes to unseasonable gear.

Perhaps you should equip yourself with a parasol instead?

Now it's a bit of a trademark of the walking tours I do that I always
have a brolly. Sometimes in crowded places or with biggish groups it
can be a good marker and it's become a bit of a "prop" I suppose.

I was in Madrid with some friends at the weekend. One of them took hold of
the guidebook and proceeded to lead us on a tour round the city, whether
we liked it or not. He was quickly dubbed 'umbrella man'.

An interesting footnote to this is that later on while waiting to meet
the group in front of Mornington Crescent tube, one Ken Livingstone
emerged and turned off towards Camden High Street and the statue of
Richard Cobden!

Ah, maybe it was him they were after?

tom

--
Got a revolution behind my eyes - We got to get up and organise

On Thu, 8 May 2008 18:28:10 +0100 someone who may be Tom Anderson
wrote this:-

Well, the events in Stockwell did establish that the police are quite
touchy when it comes to unseasonable gear.

Except that the man murdered by the police at Stockwell was not
wearing anything unseasonable, despite various false claims
afterwards that he was.



--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

On Thu, 8 May 2008, David Hansen wrote:

On Thu, 8 May 2008 18:28:10 +0100 someone who may be Tom Anderson
wrote this:-

Well, the events in Stockwell did establish that the police are quite
touchy when it comes to unseasonable gear.

Except that the man murdered by the police at Stockwell was not wearing
anything unseasonable, despite various false claims afterwards that he
was.

Curses!

I was just reading up on the Stockwell thing. He wasn't running from the
police either, was he? It really was a completely shocking business. And
yet there are still people who want to give the police *more* powers.

This is a bit like the people who think the solution to the credit crunch
is to give the banks more money and ease the regulations. I despair.

tom


--
For the first few years I ate lunch with he mathematicians. I soon found
that they were more interested in fun and games than in serious work,
so I shifted to eating with the physics table. There I stayed for a
number of years until the Nobel Prize, promotions, and offers from
other companies, removed most of the interesting people. So I shifted
to the corresponding chemistry table where I had a friend. At first I
asked what were the important problems in chemistry, then what important
problems they were working on, or problems that might lead to important
results. One day I asked, "if what they were working on was not important,
and was not likely to lead to important things, they why were they working
on them?" After that I had to eat with the engineers! -- R. W. Hamming

On Fri, 9 May 2008 00:25:42 +0100 someone who may be Tom Anderson
wrote this:-

I was just reading up on the Stockwell thing. He wasn't running from the
police either, was he?

Correct. The murder victim did hear a train and, like many other
people, hurry/run part of the way and then sit in the train. However
he was almost certainly never aware that the thugs who first made a
lot of noise and then burst into the coach in a threatening manner
were police officers, so it was impossible for him to run away from
the police.

It really was a completely shocking business. And
yet there are still people who want to give the police *more* powers.

Indeed.

The report by the "Independent" Police Complaints Commission may be
downloaded from
http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/index/resources/evidence_reports/investigation_reports/ipcc_resources_stockwellone.htm.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

Ian Jelf wrote:
Further to recent discussions about people taking an interest in buses,
trains, etc. getting "hassle" from the authorities, yesterday evening I
had an interesting, non-transport-related variant which I hope will
nonetheless be of interest to people on utl and ur.

I was getting ready for a guided walk for a private group around St.
Pancras and Camden, starting at Mornington Crescent tube. Whenever I
get the chance, I always walk the route shortly before actually "doing"
the tour, just to make sure nothing untoward has "developed" since my
last visit, refresh my memory and so on.

Now one of the places I go to is the former burial ground of Saint
Martin-in-the-Fields which is perversely just South of Camden Town tube,
between Camden Street and Baynham Street. The burial ground has long
since been converted to a (rather charming and well-used) local park and
was pretty busy when I walked through at about 4.30pm. As I was
leaving, I was stopped by two PCSOs and asked what my business there
was. Surprised at being asked, I was staggered when they said that
their grounds for suspicion was that I was carrying.......an umbrella!

You should have answered in Bulgarian :-)

During my brief career shepherding foreign students I went in for bright
bow ties, so stragglers could ask people where the person in the silly
tie was.

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

On 8 May, 16:52, Ian Jelf wrote:

One other rather baffling remark
from the female PCSO when I expressed surprise about this was that " a
lot of children use this park". Evidently carrying an umbrella in warm
weather and being in possession of a London Tourist Board Blue Badge
must be a sure sign of paedophilia.

"Think of the children"

It's the great unanswerable. Well, one of them, alongside "health and
safety".

Ian

"The Real Doctor" wrote in message
...
On 8 May, 16:52, Ian Jelf wrote:

One other rather baffling remark
from the female PCSO when I expressed surprise about this was that " a
lot of children use this park". Evidently carrying an umbrella in warm
weather and being in possession of a London Tourist Board Blue Badge
must be a sure sign of paedophilia.

"Think of the children"

It's the great unanswerable. Well, one of them, alongside "health and
safety".

Ian


Wasn't there a suspicious man with an open umbrella when JFK was
assassinated? C'mon own up!

Paul

On Thu, 8 May 2008, The Real Doctor wrote:

On 8 May, 16:52, Ian Jelf wrote:

One other rather baffling remark from the female PCSO when I expressed
surprise about this was that " a lot of children use this park".
Evidently carrying an umbrella in warm weather and being in possession
of a London Tourist Board Blue Badge must be a sure sign of
paedophilia.

"Think of the children"

It's the great unanswerable.

It's easily answerable - "what has this got to do with road safety?".
Traffic accidents kill and harm orders of magnitude more children than
paedophiles or other easy targets. And yet strangely, almost nobody seems
inclined to do anything about them.

tom

--
For the first few years I ate lunch with he mathematicians. I soon found
that they were more interested in fun and games than in serious work,
so I shifted to eating with the physics table. There I stayed for a
number of years until the Nobel Prize, promotions, and offers from
other companies, removed most of the interesting people. So I shifted
to the corresponding chemistry table where I had a friend. At first I
asked what were the important problems in chemistry, then what important
problems they were working on, or problems that might lead to important
results. One day I asked, "if what they were working on was not important,
and was not likely to lead to important things, they why were they working
on them?" After that I had to eat with the engineers! -- R. W. Hamming

Tom Anderson wrote:
Traffic accidents kill and harm orders of magnitude more children than
paedophiles or other easy targets. And yet strangely, almost nobody
seems inclined to do anything about them.

Oh they are. The general policy is to teach children to be petrified
of motor vehicles and parents to keep them inside them at all costs.

Should anyone wish, despite this, to cycle, it is made clear to them
that they are being suicidally reckless and are unlikely to survive
long - especially if they fail to wear a plastic hat which is rather
less strong than their skull.

The idea that perhaps the source of the danger should be tackled is
still too radical for those with the power to do it.

Colin McKenzie

--
No-one has ever proved that cycle helmets make cycling any safer at
the population level, and anyway cycling is about as safe per mile as
walking.
Make an informed choice - visit www.cyclehelmets.org.