Andrew Davis's blog

When I first found myself in Wapping London Underground Station around forty years ago it was dark and dank. It even had water running down its walls. The train serving the station was so old a member of the station staff had to kick more than one door to make them close. If the doors didn’t close the train wouldn’t move. And it took awhile to get moving.

You can be sure of Shell – an alliteration that in the confident days after the war underpinned the sense of progress into tomorrow’s world.

Shell – the Anglo-Dutch member of the ‘oily seven sisters’ presented itself as a symbol of modernity and with Shell at our side we could happily drive into a bright future.

With the coalition government looking everywhere for places to reduce spending, the forty-year-old bus grant is being considered for a cut. The national government spends about £450m a year on a fuel duty rebate for bus companies. This provides support for one of the most important modes of travel.

There has been quite a concern about foreigners and their contribution to cross-border crime. So I was not surprised to hear the police had a special campaign to fight it called Operation Shield.

Talking about gated communities in my last blog it reminded me of the problem facing the Royal Mail – not only in getting into gated communities but delivering to remote locations through difficult and sometimes non-existent letter boxes.

When Roland Hill introduced the world’s first universal postal service in 1837 it was revolutionary.

The tragic deaths of those girls who, in two separate incidents, were trapped by electric gates caused an outcry about the regulation of the industry. Naturally this should be addressed.