The belching towers

Anyone who's travelled the 'Great Western Railway' line to or from London will recognize this landmark, the cooling towers of Didcot power station. They might actually be said to warrant that cliché 'iconic'. There's hardly any high ground in the county from which you cannot see them and from the train they're in your face.

Originally coal-fired (but only partially now) the power station has given work to many, been the scene of pickets during the miners' strike in 70s and 80s, and in 2006 ago the towers themselves were scaled by Greenpeace protestors who scribed an enormous slogan BLAIR'S LEGACY on the main 650ft chimney (left). You can see a clip of Blair responding 0h-s0-reasonably (and patronisingly) to a question posed to him by an activist from the rim of one of the towers. The power station is claimed to be one of the most polluting in the UK, and these towers, although exuding not smoke but steam, also release a massive amount of heat. They won't be here much longer: they're now slated to be demolished in 2013, after 43 years of photogenic belching.

I was myself travelling the line en route to London on another mercy errand to the Old Man who had a bit of a panic at the weekend but seems pretty much his normal self now.

Apologies for having limited time to comment or to respond at present.