Waste?

To my cynical view of things, NHS England was set up so that government could insulate itself from the responsibility for the consequences of choking off NHS funding and transferring as much health care as possible to private businesses. I should rejoice at its demise. I might, if I was convinced that the current government recognised that the profit motive is a poor basis for critical social infrastucture. As a customer of Thames Water, I think the argument is settled. The Minister of Health, I fear, does not agree. Ironically, he now sees NHS England as an impediment to getting his way, so he characterises it as wasteful duplication of effort, that must be excised

I'm astonished to find that this bit of public infrastructure has been in place for almost two years and never caught my attention before. It is a bicycle repair station. The plunger on the right is a bike pump. The cupboard on the left holds a range of bicycle-specific tools on cables, so that no-one walks off with them. I think the two 'handles' at the top are for supporting a bike somehow, while it is worked on. Somehow, at the height of post-Covid austerity, the town council persuaded the district council to fund its purchase and installation

I can't imagine deliberately bringing a bike here to work on it, with a busy car park entrance in front and a busy pavement behind. In an emergency, would a cyclist know it is here and find it? Is it meeting a strong demand in a time of limited budgets? Is it a key enabler of behavioural change? Or is it a solution in search of a problem? Or a (woke?) tick in a box?

I planned for my blip to be the same view as yesterday, with the occluded moon setting behind the trees on the horizon. Cloud and fog; it was not to be. Skies were clearer further south, and there are some photographs. I had to content myself with lovely cloud-patterns when it rose again this evening