psmv5: Trolley 554

The first trolley of the new year, a small trolley from Waitrose, one of the ones they keep in a special stack by the exit, was captured in the Kokoro passage.

While at the front of the passage we had a Sainsbury's van delivering some online shopping through what I thought was the front door of the Kokoro outlet there - although, as BH points out, I may have missed a trick and the shopping was going in the door to the flat upstairs, supposing there to be one. Otherwise, unusual for a middle sized chain to get its inputs from a regular supermarket - although that might give a bit of occasionally useful flexibility when the corporate systems are creaking.

Gmaps shows an upstairs, so there could be a flat. There also looks to be some kind of an opening to the right of the Kokoro entrance, but can't tell what it might be for. There might just be a fence. Must take a closer look this morning.

Back home, I thought to make inquiries about the pay of railwaymen, for Google to light upon the helpful reference 2 from the BBC. From which I learn that train drivers are well paid on a median of £60,000 a year, while senior rail operatives are on £50,000 and junior rail operatives (excluding cleaners) £35,000. Roughly comparable to the old categories of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled. With this last being a bit of a misnomer: a building labourer might count as unskilled, but a good building labourer has all sorts of useful skills. With the railwaymen to be compared with nurses at a little over £30,000, senior care workers at £20,000 and junior care workers at the bottom of the heap with £15,000.

In the context of a short and accessible article, we are not told of the numbers involved, or the messy details of shift working, weekends and bank holidays. Never mind travelling time. Nevertheless, it does not look like a very equitable outcome and a supposedly sophisticated country like the UK ought to be able to do better. Although given the example set by those at the top of the heap, it is hard to tell the train drivers that they are being greedy.

It will be a loss if the Tories squeeze this sort of reporting out of the BBC on the grounds that it is neither relevant to their core mission nor profit making. With the underlying irritation that the BBC takes it upon itself to correct the careless utterances of ministers, in this case the Shapps already noticed at reference 3. We are short enough of respectable news outlets as it is.