Why railway ticket offices are here to stay
Ross Clark for The Spectator
The government has made the "right decision" in U-turning on the closure of England's railway station ticket offices, partly because "the technology employed by rail companies seems to be increasingly defective", says Ross Clark in The Spectator. "Twice in recent months I have arrived at ticket barriers with a perfectly valid ticket only to find it refusing to let me through," says Clark. "To have stations which have ticket barriers but which are entirely unstaffed will deliver us into a dystopian world where we are at the mercy of faltering machines."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Times view on the Covid inquiry: Best Disinfectant
The Times editorial board
"Monday’s hearing of the Covid-19 inquiry cannot have been easy viewing for Boris Johnson," says The Times leader as the former PM has a "keen sense of history and his place in it". Unfortunately for Johnson, the evidence produced so far in the official investigation "suggests that a favourable write-up in future histories" of his performance during the pandemic "appears increasingly remote".
Labour calling for a ceasefire would achieve nothing. So why should it tear itself apart over this?
Polly Toynbee for The Guardian
For Keir Starmer, calling for a "ceasefire" in the Israel-Hamas war "would have been his easier option", says Polly Toynbee in The Guardian. But as someone who expects to be prime minister next year, "breaking ranks with all Britain's allies would be frivolous for the brief gain of posturing for something unachievable". Indeed, Toynbee says, "most Britons want the UK to take a mediator's neutrality" over the conflict.
The one where Chandler Bing's impenetrable job defined a generation
Emma Jacobs for the Financial Times
"The aspirations and frustrations of the white-collar worker have been depicted by great fictional characters in novels and on the screen," says Emma Jacobs in The Financial Times. But to that "pantheon of office drones must surely be added Friends’ sardonic Chandler Bing". Compared to the other characters, Chandler's office-worker profession "seemed void of purpose", yet he approached it with a "stoicism" that "more broadly reflects Gen X's tacit acceptance of their lot".
-
How will the new Repayment Assistance Plan for student loans work?the explainer The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) will replace existing income-driven repayment plans
-
In the Spotlight Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been at odds with US forces
-
Music reviews: Ethel Cain, Amaarae, and The Black KeysFeature "Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You," "Black Star," and "No Rain, No Flowers"
-
'That message may seem unimpeachable'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
'Enforcement of rulings remains spotty at best'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
'This is exactly what technology should be doing'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Jonathan Powell: who is the man behind Keir Starmer's foreign policy?Today's Big Question Prime minister's national security adviser is a 'world-class operator'
-
It is 'beyond time for us to seek bipartisan solutions' for AfghanistanInstant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
'We cannot rely on starving individuals to control their own refeeding'instant opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
'E-bikes have made our lives more complicated'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
The NCAA is a 'billion-dollar sports behemoth' that 'should not be a nonprofit'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
