Some nasty stuff this morning.
Bank station, the heart of the City, was closed by a fire alert less than an hour after the start of the latest firefighters strike (and shortly before I was to go through it). When I finally passed by on foot there were a couple of Army Green Goddesses parked outside an entrance to the station. A few squaddies were hanging around, with the relaxed looks of people who know they're about to be stood down without having had to do anything – so I guess it was nothing serious in the end.
Bit of an electoral disaster up in Blackburn – the BNP have won a seat at a by-election caused by a Lib Dem resignation. It turned into a three-way dance with Labour, and the BNP scraped in by 16. What a nightmare.