At last Gordon Brown decided to throw in the towel and resign.
His cabinet colleagues decided it would be a worthy gesture to name a railway locomotive after him. So a senior 'Sir Humphrey' went from Whitehall to the National Railway Museum at York, to investigate the possibilities.
"They have a number of locomotives at the NRM without names," a specially-sought consultant told the top civil servant. "Mostly freight locomotives though."
"Oh dear, that's not very fitting for a prime minister," said Sir Humphrey. "How about that big green one, over there?" he said, pointing to 4472.
"That's already got a name" said the consultant. "It's called 'Flying Scotsman'."
"Oh. Couldn't it be renamed?" asked Sir Humphrey. "This is a national museum after all, funded by the taxpayer."
"I suppose it might be considered," said the consultant. "After all the LNER renamed a number of their locomotives after directors of the company, and even renamed one of them Dwight D. Eisenhower."
"That's excellent", said Sir Humphrey, "So that's settled then, let's look at renaming 4472. But how much will it cost? We can't spend too much, given the expenses scandal!"
Well, said the consultant, "We could always just paint out the 'F'."
6 comments:
Ho ho...
However, if they can't get that particular loco, they could always try the one in the other corner and rename it "Gold.. ..Row". Might cost a penny or two more on the paint job, but would also serve as a historical cock up reminder.
Reevers, I bow to your superior knowledge of the place; and regret that I've never been there...
Agree about a lasting memorial to a serial waster!
I hope Elecs will have something to say as he knows more about trains than I ever will!
Argh! I read the first line, got so excited and flew over to BBC homepage, saw nothing, Googled and then interrupted 'Tiny Pops' to a wail of protest to check BBC News 24. Then I popped back and read the joke :-)
Yes long after the Scotsman had served it's purpose it had international effect and ended up bankrupting people. Good comparison, although the engine is more attractive to me.
What a great gag !
This particular PM has taken us all 'bang road up the goods' which is true railway parlance, I assure you.
Wrong direction up the goods line - an expression of disatisfaction among drivers over management decisions.
"My application for leave has been declined and Joe Bloggs got his approved - I've been taken bang road up the goods again !"
Yer right Pips, all the time he is stealing dosh from us, he's racking up a huge pension pot, and a list of people from whom he'll pick up favours when he's kicked out.
That bloody man is an utter disgrace, and his shedful of cronies all deserve to be kicked out as well.
In all my few years, I don't think I've ever felt such anger at such a squalid bunch of failures which we pay to 'govern'.
Thank goodness you arrived early Elecs, bcause I would tremble in my boots if I ever thought I'd know what I was talking about in your business...
But see response to Pips above for my true feelings at the moment.
BTW, have you any idea why I can't load a copy of 'Rail Simulator'? It needs a PC a bit like Cape Canaveral apparently...
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