I honestly think, the best thing about this weeks Strictly is if the rumours are true that we're going to tie Eurovision voting to a BBC account - it looks like it's going to be a significently better vote than in previous years of Israel/Lithuania domination regardless of the songs...

There's a strong argument for this - this would also allow time for a proper debate in the general assembly about this matter without getting in the way of the EBU's normal work

Yep - but the reality is that West Oxon has had so much house building with so little transport infrastructure. We still don't have a safe walking route between Carterton and Witney! As for rail I think even if it did happen your looking a decade for implementation..

I moved to West Oxon in 2008 and we're selling and moving closer to the city because of the state of the A40 and the utter abandonment of quick routes from West Oxon and refusal to support rail. It's denial at its finest to pretend otherwise about Oxon and Oxford traffic.

The absolutely batshit, totally expensive, over the top solution to build another New Street Station in Birmingham underneath New Street Station - would have been utterly revolutionary in terms of capacity for the entire region and we'd be in such a good position now if we'd actually done this!

Interestingly I've seen more 5 or even the occasional 8/9 on this service over the past month, but it's still a rare treat from what I can see...

and this is why i call these people cock police, because that's basically where this is heading in some peoples minds

Hate to be negative this close to Christmas; but Crosscountry has gone from:

Start of this year: buy first class or have an awful journey

End of this year: terrible regardless. Heading to the midlands at the weekend I wasn't in a rush so I did S5 to Bicester North train from there. So much easier