Michael Palin on refugees, Bob Dylan on arms dealers

[Martin Cassini]

A remark in today's Observer about asylum seekers is equally relevant to the alienation caused by traffic controls. "As individuals we are not hostile to each other," says Palin, "but systems get in the way." Too right. But systems are devised by individuals. Those in power have been made aware of the defects in the traffic control system (which helps kill or injure 30,000 people on our roads every year). Yet they continue to enforce it. "By threatening my baby, unborn and unnamed, you ain't worth the blood that runs in your veins." That's Bob Dylan on arms manufacturers. Seems equally relevant to traffic managers.