The events of the last few weeks could not have been more different. For this latest spate of breast beating has taken place almost entirely without reference to the black communities. Splashed across tabloids and broadsheets alike, clogging up airwaves and dominating our television screens, politicians and pundits have delved into the subject with all the subtlety and zeal of teenagers discovering sex.

The tube is in trouble. Not just this morning but every morning. The capital's most vital artery is both clogged by passengers and starved of the oxygen of investment. "The most important thing about the evolution of the subway as a symbol," writes Michael Brooks in Subway City, "is that it starts by expressing faith in the city's future and, once built, quickly becomes a handy rhetorical tool for expressing discontent with its present."

Bush didn't win the election, he won a court case. But, with the slenderest of endorsements, he promises to inflict severe damage. In Congress, many Republicans are beginning to think he is beyond the pale. Even Uncle Sam's faithful poodle, the British government, is yapping at his heels. Some in the cabinet are calling on Tony Blair to put the special relationship "into deep freeze". John Prescott flies to New York today to try to persuade Bush to change his mind about scrapping the Kyoto agreement on controlling greenhouse gases.