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People driven to despair by the cost-of-living crisis are being advised to find ways of topping themselves that don’t involve a high-speed locomotive.


With trains stuck in depots and platforms silent, Britain’s potential suicides could face a long and weary wait in sweltering temperatures before cashing in their chips in front of the 6.57 service from Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour, ministers have warned.


Meanwhile, gas ovens, high bridges, and faulty electrical work are all being touted by officials as more reliable means of leaving your worries behind and moving on to a higher plane of existence.


A spokesman from the Department for Transport, allegedly being run by someone using the name Grant Shapps, said, 'The British are innovative people. We have absolute trust in the mortally depressed to do the right thing after writing a considerate note to their nearest and dearest about why they couldn’t carry on.


'The traditional method seems to be pills, but my sources inform me the motorways are open as usual and, if anything, they’re actually busier than normal.


'How does rush hour Friday sound?'


'This isn’t a cry for help because I know I won’t get any,' insisted suicide contender, Frank Jeffers. 'I’m just hoping for a better world, one in which I’m reunited with the relatives I’ve lost to this government’s incompetence and where my gas bills are taken care of by a benign being of light.'


He added, 'Like Mick Lynch in a long flowing robe.'



First published 28 Jun 2022


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The phrase 'carriages at midnight' on the bottom of a wedding invitation does actually mean you should order your own cab at the end of the evening's festivities, it has been confirmed.


The news ends intense speculation from recipients of wedding invites everywhere that they might be welcomed by a fleet of lavish, 19th century horse-drawn transportation with gold-leaf trimmings, welcomed by an army of fawning footmen, at the end of the wedding reception at a provincial hotel, to take them back to their Premier Inn lodgings in the nearest town centre. 


'Yeh, sorry about that, no Cinderella-style carriages, but you can use the phone in the Mercure reception area, which connects you directly to Arrow cabs, who are both reliable, and very competitively priced', said Mark McBride, one groom-to-be, in response to numerous queries.  'Maybe we should have put that instead on the invitation, to be fair'. 


'And while you're here, 'Dress Code: Fully Fabulous' means wear a dress, or a suit and tie, no wacky shite, please', continued McBride. 'And I hope 'the bar is open but your wallet is too' is clear enough for everyone to decipher.'. 


'Oh, and for the avoidance of doubt, 'Your presence is our present, however if you would like to follow tradition...' does actually means 'definitely buy us an expensive gift, or even better a cash transfer into our bank (account details below)' confirmed McBride.  'Do you know how much this bloody wedding is setting us back!'. 


Dear happy commuters and supersaver ticket holders,


We in the Labour government are thrilled to unveil the exciting new name for Britain's renationalised train company. We'll be calling it Gordon Bennett Railways, because this mild expletive is what you're most likely to be muttering while on board, as in:


'Gordon Bennett, this train's fuller than a can of sardines.'


'Gordon Bennett, we've been waiting in this cutting outside Crewe for a sodding age.'


And: 'Gordon Bennett, the points have failed at Clapham Junction, and I'm going to be 20 minutes late for work again.'


We could have spent some taxpayers' money sorting out the problems at Crewe and Clapham Junction, but we blew it all on hiring an overpriced branding agency to come up with a new livery design for the locomotives.


They'll now be a lurid mess of red, white, blue and hi-viz yellow - flecked with dead leaves, graffiti and rust - which will have you exclaiming on the platform: 'Gordon Bennett, what a sodding eyesore.'


All aboard! Or, all a-bored! Which you will be, after waiting three hours for a train at Carlisle.



Image credit: stablediffusion.com

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