Tannoy Spam: See it, Say it, Shut it!

There have been several times when standing quietly on the platform listening to the birds or the wind whisper through the tall trees when I have been jolted out of my ecstasy by some annoying hi-pitched voice coming across the tannoy telling me how to behave.

'Remember' it tells me, 'not to step in front of the train when it arrives.' 

'Remember' it continues, 'to stand up when entering the train.'

'Remember to press the button when opening the train door.'

'Remember to breathe... remember to open your eyes when you walk... remember to... be... alive...' or words to that effect. It's like the ten commandments for 21st century man, who is of course the stupefied infant whose development has been arrested by his buying into the overlaying of disembodying technologies.

'That's why I'm calling for a bonfire of the banalities, said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps regarding 'an endless torrent of repeated and unnecessary announcements'.

Dum spiro spero.

Pollokshaws West train station at the eastern edge of Pollok Country park has a wonderful array of trees and birdsong which is routinely drowned out by unnecessary tannoy announcements when there is no-one but me standing there.

Paisley Canal train station is its own tiny eco-system what with its regular residents of squirrels, jackdaws, magpies, and wood pigeons. Again, this natural quietness is regularly interrupted unecessarily with all too loud announcements, designed, presumably by the sounds of them, for and by infants.