The First TransPennine Express rail company has announced a new money-saving measure: trains will now keep their doors open at stations for only 30 seconds, reducing the amount of energy - and therefore cash - required to keep the company's carriages temperate. Barely an eyelid has been batted in response to this important financial decision. Presumably customers are saving their own energy for the high-speed sprint on to the 7.45 on Monday morning.
More likely they've just become inured to this catch-all economic scapegoating. Along with job losses, rising bank charges and increasing numbers of abandoned dogs, the credit crunch is also being touted as the reason behind soaring sales of baked beans (supermarkets have been castigated for piling promotions on to unhealthy foods in response to the financial downturn). And you can guess how Nokia has explained its failing fortunes (nothing to do with the success of, say, BlackBerries or iPhones).
These lazy explanations for business decisions are often nothing more serious than corporate bad manners, but we hapless consumers should try to be a bit less credulous. After all, some people really have suffered: bear in mind the cautionary tale of Woman E, whom News of the World readers can attest did a sterling job of filming Max Mosley's private activities, a task for which she was promised £25,000 but never paid. The editor's defence? "We are in a credit crunch." Of course.
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