[…] on seats beneath the trees, the old men group of an evening to drink their ale and gossip over village politics;

‘There are twenty-five of us, but they don’t reckon I’m worth anything. I’m just a cog in the machine.’

It seems the weapon of choice in Rostock and other wonderful displays of harmony with fellow humans (NOT) was the Mollie (Molotov cocktail).

That's far from the promised land set out in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, that the railways would have a guiding mind that would be in control of the industry's finances. Businesses have what is called a profit and loss account, showing both revenue and costs, but the current situation means that the two sides of the system are in different hands - and neither is (as yet) in the hands of a 'guiding mind'.