Here we go again - BTP PCOs with nothing better to do. Like they could move on the smokers who stand right next to the numerous 'No Smoking' signs and who block the main entrance to the Station. But no - that would be real work. Every day I see the BTP PCOs walk past the smokers on the 'wrong' side of the road and simply ignore them.

So how do the BTP now occupy their time? Well as just experienced at Paddington this evening the latest time-wasting seems to be to harass bona-fide passengers in The Lawn area.

I had just missed the train to Reading, and the next one was the 21.43 to Didcot (aka Oxford). I had 30 minutes or more to kill - enough to do 15 mins of emails using NR's / FGW's new wifi service.

So there I was sitting in The Lawn area busy doing emails when these two BTP PCOs walked in. One of them walked straight up to me and asked me what I was doing. I explained. Then he said that "no, I couldn't sit there doing computing," and he accused me of loitering with intent!! Erm - intent to do what? He then said that I had to leave and he accused me of not being a bona-fide intending passenger. I offered to show him my ticket and he said that he didn't want to see it. But he was quite adamant that I was going to have to leave, and his attitude was unnecessarily aggressive and unpleasant.

I deem this to be harassment of the first order. Its on a par to railway enthusiasts being stopped from taking photographs of trains in stations.

So be warned. The Lawn area is no longer for bona-fi passengers waiting to trains. The seating is not to be used by those passengers. The free wifi is not to be used. Simply - as I found - if you sit there you will be accused of loitering and will be asked to leave - EVEN IF YOU HAVE A VALID TICKET.

Indeed this evening I got the impression that anyone and everyone using The Lawn area would also be asked to leave. Unacceptable. Jobsworth is the term I believe. See:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz44_Sp0K8A

CJB.