"Execution machines" - well that's what they look like to me. Hi-tech guillotines. They could have been designed to scare people, make them feel like they are in between the cogs of a machine, like Chaplin in City Lights.

Cities can be pretty good, and they can be pretty bad. I'm a Londoner, born there, grew up there, worked there for years. At times I miss living there still, and I get up to town often enough.

And I think the key to not getting ground down in the rush and the crowds of a big city is to resist giving in to the temptation to get all tense and hostile. In the words Rabbi Lionel Blue often says in his radio chats "Don't take it so heavy."   And I think that's something city dwellers have managed to do for the most part over the ages, and its been reflected in the humour of cities.

But the thing about those pictures was the way it suggested that, for a lot of people, that may be breaking down. I hope it's not true, and that that collection of pictures is essentially an artefact.

And the best of luck to all the Mudcatters who are living in big cities, and not allowing themselves to get ground down, or to grind down other people, by looking all suspicious and hostile in their direction.