Standard's dropping

Spare a thought for Murphy Construction which is carrying out repair work on Westminster Bridge where regular traffic jams build up right outside the Houses of Parliament.

Just like the adjacent Jubilee Project, nosy MPs are always trying to find out what the 'lazy' builders are up to. And now the Evening Standard has jumped on-board, publishing a diary of two days on the bridge including entries such as '9am: Eight men on site - two drilling, one in crane, rest standing about.'

Accompanying this is a cartoon of a builder fishing over the bridge and pictures of two men 'talking' on site 'but no shovel in sight'. If you read the second page of the feature you find that Murphy has actually cut 16 weeks off the council programme and the contractor points out that because it is a bridge structure the work is going on below. Still, who could we blame for the delays then? Not the MPs who drive across the bridge every day, surely?