Expect some odd scenes at Canary Wharf today, where two theatre troupes are arranging a “joy prank” - their description. At 1pm sharp, performers at the exit to Canary Wharf station will begin to skip. Some with ropes, some without, some moving, some still. They will have spare skipping ropes and hope that Wharf workers will join in. “You advertising something?” I ask the Rada-educated Deirdre Gaffney, 25, of Blooming Parentheses Productions, one of the organisers. “It's not advertising for anything but itself.” Is it like those Flashmob events, where crowds agree to congregate? No. Is it art? Sort of, but nothing as pretentious as performance art. “It's not like we're trying to send some message about the pace of life in London. We're just trying to make City boys smile.” Why skipping? “Because everyone can do it. It's a really silly movement. Some people think they can't dance. But everyone can skip.”

Chance to let off steam over railways

Network Rail - whose chairman, Sir Ian McAllister, has yet to hand back the knighthood awarded while the railways were in chaos, although he doesn't seem to use it much these days - is seeking 26 public-minded souls to be the railway infrastructure group's public members. There are usually about 100 of these, and some are now seeing their three-year term of office coming to a close. I am told that they are drawn from all walks of life. They serve the same function as shareholders and, therefore, get to vote on directors' pay. There must be sufficient furious commuters out there to form the nucleus of a boardroom pressure group ...

I read in the daily briefing by Mark Brumby, of Blue Oar, that a committee of MPs has voted by eight votes to six in favour of the creation of so-called Alcohol Disorder Zones. No, you did not misread that. And it is a task that this Government would seem to have managed to complete quite effectively already around my neck of the woods, most nights beyond 10pm and at especially at weekends.

Network Rail - whose chairman, Sir Ian McAllister, has yet to hand back the knighthood awarded while the railways were in chaos, although he doesn't seem to use it much these days - is seeking 26 public-minded souls to be the railway infrastructure group's public members. There are usually about 100 of these, and some are now seeing their three-year term of office coming to a close. I am told that they are drawn from all walks of life. They serve the same function as shareholders and, therefore, get to vote on directors' pay. There must be sufficient furious commuters out there to form the nucleus of a boardroom pressure group ...

Heart-stopping headline of the day, from Reuters: “Freddie Mac says as of March 31 it has remediated all of previously identified material weaknesses and two of its previously identified significant deficiences.” It really is a different language, isn't it?

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