suspicious packages

Another dilemma day today - you will recall I recently had one involving our cat and his tormenting a mouse. Today it involved people and a package. We are exhorted to report suspicious packages to appropriate authorities. Today as we got on a tube train to travel from Islington to Edgware I sat down on a folding seat. Before doing so I asked the passenger sitting on the neighbouring folding seat if the carrier bag containing a box next to him was his. He shook his head and carried on reading. So there was I, sitting on a seat below which was a suspicious package. Que faire? as my French son-in-law might say. I said to my wife sitting in the next seat, "Shall I get off at the next station and go to the driver and tell him about the package?" (We were sitting in the front coach, and nowadays Tube traains do not have guards.) It would mean that our - and thousands of other people's journey would be delayed, for everyone would be evacuated, the line closed and the bomb squad called, no doubt. Would I be loved for it if they came and nothing dangerous was found? On the other hand if I did nothing and there was something dangerous and it went off...What would you have done? What in fact classifies as a 'suspicious' package?

A topic keeping the Times letter writers and columnists happy is Marriage. That is to say, in England the number of those who get married in church or registry office is falling. Co-habitation seems much easier and cheaper. I am not going to discuss its pros and cons now, but comment on those who say that one disadvantage of tying the knot at the altar is that married couples are worse off in the taxation system. That may be the case, but if plighting one's troth in a formal way, with a commitment for a lifelong union, is affected by one financial nuisance, then doing so suggests one has a shallow conception of marriage.
Now that could stir up a hornet's nest...!