Labour’s rail nationalisation dream faces a looming taxpayer crisis
Britain's railways are creaking at the seams. The rail regulator ruled last year that a 7am Avanti service from Manchester to London should run empty to guarantee the train's availability in the capital and ease overcrowding.
It led to the bizarre scene of a 600-seat "ghost train" departing the platform of Manchester Piccadilly with a full complement of staff – while hundreds of stranded passengers looked on in despair.
Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, last month hailed the state-backed takeover of Govia Thameslink, Britain's largest train operator, as a "defining moment" for the nation's railways.
The takeover forms part of Sir Keir Starmer's flagship transport policy to nationalise the railways, slowly taking back franchises from private companies one by one...
With politicians of all stripes, including the possible future prime minister, Andy Burnham, hailing greater public ownership of key industries, the battle to fix the railways is set to become a litmus test for state control.
That risks quashing a wider nationalisation drive that, under a new Labour leader, might extend to water firms, energy supply networks, Royal Mail and broadband providers. Nothing less than the future of the British economy could be at stake.
This litmus test for state control is also a litmus test for what must be the most stupidly malicious government since... well... since the last one I suppose.
Yet when we consider the remarkable stupidity of successive governments, normal folk must have an equally remarkable capacity for just plodding on. Ordinary people doing what they do keeps the show on the road, not climbers of the greasy pole.
But we already knew that.
9 comments:
When one considers the many governments we've had since the war, as I have done with great interest, through articles, documentaries and history books and the outcomes of their efforts in administration, one comes to the unnerving conclusion that the nation would have been better off without them.
You can make an argument that the summary of all the ordinary peoples' actions result in a social conservatism. A social conservatism that is very much like a super tanker... it takes a lot of effort to change course, very slowly.
By the same token all The Powers That Be wittering about many diverse policies have little real impact on day to day life. And yet if social pressures start steering the super tanker there is great momentum and the efforts of politicians to reverse that course change will, eventually, fail.
We have had decades of The Powers That Be steering by the Universal Davos compass. What next?
Tammly - it is an unnerving conclusion, but once the conclusion is there it isn't possible to make it go away.
DJ - it's a good analogy, the problems seem to be caused by those who want to turn the tanker around much more rapidly than its design permits while squabbling over who should be captain and which charts are most up to date.
There is one small piece of Nationalisation that I would like to see, which is the Thames River Crossing at Dartford.
When the original tunnel was dug, there was an understanding that the toll would only remain while the construction costs were being covered. The toll was then to be removed; the debt paid.
Instead, Government sold the crossing to the French (I believe), and now the toll is not only set in stone, but the money leaves the Country.
Were the crossing to be (re)nationalised and the toll removed, not only would it be a promise kept (yes, I know), but it might in some small way discourage foreigners from buying up British national infrastructure.
Anon - interesting, thanks. I know nothing about it, but it sounds like a good idea. A promise kept would be novel, but governments have to start somewhere.
Sorry to be a heretic to the private ownership cause but imho, some sectors need to be govt, e.g. the army, certain railway lines (infrastructure).
James - I agree, some sectors do need to be government owned and run. Not for ideological reasons though.
So, they really do believe they can run a better rail service by doing away with passengers. Remember when that used to be a joke?
Barbarus - reminds me of this when it was a joke -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-5zEb1oS9A
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