I like Andy Burnham: he clearly has been on a political journey and he has played a good role on the NHS, but in my view his position on rail policy today not only doesn’t go far enough – it indicates the disconnect between voters and Westminster politics that we must repair. In the National […]
Posts Tagged ‘Railways’
Tories’ pre-election fantasising comes back to haunt them
Jun 27th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.Northern powerhouse deflates into Northern power-cut. It was so hurriedly propagated by Osborne before the election as portraying the government as dynamic innovators of English devolution, but none of the details had been properly worked through, including the required transport infrastructure as we now know. So the election gimmick, if not evaporated, has dimmed at […]
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The politics of Tory pledge-breaking
Jun 26th, 2015 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Political gravity is starting to assert itself on the Tories’ ridiculous manifesto. You will recall that this gang of scaremongerers, who spent the entire election trading on economic competence, getting the deficit and public sector debt down, and “strong leadership” promised £28bn in unfunded spending commitments – presumably with the view that they’d never get chance […]
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Labour 6:1 in favour of a public railway, stronger unions and an end to austerity
Jan 30th, 2015 by Jon Lansman.Earlier this week we reported that, following Syriza‘s remarkable victory in Greece on a platform of ending austerity and greater state intervention in the economy, 15 Labour MPs including Michael Meacher had called for a similar change in direction here. They issued a statement calling for an alternative to austerity, for public ownership of the railways and for a […]
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As Syriza win on an anti-austerity platform in Greece, Labour MPs seek a change in direction here
Jan 26th, 2015 by Jon Lansman.As Syriza wins a remarkable victory in Greece on a platform of ending austerity and greater state intervention in the economy, fifteen Labour MPs have today expressed concerns about elements of Labour’s policy agenda, and proposed a change of course in three key areas. They have issued a statement calling for an alternative to austerity, for public […]
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The great high speed white elephant
Oct 28th, 2014 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.High Speed Rail 2 is a massive white elephant, a £50bn boondoggle of a project as out of time as it is over priced. Yet, despite this I am a little sore that the bid Stoke-on-Trent put forward for a station got dismissed out of hand. Were it on the basis of a competition in […]
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Save UK Rail
Oct 22nd, 2014 by Grahame Morris.The North East has a long and proud connection to the railways. In 1825, George Stephenson’s engine – locomotion, became the world’s first steam locomotive to carry passengers, and the public railway was born. In the years following thousands of miles of rail track were laid connecting every part of the UK, as the industrial […]
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Why Britain needs a pay rise
Oct 17th, 2014 by Mike Hedges.Tomorrow the TUC demonstration will be highlighting why Britain needs a pay rise. The extent to which people’s living standards have dropped is greater than ever before. I was shocked when a Unite bus driver told me how every month his wife’s parents have to give them £200 to be able to pay their rent and […]
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Privatised railways have failed passengers and taxpayers
Sep 10th, 2014 by Grahame Morris.This week began with protests at Northern Rail stations, including Seaham, campaigning against the introduction of higher fares, threats to rail services, and job cuts on the rail network. Northern Rail has been pressed by the Department for Transport to raise extra revenues as sixty nine percent of their costs are covered by subsidies they receive […]
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Privatised railways: a right royal British rip-off
Aug 9th, 2014 by Mick Whelan.The inflation figure used to calculate increases in regulated rail fares, such as off-peak and anytime day tickets, will be announced on Tuesday 19 August. The new fares will come in at the start of January and we know that, even if they are capped at the level of inflation, they will still be running […]
