Three Times Better

Peter Hitchens writes:

I refuse to join the rage against the three MPs who are arguing that Parliament, not the criminal courts, should judge the charges against them. They may well be right. The police and the CPS, who are very selective about which cases they take up, should stay out of politics. It is always sinister when they get involved in it. Do we want a politicised police force? I also happen to think that many of the greediest MPs have escaped untouched because they hold high positions in their parties. Making scapegoats of a few has-beens draws attention from this much greater scandal.

And:

For long months I have endured the sneers of Cameron loyalists telling me that the Tories were bound to win the Election. Now that it turns out that this isn’t necessarily so, the same people are railing about how terrible Gordon Brown is, as if that ended the argument. Yes, he is terrible. But my point remains that it is Gordon Brown’s policies that are so bad, and David Cameron agrees with them. If Mr Brown had been to Eton, would he be any better?

And:

Of course I’d love it if the country had a new high-speed rail network. But shouldn’t we fix the low-speed network first, not least by undoing the Beeching vandalism, and reconnecting medium-sized towns and country districts to the system?

If journey times really are going to be cut by so little, then why not re-open all those lovely little railway stations in lovely little country towns, and have the trains stop at them, even if only at certain times of the day?