On The Right Track

If George Osborne really does cap rail fare hikes to one per cent above inflation next year, or even if he doesn't, then Ed Miliband and Ed Balls should see him and raise him.

They should make the case for the renationalisation of the railways, uniquely without compensation in view of the manner of their privatisation, as the basis for a national network of public transport free at the point of use, including the reversal of bus route and rail line closures going back to the 1950s.

Only public ownership can deliver this. Public ownership is of course British ownership, and thus a safeguard of national sovereignty. It is also a safeguard of the Union in that it creates communities of interest across the several parts of the United Kingdom, the East Coast Main Line being a case in point. Publicly owned concerns often even had the word "British" in their names. They could have, and should have, again.

With the trains run on British-generated electricity rather than on imported oil, of course. And with all the stock built in Britain.