In the very words of Lord Adonis, a man so representative of the Labour Movement that he was once offered the position of Education Secretary by David Cameron, and that he was appointed to the job from which he has just resigned specifically in order to counter the popularity of the National Investment Bank proposed by John McDonnell:
However, I would anyway have been forced to resign from the Commission at this point because of the Transport Secretary’s extraordinary decision to bail-out Stagecoach and Virgin on the East Coast rail franchise. This bailout will cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds, possibly billions as other loss-making rail companies demand equal treatment, endangering the entire national infrastructure investment programme.
It is increasingly clear that the bailout is a nakedly political manoeuvre by Chris Grayling in defiance of his public duty. It would be an act of cavalier irresponsibility even were public resources not so constrained, and is the more so in the context of Brexit. Mr Grayling’s policy appears to be motivated above all by a refusal, for purely political reasons, to follow my precedent of 2009 in the case of National Express and the same East Coast franchise. I set up a public company to take over the franchise once the private operator defaulted on its obligations to the state because it had over-bid for the contract, and the same should have been done in this case. The circumstances are very similar.
The decision to bail out Stagecoach/Virgin will inevitably come under close scrutiny by the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee, and I need to be free to set out serious public interest concerns. I hope the PAC calls Sir Richard Branson and Sir Brian Souter to give evidence soon, given the gravity of the financial losses to the taxpayer. I stand ready to give evidence to the PAC and other parliamentary committees at their convenience, and to share with them substantial relevant evidence.
It is not news that no form of Brexit will ever pass the House of Lords. This, on the other hand, is news. As is Branson’s increasing takeover of the NHS. But no one is talking about that, either. Yet no one’s vote for the House of Commons is in any way connected to Brexit. Did the Lib Dems get 48 per cent of the vote, including the majority in Scotland, where they are the only party of both Unions? Does the majority of MPs for Northern Ireland favour both Unions? Well, there you are, then.
Nobody cares about Brexit apart from a few total fanatics like Adonis on one side and Farage on the other. Everybody else is sick to death of hearing about the whole sodding thing. As you say, next to nobody voted at the Election based on this issue. Normal people don't care about it, never did, never will.
ReplyDeleteThere should never have been a referendum. What if it had gone the other way? Would that have bound Parliament? Well, there you are, then.
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