■ ‘Directing’replaces‘guiding’mind
■ Central role for DOHL
■ Recruitment challenge for top team
AsI write, you can get odds of 25/1 against a Conservative majority at the forthcoming general election. Labour is odds on at 1/14. I quote these numbers as a cautionary reminder that elections are not over until the returning officers have sung.
So, while the polls and the betting fraternity are expecting a Labour landslide, some canny punters think it worth putting money on a Conservative recovery. And we should not forget the railway’s current woes stem from John Major’s surprise victory in the 1992 general election.
But, with those caveats, it is time to analyse‘Getting Britain moving: Labour’s plan to fix the railways’, published on 25 April.
HARPER REBUFFED
When the embargoed press release arrived the day before, my initial reaction was the plan was the Williams Review without the Shapps, but moved, politically, slightly left-of-centre. I noted Labour had adduced Keith Williams among the worthies endorsing the plan. But when I got into the full document, three items stood out. As readers will know, I have been railing against the concept of Great British Railways being a ‘guiding mind’. I susp…
