British Railways and the NHS

So the franchise process for the West Coast Mainline was cocked up by civil servants. No surprise there.

Nationalising our railways would effectively put them back under the control of politicians (the government) and civil servants. Do you trust our politicians and the state to get anything right? And remember, the Beeching Axe fell when our railways were nationalised, not when they were privately owned.

So who in their right minds would want government involved in any aspect of our railway system? In fact if our railway sytem is too important to leave to politicians and civil servants to cock up, then what about our healthcare?

Just a thought.

Losing Virgin

I'm probably one of the few people who doesn't have a strong opinion about Richard Branson. His attempts at being a latter day Victor Kiam could be cheesy but eh, no harm done really. I was sad to hear that when we were in the darkness of the Blair years he was brown nosing the supreme leader and giving him and 'la gob' free stays on his island paradise but that's his prerogative, and probably made buisiness sense knowing how Blair operates.

But this morning I was shocked to hear that Virgin had lost their West Coast mainline franchise to FirstGroup. In my experience I have been extremely impressed  when travelling to London on Virgin trains. Only real problems have been with the track, which is beyond their control.

By contrast my travel on trains in FirstGroup have been marked by dirty trains full of litter and delays because of drivers not turning up for work. I'd love to know the critria for making these decisions but suspect it is hardly bedtime reading so won't bother. But I can't help wondering if it is Dave 'Blair Lite' Cameron getting revenge for Branson's earlier brown nosing.

Cynical old fart? Me?