SIR – I recently had the somewhat unsettling experience of watching Secretary of State for Transport Justine Greening talking on television about sorting out the “inefficiencies in our [privatised] railway system”.
Was this some kind of joke?
Surely, privatisation – introduced shambolically by a previous Tory government – was precisely aimed at giving our railways the private-sector efficiency that she, apparently and in self-contradictory doubletake, now desires.
The problem for her and others of her misguided persuasion is that this country’s taxpayers’ subsidy to our rail network is now substantially larger than it was in the days of the nationalised British Rail.
Moreover, we have the highest rail fares in Europe.
Who benefits from all of this: shareholder or passenger?
It’s a no-brainer, as is the debate over the disastrous impending NHS reforms and the private sector, which will benefit from them, again at taxpayers’ expense.
Once more, where is local ‘new’ Labour in exposing this nonsense?
DAVID BARLOW
Worcester
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