South Western Railway will become the first train operator to be nationalised under Labour, effective from 2 a.m. on Sunday. Unsurprisingly, the grand moment has already gone off track…
The first train under the new regime, scheduled to leave Woking at 5.36 a.m. for London Waterloo, will see passengers having to switch to a rail replacement bus beyond Surbiton due to engineering works near Raynes Park. A bus-ted flush…
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander will be celebrating the occasion by getting on board the 6:14 a.m. service from Waterloo to Shepperton – a train which will have to be diverted around the disruption. Off the rails…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”