The Department for Transport ordered East Midlands Railway (EMR) to take “immediate action” this month on its intercity services, which are underperforming. Fair enough, except ministers are about to nationalise the lot. EMR is expected to be in public ownership by the end of 2027…
The earliest date the Government could end EMR’s contract without paying a penalty and take control was 18 October, so nationalisation is now looming. EMR maintains the DfT has not yet told it when that will actually happen. So Labour is ordering a private operator to fix the problems before the Government takes it on, meaning ministers can simply turn up on the platform for the photo op and announce that public ownership fixed it…
Harborough MP Neil O’Brien said: “They’ll spray the trains that are currently purple, blue, and then they’ll say we should all be very grateful for this.” Same trains, new paint, probably an even worse service…
Robert Jenrick on the Today programme:
“Can you now give a guarantee to your listeners this morning that no BBC presenter in the future will be exposed as a paedophile, as a number have been in the recent past? No, of course you can’t…”