The even wider picture - suggestions for an incoming government

[whole diary]

[Bob_Blakey]

New Transport Secretary is Philip Hammond.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Hammond

so apparently he did serve on one of the less specific Select Committees for a year, but apart from that does not seem to have much in the way of Transport 'previous'.

[grahame]

New Transport Secretary is Philip Hammond.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Hammond

so apparently he did serve on one of the less specific Select Committees for a year, but apart from that does not seem to have much in the way of Transport 'previous'.

I think he was deputy shadow transport secretary at one point - not sure about recently - at the time that Chris Grayling was shadow ...

[Zoe]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8675705.stm

Conservative Philip Hammond has been named as the new Transport Secretary.

[John R]

For one moment I thought we were going to get the very witty and articulate Dr Philip Hammond as our new Transport Secretary. Alas, I was disappointed.....

[Chris from Nailsea]

With many thanks to RailCornwall and Zo^ for posting their 'political news items' on other boards - I've nevertheless taken the opportunity to merge all such topics here - purely for continuity.

Chris. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

More details from Philip Hammond's Conservative Party profile (and overlooking their apparently inadvertent reference to his joining the 'Shadow Cabinet'  ) See http://www.conservatives.com/People/Members_of_Parliament/Hammond_Philip.aspx

[RailCornwall]

Perhaps the title of the thread could be amended following the merge.

[grahame]

Perhaps the title of the thread could be amended following the merge.

Err ... perhaps ... but I think we are really still on suggestions for the incoming government.   Would it be better to peel off separate thread(s) to discuss specific policies?

[RailCornwall]

Now we actually have a Government yes, as was my intention when opening the second thread.

[willc]

Just annnounced - Theresa Villiers will be Minister of State for Transport (ie No 2 in DafT). Presumably a Lib Dem will be named for the department at some point - Norman Baker or Lord Bill Bradshaw? At least they know something about railways.

[paul7575]

Remember all that HLOS^▸ (High Level Output Specification)/SOFA stuff - the 5 year plan for CP4^▸ (Control Period 4 - the five year period between 2009 and 2014) etc? 

It seems to me that all those route business plans are aimed at addressing the HLOS, which is a mechanism introduced by a Railways Act. So are changes that easy to make, or do they require new legislation?

Discuss...

Paul

[willc]

Lib Dem transport spokesman Norman Baker - a strong supporter of the railways and the Lewes-Uckfield reopening campaign in his constituency - is to be a transport minister, not sure yet of exact responsibilities. His appointment loks likely to mean a Conservative will be the transport minister in the House of Lords.

[John R]

That sounds more encouraging (thankfully).

[D]

Er, renationalise the whole damned lot but run it as a government-owned limited company for which the bottom line matters, not as a department of government which is funded by the taxpayer.

BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) was doing quite well money-wise before it was forcibly dismantled. Since then, the taxpayer subsidy has risen, punctuality has on many lines fallen and it appears that fares in real terms have risen. Or is everybody else on long train journeys travelling on an advance purchase ticke. As far as I can see, these are the only way to make a long train journey as cheap as flying with Easyjet, Ryanair or Flybe. Unfortunately, their fares are cheap-ish up until the last week or so whereas advance train fares seem to disappear about a month before travel.