If the amount of money being thrown at the railways now had been provided to the managers of British Rail 30 or 40 years ago we would have had a rail system which would have been the best in the world. The root cause of British Rail's problems, such as they were, were underfunding and the solution was not to break it up, remove its interconnectivity and ludicrously insert a private profit-making layer.

Providing a good transport infrastructure is one of the key things the government should do - the railways shouldn't be run as a purely profit making venture any more than the roads are.

I agree about a the infrastructure but to me that is the highways and the tracks not the vehicles that run on them - if the government dictate which trains and buses you use why not which cars you drive, which cycles you ride, which side of the road you walk etc.

I doubt there are many who would struggle to get where ever they want on the rail or bus - would prices come down under public ownership - unlikely would there be greater investment in rolling stock again unlikely would the service improve not if past history of public ownership is anything to go by.

it will be better when Labour abolish OFSTEAD and Labour Properties pay the tax owed on their £20m turnover.

Are you just hooked up directly to the fever dreams of the hard, hard right media or do you actually have anything relevant or substantive to say?

Aww, diddums, have I read about the Conference and investigations into Labour practices?

You are a bit myopic, in a kind of Cyclops way.

Cobblers. Northern Rail - who I use every day - has a 50-60% on time record this year. Having promised at the start of the year that things would improve dramatically from last year's disastrous performance. Nothing to do with Unions.

as ever, not telling the full story, 80% within 3 minutes of expected, 96% within 10, usually down to staff being late.

All the Saturday strikes had nothing at all to do with punctuality?

You have just made that up haven't you?

I've no love for, and have never voted for, Labour so I'm not sure of the relevance.

I'm just keen for you to express something vaguely coherent.

So it was unlawful. Crikey.

Meanwhile here in an office of a large Government Department we are now all on standby to start answering parliamentary questions again tomorrow. Never a dull moment since 2016....

Those pesky Supreme Court judges, looking forwards to tomorrows headlines in the right wing press.

Enemies of the state, 17.4m, take back control, blah, blah.

It'll be some paradoxical rant like "unelected traitors restore supremacy of British parliament".

Close. It's a 'powerful pro-EU establishment'. Johnson will be appointing Supreme Court judges on party lines soon. He'll say that is lawful.

In the red corner we have the establishment, headed by Lady Hale (born in Leeds, went to a council school) and in the blue corner we have the common man headed by Johnson, Rees Mogg, Farage et al.

Yes. The definition of irony.

Like all the important people in the headlines, I also was born in Leeds and went to a council school. I need to get a spider brooch. All hail the Hale.

Well, bog-standard front pages from the usual suspects, "will of the people" & all that.

But the Sun!

Using a play on a catchphrase from a comedian who's been dead for donkey's years!

Anyhow, I have a strange feeling Boris has another card up his sleeve, I just hope those trying to stop the right wing coup keep their eyes on the ball.

I think they are all playing into his hands - all he is trying to do is deliver Brexit. This has been frustrated at every opportunity by the courts, the speaker, the MPs etc.

It seems strange to me that our own people will send our own PM cap in hand to the EU to please ask for another extension - which side are they on?

Unless Johnson is advised by complete morons he would have seen this coming; which backs up your point. So he either sacks his advisers & resigns, or carries on in his own morally corrupt ways, smirking at the proles.

How many times. Johnson voted against Brexit. It takes remarkable intellectual dexterity to claim as your hero someone whose vote contributed to us still being in the EU.
There we have it again, the mask slips. Painting this as some sort of battle rather than a negotiation and questioning the patriotism of people on the other side of this issue.

Johnson voted twice against a deal that is quite frankly leaves us at the mercy of the EU - surely even to you that cannot be correct?

This isn't about mask slipping this is about delivering on what the people asked for in the most productive way possible. When you have people who are supposedly supporting the UK side actively working with the EU to reduce the chance of a decent deal what would you call that.

In the commercial world if someone from within your company gave pricing details to a competitor how would you describe that?

That is exactly what is going on here - Blair has been advising the EU how to proceed, Labour have been having discussions with the EU around a softer Brexit. This isn't negotiating with a united front this is simply party politics to undermine the "negotiating position"

Do you get your sensationalist, emotive & xenophobic language from the same right wing gutter press as Johnson?