Of course I welcome it; it would be churlish not to. Why would I not welcome that? It does not mean that the system is right, but, for goodness sake, the trains are getting to the right places.
It is difficult to see how east coast’s brilliant delivery for the taxpayer and for the commuter could be seen as
a failure, or in any way undesirable. It simply does not make any sense for the UK taxpayer to subsidise foreign state-owned companies so that citizens of Germany, Holland, France and elsewhere can enjoy cheaper and superior services.
Quite simply, the rejection of even the possibility of public ownership is driven by an outdated ideology and is totally out of kilter with the views of a large majority of the public—including many Conservative voters—which is why I am so pleased that Labour is committed to a publicly owned service that puts the passenger first rather than the profits of private or foreign state-owned companies, as is currently the case.