Train pain

Network Rail has been today been instructed to improve the quality of its service with less money and there’s going to a row.

I have no particular sympathy for the company as it’s clear it has not been anywhere near as efficient in its use of public money as it should.

However, the fact remains that reducing chronic overcrowding on our rail network was one of Labour’s key pledges when they came to power in 1997.

They have failed dismally. Indeed, the problem is worse now than at any time in living memory.

Rather than wheeling Network Rail bosses out to take the flack for everything that’s going wrong with our trains, shouldn’t Labour Ministers by accepting at least some responsibility for the ongoing debacle?

Clearly the answer is yes – but it isn’t going to happen.

The Beast of Bolsover comes to town

I see that old left-wing dinosaur Dennis Skinner is due in Haworth on Friday to address local Labour Party members.

One can only marvel at the range of imaginative and far-sighted new policy ideas he will seek to win them over with when he speaks.

The only way is down

Tonight’s television news programmes will no doubt be dominated once again by images of Gordon Brown talking up his plans to “invest” huge amounts of taxpayers’ money to ease the pain of the recession.

However, a little bit of reading between the lines will quickly reveal that what in reality the once so-called Iron Chancellor is doing is borrowing more and more cash to pay off the country’s existing debts – debts that he was largely responsible for racking up in the first place.

And you don’t have to be an economist to work out that, as he borrows more to pay off the debts, so the overall national debt will simply continue to grow.

So when and where will this horrendous cycle of economic decline end?

With regard to timing, it seems extremely unlikely to turn around whilst the Labour Government remains in power. Today’s Financial Times reports that Alistair Darling will announce on Wednesday he is scrapping Gordon Brown’s fiscal rules introduced in 1997, thus allowing him to borrow even larger amounts in the months ahead.

And on where, goodness only knows although one fact is now obvious.

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were handed a golden economic legacy by John Major and Ken Clarke when Labour came to power 11 years ago.

Should the Conservatives be successful at the next General Election, it appears David Cameron and George Osborne will be handed exactly the opposite.

42 days charade comes to an end

Away from the ongoing financial crisis, Labour’s long-drawn out attempt to increase the number of days terrorist suspects can be held to 42 days finally hit the buffers last night.

Their Lordships rejected the proposals by a majority of almost 200 votes, the Government’s biggest defeat in the Upper House since the removal of hereditary peers almost 10 years ago.

This was a battle that should never have been fought and was born out of the Government’s shallow wish to look tough on terror.

But looking tough and being effective in the fight against terrorism are two very different things and the 42-day measure would simply not have worked.

Leaving party politics to one side, I only need to quote the words of Lord Dear, a former West Midlands chief constable and crossbench peer, who spoke in last night’s debate.

"This attempt to appear tough on terrorism is a shabby charade which is unworthy of a democratic nation,” he argued.

"This legislation is fatally flawed, is ill thought through and is unnecessary. Perhaps worst of all, it seeks to further erode the fundamental legal and civil rights that have been the pride of this country for centuries.''

His words provoked the traditional response of their Lordships when they’ve heard a speech they like – “hear, hear.”

It is a response I am happy to echo.

An unfortunate incident

As reported in today’s Keighley News, last Sunday morning I was the victim of an assault in the town - http://www.keighleynews.co.uk/news/3740356.Council_leader_attacked_at_station_by_thief/
My over-riding thought is that I find it incredible that two individuals can set about perpetrating their crimes in broad day light in the centre of Keighley and expect to get away with it.

These individuals have no respect for Keighley or anyone who lives there. And clearly few people in Keighley would have any respect for them.

I hope they are apprehended by the police – as I believe they will be - and dealt with severely by the courts.

Perhaps then they will understand that such blatant criminal activity have no place in our town - or any town.