It will come as no surprise to beleaguered commuters that Manchester Victoria is the worst railway station for cancellations.
A staggering one in ten services through there have been axed so far this year – creating chaos for passengers.
The Government claims the key to solving these problems is to bring the trains back into public ownership.
Yet the very worst performing operator, Northern Rail – which serves Manchester Victoria – is already under state ownership and has been for nearly five years.
The truth is that whoever runs the railways, they will not be improved until productivity and working practices are brought into the 21st century.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander acknowledges the need for modernisation yet her party gave the rail unions a bumper pay deal without insisting on reform.
The result, by her own admission, is that drivers have more money, so no longer need to work overtime – causing even more cancellations.
Yesterday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves stressed that improving public services was not just about throwing money at them.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has acknowledged the need for modernisation of the railway, yet her party gave unions a bumper deal without insisting on reform
To no surprise to commuters, Manchester Victoria was named the worst railway station for cancellations (file photo)
She wrote: ‘We must first look at what can be done better. Faster. Or perhaps whether it needs to be done at all.’
To achieve these aims, any future public sector pay deals must be linked to greater efficiency. Doling out cash with no strings will only make a very bad situation worse.
House of hypocrisy
Just last year Angela Rayner accused the Tories of undermining the House of Lords and turning it into a ‘carousel of cronies’.
So how did she feel when it became clear her boss had bought himself a ticket on that very same merry-go-round.
Having promised to abolish the Upper Chamber, he has added to its absurdly inflated size by ennobling his own cronies.
Thirty out of the 38 new peers are Labour nominees. They include Sue Gray, the supposedly impartial civil servant who sealed Boris Johnson’s fate with her damning Partygate report, then became Sir Keir’s chief of staff.
Her peerage will be seen as a consolation prize for being thrown out of Downing Street when she was no longer useful.
Then there’s education union leader Mary Bousted, who campaigned tirelessly against schools being reopened after the worst of Covid was over and described young pupils as ‘mucky’ creatures who spread germs.
It was already the biggest legislature in the world bar the Chinese National People’s Congress (some say almost as Left-wing).
At this rate, the Lords circus will soon need to move out of Westminster to a bigger venue. A big top, perhaps?
Mandy’s mission
Peter Mandelson has long been known as a man of flexible principles.
Although a professed socialist, he enjoys the high life. He has rubbed shoulders with Russian oligarchs, arranged passports for wealthy Indian Labour donors and was twice forced to resign as a minister.
Peter Mandelson is undoubtedly a smooth talker and, like Mr Trump, a natural wheeler-dealer
Lord Mandelson is also fanatically pro-European and has described President-elect Donald Trump as a ‘white nationalist and racist’ who is ‘a danger to the world’.
So he may seem a curious appointment to be our new ambassador to the US. But he is undoubtedly a smooth talker and, like Mr Trump, a natural wheeler-dealer.
And compared to the overgrown student politicians running this hapless government he is a veritable colossus. So, perhaps not such a poor choice after all.