Political Views have new Blog!

In order to prevent this blog completely being taken over by my increasingly agitated views on the ConDem coalition I have joined with by better half in starting a new blog....

http://condemnation2010.blogspot.com/

Some rail related views may still stray onto here from time to time, but mostly these will be written by the ConDem Nation 2010 Transport Correspondent.

Steam Engines are Good for the Soul

I have not really talked about my love of Steam Engines, but my love of trains and also photography has led me to start a small photo business on the Web (www.imagesoftransport.com).

My interest in trains started when my Mum and Dad bought me a train set, then to pass the time I started to write down train numbers when I was 11, and I caught the bug. Being only 3 when steam in the UK ended, my interest was mainly diesels (Deltics sound almost as good as a Spitfire!), but Steam was always there in the background.

Now I am older, steam is probably more interesting to me. Gone is the variation in trains, they are now all the same shape and bland.

Steam trains evoke all kind of emotions, in most people. I see it when we visit railways as a family, most are not enthusiasts, but everyone loves the sound and most like the smell... For me steam engines are living things; breathing, sighing, sometimes yelling, warm and full of movement. Ang puts up with this, and so do the kids; but our smallest (despite being a girl) loves trains, well Daddy thinks so anyway!

If you get a chance visit your local railway and support them. Today's railways are increasingly just a means of getting from A to B, but preserved lines allow a means of escapism, a look back at more relaxed times, when children entertained themselves (LOL!) and people were generally more sociable!

Take time to look at an engine, see the movement, breathe in the atmosphere and I can assure you that you will slow down a bit; trust me its Good for the Soul.....

£161.4m of our money wasted by Gove

Quick post tonight.... Michael Gove, our Education Secretary has with great zeal cancelled the £55billion school building programme. The cost to taxpayers has been revealed to be £161.4m (at least I suspect) of money spent on planning, etc.

And who foots the bill, you and me........

Food Standards Agency to be scrapped

My friends in the Coalition Government are at it again. They are to scrap the Food Standards Agency. Andrew Lansley (Health Secretary pictured above) has done a deal with Food business's that if they help pay for an advertising campaign for a healthier lifestyle he will scrap future legislation on stricter controls.

Oh, and he will save (apparently) £1billion in the process. Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, not only do the Tories/Lib Dems not give a stuff about the poor, they are going to allow food manufacturers to help people become more unhealthy whilst paying for smiley adverts telling us all not to be fat.

I really hope Labour get their act together in opposition, this country needs them back.....

"It's not our style to play 'ugly' or commit horrible fouls"

According to the Dutch Manager, Van Marwijk, "It's not our style to play 'ugly' or commit horrible fouls". Well sorry mate, that's "pants". Howard Webb was put in an impossible position last night as the Dutch continued their cheating (in my view) style of dirty tactics.

Kicking, niggling and in the case of Robben whinging their way round the pitch. Not for the first time Van Bommel should have left the pitch long before the end of the match, and Wesley Sneijder did not look the fantastic club player I had seen in the Champions League.

So the best team won, but what a disappointment. I watched Top Gear in full...........

At last some good news for Rail users, but why not more?

First TransPennine Express have announced that they are to run direct trains from Blackpool to Glasgow from from July to September at weekends. I guess they are using spare capacity over the weekend. A direct rail link between the two cities has not existed for nearly 20 years.

So if you are going to Blackpool this summer expect to hear more Scottish voices than normal, especially in Stag and Hen weekends!

This makes me wonder why more of these Summer trains cannot be run, as there must be other routes where people could take weekend breaks or day returns to the seaside, or major cities. When I grew up "Holidaymaker" and "Merrymaker" trains were commonplace, and if the fare is right?

No doubt the bureaucracy of today's railway and the sorry state of the new Network Rail Train Planning system will prevent anything like this happening, but does it open the door to other operators to make use of stock otherwise laying in sidings until Monday morning?

The Germans have got it right

The German Government owned DB Rail in Germany has announced that it is to invest 41 Billion Euros in Germany's rail system between now and 2014, with heavy investment in infrastructure and 700 new trains.

Meanwhile the DfT have ordered 4 new trains and additional coaches for the Virgin Pendilinos for the West Coast Main Line at a cost of £255 Million; and they are going to store them until the start of the May 2012 timetable, by which time the Germans will have spent £20 Billion!

DB Rail are also using these vast subsidies to undercut competitors here in the UK whilst also buying up the competition.

When will we learn in this country that rail is vital to this country? Still I guess now we have the Tories in charge the decline in Rail will follow that in the Thatcher years hand-in-hand with the decline in Manufacturing. Hope all you Tory voters out there can now see that nothing is safe; should have stuck with Labour after all.

Shame on you Nick

Just before the General Election the Labour Government announced an £80M LOAN to Sheffield Forgemasters to enable them to fund a press that would allow castings for the Nuclear Generation industry.

Another area of Sheffield has Nick Clegg as its MP. Two weeks ago the new Coalition Government with Nick Clegg as its Deputy Prime Minister cancelled the LOAN (that's right, not a grant, a loan), thus delaying and maybe preventing the investment, and with 150 new jobs.

What strikes me is that both the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives went on and on about how they were going to re-generate UK Manufacturing, and then they pull the plug on something that could be world-leading..... SHAME ON YOU NICK CLEGG, and your new buddy Dave.

And so to the biggest LIE of the pre-Election propaganda put about by Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats.

SHAME ON YOU NICK CLEGG....


Let's hope all those people who voted for the Conservatives and Liberals in the North East will realise (like me) that they made a huge mistake on May 6, 2010. I won't be doing it again. But then they don't care. I emailed my MP twice to say how disappointed I was, but the lure of Power means he cannot be bothered to reply

SHAME ON YOU NICK CLEGG.......