Let's party like it's 1948…

But it isn't. The nationalisation of one of Britain's most important rail lines, the east coast main line, isn't as significant as many of us would like. It is a temporary measure, forced upon the government because the operator, National Express, couldn't afford to keep the franchise. I imagine the government would have chosen a more inspiring title for the new nationalised operation than Directly Operated Railways had it seriously intended to revive British Rail. 

But we can but dream: of a truly national railway, that avoided the honeypot of millions of pounds of taxpayers' subsidy being used to fund private company profits. (National Express did very well out of us until it overbid for the east coast franchise on the eve of recession.) Sadly, the party that forced through the catastrophic privatisation of British Rail is likely to regain power next year. Once again, we're left wondering what might have been had Labour done more with its 13 years in government. 

See my earlier post about the folly of rail privatisation.