Less than inspiring stuff from a strong Corbyn ally.
The shadow transport secretary, Andy McDonald, accused the Tories of hypocrisy for attacking Labour over the issue while in opposition but not taking action in office.
Large parts of the country will be without a rail service on Boxing Day, while some operators will only be running a limited number of trains.
McDonald said: “Tory ministers’ handling of the Boxing Day rail standstill is making it much harder for families and friends to visit one another this Christmas break. In opposition the Tories attacked the Boxing Day rail shutdown. They’ve now had more than six years to do something about it but haven’t.
“Their lack of action, even despite the chaos of previous years, gives the impression they don’t really care about it at all. The Tory hypocrisy on this issue is astounding.”
Fair point about the sort of silly criticism Cameron and pals made in opposition. But don't then go on and do the same yourself. "Do something about it" is juvenile stuff I thought we'd seen the back of when Michael Dugher was moved out of the Shadow Transport brief. You have to do work on the railways at Christmas. Try closing eg Paddington for 6 days at another time of the year.
Rail is supposed to be a strong issue for Jeremy Corbyn's Labour. Everyone knows he's committed and knowledgeable about it, even if he mucked up the photo op on the Virgin train in the leadership campaign. But McDonald like this is going to make Labour into a joke on rail. Maybe this the new "populist" approach.
The political opportunity for the Opposition is that the government (probably under Osborne's hard hat image) have hugely overpromised in what they can deliver and stuff is years behind. Attack them for not doing infrastructure work, not for doing it.
I think there are other issues too. "Do something about it" implies what? Chris Grayling telling Network Rail when to do maintenance? A fully nationalized system run on those lines isn't very appetizing to me, nor I suspect to the sort of managers who would be needed to make it work. I've always found left politics weak on this sort of stuff. "Accountability" apparently makes everything work.
And I worry about too much negative stuff about the railway. It's too expensive, but basically as good as its ever been in terms of the frequency of services running and safety.
