IEP the truth is out!

Incompetence is no obstacle to winning contracts from this Government.

You can spunk as much public money up the wall as you like BUT say a negative word and you're out the tent faster than 82 year old Walter Wolfgang.

The Fact Compiler was, therefore, very surprised to hear Alan Wood, Chairman of Siemens in the UK, say on Radio 4 this morning that Government has left business feeling "uncertainty and concern".

Siemens is part of a joint venture bidding, with Bombardier, to deliver the new generation InterCity HST (IEP).

Perhaps the specification of this Frankenstein train is the cause of his "uncertainty and concern"?

A good day to bury bad news

So wedded is Gordon the Big Grin Engine to his PPPs and PFIs that piss-poor past performance is seldom an impediment to winning future work.

On 31st March this year the Transport Select Committee published its report into the Metronet shag-up.

It concluded by stating the bleedin' obvious:
20. The Government should bear the Metronet debacle in mind if and when its parent companies—Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Bombardier, EDF Energy, and Thames Water—next come to bid for publicly-funded work. (Paragraph 95)

Unfortunately not bleedin' obvious enough for the Dullards who inhabit both Treasury and Daft.

For on the 8th May DafT announced that the preferred bidder for the PPP contract to widen the M25 had been awarded to Connect Plus.

Connect Plus is a consortium comprising Balfour Beatty (40%), Skanska (40%), Egis Projects SA (10%) and Atkins (10%).

As this plainly didn't show contempt enough for the Transport Select Committee some genius in Government decided to announce the decision on the very day that Gwyneth was being buried.

They must be very proud of themselves.

Ellman to lead TSC

***Transcom Press Release***

New Transport Committee Chair announced

The House of Commons Transport Committee has today chosen Mrs Louise Ellman MP (Labour/Co-op, Liverpool, Riverside) as its new Chair. Her election was unopposed.

Mrs Ellman has been a member of the Transport Committee and its predecessor committees since she was first elected to Parliament in 1997. She is also a Co-Chair of the Advisory Council of the Parliamentary Advisory Council of Transport Safety (PACTS).

A vacancy remains for a Labour member of the Committee, who will be appointed by the House in due course.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

1. Committee Membership is as follows: Mrs Louise Ellman (Lab,
Liverpool Riverside) (Chair), Mr David Clelland (Lab, Tyne Bridge), Clive Efford (Lab, Eltham), Mr Philip Hollobone (Con, Kettering), Mr John Leech (Lib Dem, Manchester Withington), Mr Eric Martlew (Lab, Carlisle), Mr Lee Scott (Con, Ilford North), David Simpson (DUP, Upper Bann), Mr Graham Stringer (Lab, Manchester Blackley), Mr David Wilshire (Con, Spelthorne).

2. The Chair of the Committee became vacant on the death of Hon
Gwyneth Dunwoody MP on 17 April.

3. Further information about the work of the Committee can be found
at www.parliament.uk/transcom