As ever, politics abhors a vacuum!
With the Shadow Transport team adopting an almost Trappist-like silence on NR nationalisation, an erstwhile rail minister has stepped in to fill the policy void.
This EDM from Tom Harris MP:
That this House notes that the Office for National Statistics is to
reclassify Network Rail as a central government body from 1 September
2014, adding Network Rail's £30 billion debt to the national debt;
recognises that since Network Rail's creation, Ministers have respected
the company's status as a private company by not exercising executive
authority over Network Rail's management or operational activity;
further recognises that the reclassification of Network Rail as a
central government body offers the opportunity for a new relationship
between the company and ministers; and believes this new relationship
should begin with an instruction from the Secretary of State for
Transport to Network Rail's directors that any future proposal for
executive bonuses must be approved by Ministers.
And so it begins...
