Prior departs for Henley

Much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the Supply Chain tonight!

Lord Prior, the BEIS minister championing the rail Sector Strategy, resigned from the government today.

Lord Prior brought insight, energy and enthusiasm to his role, most recently displayed when he addressed the Rail Forum conference in Derby last Thursday.

No matter!

In the words of the late, great Sir Robin Day ' just another here-today, gone-tomorrow, politician.'

So a big Eye welcome to our new Supply Chain minister the Rt Hon Lord Henley!

This from Lord Henley's biography on the government website:

Lord Henley was appointed as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 27 October 2017.

He was a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions from 21 December 2016 to 15 June 2017, and a Lord in Waiting (Government Whip) from 21 November 2016 to 15 June 2017.

He is a Conservative member of the House of Lords.

Lord Henley served as Minister of State for Crime Prevention and Anti-Social Behaviour Reduction from September 2011 to September 2012. He served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2010 to 2011.

Lord Henley held a number of positions in the previous Conservative government, including Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department of Social Security, the Department for Employment and the Ministry of Defence. He was also Minister of State for the Department of Education and Employment. In Opposition, he served as Chief Whip, Deputy Speaker and was Opposition spokesperson for Legal Affairs and Justice.

He was educated at Clifton College, Bristol and Durham University. He was called to the Bar in 1977.

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Responsibilities include:

• industrial strategy
• Lords lead on all BEIS issues
• industrial policy (with the Minister of State for Climate Change and Industry)
• technology and emerging sectors
• infrastructure/construction
• professional services
• rail supply chain
• defence
• maritime
• life sciences
• EU on-going business
• better regulation and regulatory reform
• Land Registry
• Ordnance Survey
• Companies House
• corporate minister

A long list of responsibilities, we can only hope he exhibits the same enthusiasm for the rail supply chain as his predecessor.

On the plus side, no doubt the Rt Hon Lord Henley can bend the Rt Hon Chris Grayling's ear at Privy Council meetings.

All The Stations - worth a watch

A Pilgrimage of Grice undertaken by Geoff and Vicki, supported by RDG...

From the All The Stations website:

All The Stations is a project to travel to ALL the national railway stations in Britain in just three months, and to create an online documentary film about the journey.

Here is a vlog the team filmed yesterday:

Good effort!

Worth a watch. Worth a follow.

Meanwhile, Eye hopes that RDG will contact RFG and RSG so that freight and the supply chain can also offer to showcase their contribution to Britain's railway?

Three percent (3%) will take some nudging, so every channel counts.

If we are serious about 'One Railway', Eye would expect nothing less.

Rail Sector Deal - the PM offers some clues

Word reaches Eye that the great and the good are meeting tonight to discuss what a Rail Sector Deal might look like.

The original announcement of possible Sector Deals in January, managed to, ahem... overlook Rail, in favour of:

• Life sciences
• Ultra low emission vehicles
• Industrial digitalisation
• Nuclear industry; and 
• the Creative industries

No matter!

Happily Number 10's original announcement made clear that:

"This is not an exclusive list and the government is prepared to work with any sector which can organise behind strong leadership to address shared challenges and opportunities".

So far so good.

And with almost perfect timing for tonight's RDG/RSG discussions, Theresa May made clear at today's PMQs that the Industrial Strategy would be regionally focused "tailored to the needs of particular parts of the country".

Surely the PM had the rail industry in mind, with places like Derby, Doncaster and the North West having vibrant rail clusters with the capabilities to become global centres of excellence!

One can only hope, therefore, that said 'particular parts of the country' are well represented at tonight's dinner?