One can give the police more legal powers, update the official definition of extremism, and all that. But it won’t produce different outcomes without a sea-change in how senior officers approach public order policing.
Some projects that had previously been announced were included, as were some projects that had even been completed. Some of the announcements related to local projects for which the decision to proceed rested with regional mayors not central government.
Train travel is vastly less polluting than road or air – yet at present the tax system penalises passengers.
He plans to bring in a Fat Controller – as he seeks to balance the public interest with private sector freedom. This is the second piece in our rail mini-series.
The Transport Secretary has set up a reform committee which is getting ready to use the pandemic to rout the Luddites in the rail unions.
The first group of savings are about making the state more efficient, the second about creating a state focused on the core tasks of government.
Free Schools spotted a gap in the market and provided a solution to fill it. This initiative has the potential to do the same.
The Railway Industry Association, the trade body for more than 300 rail suppliers, calls for the Government to fast-track important schemes.
John Major’s efforts in the Nineties, part-reversed by Blair, seem almost designed to give the market a bad name. There is an alternative.
The era of government-run railway infrastructure has been, for the most part, one of decline and a clear lack of ambition.
The Rail Delivery Group has just suggested a more modern system of tickets and fares. But such change should be only the start.
“How would you feel if we spent the money on local transport links in the Midlands and the north?’’ Gove asked Conservative MPs last year.
Public anger over disruption, fare increases, and cancelled investment needs to be answered – or they will be tempted by Labour’s calls for nationalisation.
Only a thousand acres are being released for housing, despite far more being surplus to requirements.
We need strategic state oversight of empowered operators with strong commercial incentives to meet passengers’ needs.