Rail Strikes Make The Case For Nationalisation.

What a mess. In the run up to Christmas we are once again faced with rail strikes which make commuting exhausting and stressful while infuriating everybody except the obdurate franchise holders and the incompetent Tory government, under whose bizarre free enterprise or bust ideology they function.

The RMT has right on its side. Every train must and should have a guard, train manager, or whatever you like to call this important official, who is needed for both safety and security reasons. Imagine the problems for women and girls suffering harassment, passengers being taken ill, some mishap boarding or leaving, without there being anyone to turn to for help. The driver is responsible for driving the train with the lives of passengers in their hands. They cannot supervise the interior of the train as well. The whole idea is just a cost cutting exercise at the expense of passengers, already overcharged because the railways are organized to an irrational model favoring profit over investment and shareholders over passengers.

Labour is on to a vote winner here with its nationalisation plan and it knows that.