The wacky world of Lib Dem policy

I know one shouldn’t take Liberal Democrat policy seriously, but I went along to their first lobby briefing today just to see. Anyone who believes Gordon Brown is detached from reality should have taken a seat as Nick Clegg and Norman Baker faced lobby journalists. It was on their transport policy, to reverse Beeching cuts with a new generation of railways as seen in, em, no other country in the world. What cost? They haven’t worked that out yet. But the money would come, Baker explained, from train companies in return for even longer franchises. One problem though: train operating companies don’t have money of their own other than what the taxpayer gives them – apart from Gatwick Express and a couple of others all rail franchises run at a substantial loss. (Their profit comes from the fact that the subsidy exceeds that loss.) You can bet this would be true with bells on for any obscure route they reopen for ecological reasons.