Editorial: Go-Ahead’s cock-up doesn’t look good for anybody
If ever a news story could capture a nation’s mood, the shooting of a stunning, rare white stag by police in Merseyside yesterday, apparently against the RSPCA’s advice, seems to sum up a general feeling of melancholy sweeping the shires.
The stag, we are informed by the powers that be, could have become a menace to motorists. Since most of Britain’s drivers appear to have been sat stationary in queues outside filling stations for the past few days, this seems a stretch.
To add to the general air of discontent we can now add yet another failure on our railways.
Go-Ahead Group had one of the more miserable days in recent corporate memory yesterday, losing not just a rail franchise, but its chief financial officer and a quarter of its value to boot.
Chairman Claire Hollingsworth said with admirable understatement that “mistakes were made.” Quite.
But what happened at Go-Ahead is of significance not just to those in the unfortunate position of holding their share at 7:59am yesterday morning.
Already, the usual suspects are out calling for the end of private sector involvement in the railways and a return to nationalisation.
There are now three services effectively run by the state, and a fourth will join early next year. In the not too distant future, the arms-length government body Great British Railways – the name surely soon to become a satirists’ dream – will also see the state edge ever more back into the life of our train network.
A return to British Rail would be welcomed only by those who didn’t have the misfortune of living through it the first time.
But more importantly, corporate botch-jobs like Go-Ahead’s reflect badly on capitalism, and the private sector, as a whole. The enemies of capitalism should not be given more ammunition.
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