[Socialist Oraaniser is not iust a paper. NOW…]

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Socialist Oraaniser is not iust a paper. NOW that the Serpell Report has finally been published, it can be seen that. the various leaks to the press were more or less accurate.

There are six options on offer to the government and all suggest various sizes of railway smaller than the present 11,000 route miles - right down to the 'A' option of 1,600 miles, which would give Wales 31 miles of track, nothing in the South West, only 2 stations in Scotland and make such places as Sheffield and Leicester disappear from the railway map.

Dramatic

This dramatic option has got most coverage in the media, and the only people who have not rejected it outright have been the government and BR boss Sir Peter Parker.

So is this report to be rejected as the ramblings of a bunch of highly paid idiots or as the vested interests of a milionaire director of a road transport consultants company -as in Goldstein's minority report?

Kick

In many ways, yes, but it does have another purpose. And it is to do with it being easier to kick someone while they are down.

After the blows struck against railworkers, including Weighell's last act of getting the NUR AGM to accept the McCarthy 'award' which means the end of guards and more as the price of a 6% pay award which we still haven't had, Serpell is meant to soften us up even more.

Frighten the life out railworkers by harping about cutting the network down to 1,600 miles, and they'll think they done well to keep half of it.

Such a small network, or a profitable railway, are ridiculous suggestions when no railway in the world makes a profit. (BR is the least subsidised in Europe), and most countries are expanding their railways. But it is power to the hands of those who want to see railworkers make more sacrifices in jobs, pay packets and conditions.

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