Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Paul Maynard and Dennis Skinner(7 years, 3 months ago)
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Paul Maynard
It is entirely right to say that passenger information during disruption is something that all train operating companies and Network Rail need to improve. Not only do we need a single source of information that is consistent, but it needs to provide the most up-to-date information. It is not acceptable for people who have checked their phones on leaving home and thought that their train was on time to find, by the time they get to the station, that the train has been cancelled. That is not good enough.
Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)
Will the Secretary of State reject the new proposal of a spur line from HS2 in the constituency of Bolsover between Hilcote and Morton? Not only will it cut the Blackwell council in two, but it will destroy scores of houses in the village of Newton. Will he have a look at the letter I have sent him, in order to pacify the people of Blackwell about this mad idea?
Sittings of the House (Wednesday 17 April)
Debate between Paul Maynard and Dennis Skinner(11 years ago)
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Mr Skinner
So who owns Orange and T-mobile? Have a guess. France and Germany! Who owns Cellnet and O2? Spain! Who owns Arriva buses? The German Deutsche Bank!
Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)
I am listening carefully to the hon. Gentleman’s diatribe, and to his list of privatised utilities. May I suggest that he gets a new researcher? EDF stands for Électricité de France and it has been French for as long as it has existed. Please will he get a new researcher, to put him out of his misery as well as ours?
Mr Skinner
Yes, the hon. Gentleman has made his own case. Gatwick is owned by South Korea; Cadbury’s is owned by the United States; the M6 toll is owned by Australia’s Macquarie bank—on and on it goes. We could, then, talk about bringing the public utilities back into public ownership.
The whole concept of Thatcher was to divide and rule. She was also the one who said that “There is no such thing as society”—