Does sport have an obligation to be entertainment? Monaco is the most gruelling feat of endurance for drivers in F1. Is sporting excellence not enough?
7/7 and 21/7 were committed by an internal threat. As was the Manchester Arena bombing, the assassinations of Jo Cox and David Amess and attempted assassination of Stephen Timms, the Streatham stabbings, the London Bridge attacks in 2017 and 2019, the Westminster car attack, Finsbury Park attack, 2017 Westminster attack, murder and attempted beheading of Lee Rigby, Glasgow Airport attack, London nail bombings, Exeter bombing attempt…..
But sure, we don’t need internal intelligence agencies at all.
After all, why would we want them to have thwarted the 2006 transatlantic airline bombing plot, Talbot Street bomb factory, 2007 London car bombs, Theresa May assassination plot, Exiled 393, attempted hospital bombing in Leeds, and many more that aren’t made public…
All? Not all. One village of indomitable Gauls station remains in private ownership, and that’s St Pancras. All other stations are owned by Network Rail and have been since 2002.
This is the first “franchise” to be cancelled, the others were franchises that are extant but run by the operator of last resort.
It’s not making a bigger splash because the Tories nationalised the entire network in 2020 by abolishing all the franchises and replacing them with management contracts, whereby the operators are paid a flat fee by DfT to run the service.
The pace of absorption by GBR is dictated by the franchise terms, and operators seem to be being allowed to reach the end of their contract terms if that is in the next couple of years, or else having their break clauses invoked when they come into eligibility.
And over decades, many of you didn’t care enough to vote those stains out. Here you reap the harvest of decades of apathy, laziness, performative “patriotism” and religion. Trump was an entirely predictable circumstance.
Apple spent millions per year in fines for decades just because Steve Jobs didn’t want illuminated fire exit signs polluting the decor of his Apple stores. Their cash reserves exceed $150bn. They won’t do anything they don’t want to do.
BUT BINKY IS A WHITE HORSE. WHO IS THIS IMPOSTER?