The former chair of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), Adair Turner, has called on the government to be "more cautious" about austerity and expre...

During Thatcher's reign, few would have uttered the now-commonplace anti-political statement: "They're all the same as each other, so why should I vote for anyone". She gave people a reason to vote, one way or the other.

Hot on the heels of the Olympic we have been given yet another firmly entrenched tradition which will unite the nation. This time it's not a good one, in fact it a horrible and universally unpopular one. I am of course referring to the great annual railway robbery.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg have set out plans for a £9.4bn modernisation of the railways. The shadow transport secretary, Maria Eagle, says the ent...

Since privatisation the cost to the public purse of running the railways has risen by a factor of between two and three times.

Privatisation is often blamed for the shortcomings of Britain's railways. This is unfair. Genuine privatisation never happened. Nominal ownership may have been transferred to the private sector, but the government remains firmly in control.

In today's free market economy, there has to be a role of government whereby the principles of competition and improved customer delivery, particularly in the public services, are defined and refined for the greater good of society as a whole - and that part-owned private companies can be structured to be liable to perform to this greater good.