Steam Train Blues

With the August Bank Holiday almost here many of us would normally be heading for Kidderminster or Bridgnorth to indulge ourselves in a bit of nostalgia with a trip back in time along the Severn Valley Railway. There is no doubt that just seeing a steam engine at work lifts the sprits.

There is probably something deeply Freudian going on here. It can’t just be nostalgia for the days when all railways were steam hauled and children stood on the embankments waving as they went past, as they did so successfully in the Railway Children.

That would not explain the joy that modern children (of all ages) get from seeing steam when their only experience is a DVD of the ubiquitous Thomas. No, there is something about steam engines.

They seem to be alive and it’s not just with Thomas that we indulge in this anthropomorphism. All steam locomotives seem to have an element of humanity about them. They need a lot of fuel before they do any work, once they start they huff and puff about it, often stopping for a drink. I am sure we can all think of people with these characteristics.

Steam trains have been running up and down the Severn Valley since
February 1862. The line originally to carried a lot of freight; as there was china from Coalport, limestone from Wenlock, firebricks and tiles from Broseley, iron from Coalbrookdale, carpets from Bridgnorth and coal from Alveley and Highley. The line carried passengers too but I am sure in carrying over 200,000 people annually in recent years the line carries more passengers today between Bridgnorth and Kidderminster than were ever carried when the line was part of the national network.

Movement on the original line ceased in 1963 by which time most of the industry that had supported the line had disappeared and the valley, rather than being a centre of industry, was reverting to the natural beauty it had always possessed.

There is something deeply evocative about the country railway. The sunlit platform, birdsong and then, as Edward Thomas wrote so memorably, “The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat. No one left and no one came. On the bare platform. What I saw was Adelstrop – only the name”.

Well for Adelstrop read Arley, Highley or Hampton Load, what could be better than to run steam trains through this wonderful landscape?

The story that followed was a bit like that wonderful Ealing comedy the Titfield Thunderbolt except these people were in deadly earnest and their efforts at re-opening the line took many years of effort.

The story of the early years of the railway was full of characters like, Keith Beddoes who called the original Save the Railway meeting at the Coopers Arms in Kidderminster on 6th July 1965, and the MP, Sir Gerald Nabbaro who went on to chair the holding company.

They struggled against enormous odds for almost twenty years determined to create the railway we know and love today. Now the Severn Valley Railway is one of the most important tourist draws in the region. Thousands travel on the trains and thousands more come just to watch the steam over those blue remembered hills.

That was until this summer’s rain. Who would have thought that a summer shower would damage the line in 45 places, nine of them seriously, washing away sections of the track and undermining the track-bed causing some £2million worth of damage?

Today the railway is facing the greatest crisis in its long history. Over the years thousands of volunteers have kept this symbol of our industrial past alive lets us hope that, like John Garth who in 1965 gave the first five pounds to set the Save the Severn Valley Railway fund in motion, lots more five pounds will flow into the new fund that has been set up to rebuild this severely damaged railway.

For me the railway cannot return to normal running soon enough – it always will be the ideal way to spend a British Bank Holiday.

Whilst I never fail to enjoy my trips on the railway (or the first class real ale at the station bars at either end) I have always felt slightly disappointed that it only went as far as Bridgnorth. Nothing against Bridgnorth its market, cliff top walk with funicular and splendid views mean it is like a seaside promenade for Black Country folk.

Once the railway is back on its feet my dream is that they keep the fundraising going to raise sufficient cash to extend the line into the Ironbridge Gorge. The industrial legacy of the Gorge has made it a World Heritage Site but recreating the railway as part of the Gorge would add enormously to its tourist value. Imagine being able to arrive at the Ironbridge by steam-hauled train - now that would be a sight!

The Flood Damage Appeal can be reached at, The Severn Valley Railway, The Railway Station, Bewdley, DY12 1BG. Or go to: www.svr.co.uk/appeal

Happy Birthday India!

August the fifteenth 1947 is a date that will be forever in the memory of the people of the Indian sub-continent. It was the date when India was partitioned. Partition does not sound too bad a concept. But in the case of India it forced people to choose, tearing asunder thousands of years of integration to rip families and communities apart. It triggered one of the largest migrations in world history some five million people took to the road leading to terrible violence with the death of some half a million people.

So when later on this year this year the 60th year of independence of India and Pakistan is celebrated it will be tempered by the cost. Partition continues to divide the great states of Bengal and the Punjab and there is still the running sore of Kashmir. Today many of these divisions are still represented in the communities here in the Midlands. Many modern young people find it hard to believe when you look at the scale of India, a continent within itself with a population almost three times the European Union, that it was once ruled from a small island on the North West coast of Europe.

Despite that painful birth today India is on the move its economy is turning in consistent annual growth rates of eight and nine per cent. No mean feat in a country of over a billion people. The reforms of successive governments have at last begun to unleash the vast talent of India’s people. Sure there are problems, as any country would face undergoing an economic revolution, multiplied by the shear scale of the country. But the fact that they have been able to retain their secular democratic state during this revolutionary process is a great achievement.

It is worth remembering even all these years after partition that the Muslim population of India is greater than the total population of Pakistan. And despite the fact that Britain was responsible for the disaster that was partition there is still tremendous goodwill towards Britain. As well as the railway network we left them something else that helps to unite India, the lingua-franca of the modern global economy - English.

Today there are more people speaking English in India than the entire population of the United States. Listening to the great Sunil Gavasker, one of India’s greatest ever cricketers, on Test Match Special it’s a bit chastening to hear that he speaks better English than I do. This is not just true of the best Indian sports people it also true of India’s leaders in business and politics. Hardly surprising when you think of the competition they face to get to the top in such a vast nation.

The best of India are very good indeed their top people are fantastically articulate, have a global view and are very well educated. Not always characteristics that our leading politicians and business people have. This is way beyond our everyday perception of who and what Indian’s are. Yes they run the Curry House on the High Street, but they are also many of our best medical consultants. Yes India has some of the world’s poorest people but it also has some of the richest.

Sixty is a time of maturity and it is time that the relationship between Britain and India became more mature. Today it is India that is the superpower and we need to have a different relationship with this great nation. India is a land of opportunity and the challenges it faces in accommodating economic growth and the social and cultural changes that will come in its train will bring great opportunities. Many people and businesses here in Birmingham and the West Midlands have special links with India which offer us a chance to exploit these new opportunities but only if we drop the patronising tone of the past and enter into a modern relationship with the new India.

Multicultural Birmingham is a great Indian City. We need a set of new institutions to celebrate our partnership with the new India. As the former colonial power they know more about us than we know about them. There is no doubt that Indian style is having a big effect on British fashion and design. How about a new gallery for contemporary Indian art including a cinema complex for Indian movies? How about a new joint venture between a major Indian University and one of Birmingham’s universities’s to create an Institute dedicated to Anglo-Indian understanding? Giving us greater insight into modern Indian politics, culture, law and business.

As a post-industrial City Birmingham seems to be looking for a new purpose - well there will not be a single purpose - there will be many but one of them could and should be as a gateway to India.

After all we have already adopted their cuisine. More popadoms anyone?

Keeping the Midlands Moving

It is rare for the West Midlands to agree about anything. The capital can usually ignore us because rather than hear one voice they hear a cacophony. Yet almost everyone in Birmingham and the West Midlands seems to agree that traffic congestion is endangering the economy. All of our modes of transport are bursting at the seams. Look at the M42, M6 or New Street Station.

There is simply no spare capacity on any of our modes of transport. That is why there is such chaos when there is the slightest disruption to traffic at peak times.

We have been investing in our infrastructure. But after fifteen years of continuous economic growth we have not invested as quickly as the traffic has grown. So despite the M6 toll and other road improvements and huge investment in the West Coast mainline the infrastructure is getting worn out faster than we are replacing it. And as for increasing capacity forget it.

Gerry Blackett CEO of Birmingham Chamber recently indicated how with a relatively modest spend we can eliminate some of the key pinch-points in our transport networks. But the existing networks do not reflect the needs of the present economy. Key major routes say Birmingham to Southampton or Birmingham to Lowestoft do not have sensible rail routes for containers.

It is equally absurd that all road traffic from Manchester to Bristol has so long to look at Bescot Stadium as it leaves the M6 to join the M5 that it has become a prime advertising site. Similarly the main road from Dublin to the Hook of Holland has to go around two small islands as it leaves the M6 to try and gain access to the A14. I am sure we all have our own favourite absurdities in the transport network and this is before we get into trams or airports.

The Seven West Midlands Councils and Centro have sent the Government their wish list with a £4.6 billion price tag. A bit steep when you think we currently get only £90 million a year for the whole region for major transport projects.

For a change it seems we know what we want. But we are kidding ourselves if we think the Government is going to pay for it.

The fact is we need an income stream that reflects the growth in the economy. It must be clear to everyone by now that our politicians are not going to ask the wider electorate to vote for higher taxes to pay for better transport systems. The Centro bill shows they can be very expensive and there is already the £3.5 billion to widen parts of the M6. The electorate have good reason to distrust politicians the temptation to rob long term spending on infrastructure for short term spending on more eye catching things is very difficult to resist.

So the real question is, if not from HMG, where is the money to come from?

The fact that the recently announced improvements to our rail network are mainly to be paid for by passengers is a clear signal. The user is going to have to pay.

We must look again at road pricing. Some argue that vehicles are already paying enough tax for using the roads and that any system would be a tax too far. Or that we should wait for a national system – the cost of such a system will I fear out strip our ability to implement it.

The challenge we have I think is to decide what the issue is we are seeking to tackle. Do we wish to increase the capacity of our networks or do we want to choke off some demand for movement by price?

The fear for many who hear about road pricing is all they hear is the latter. Many people cannot afford to live where they work and to further punish them by increasing their already excessive transport costs does not seem fair. But this is the uncomfortable truth road pricing has to do a bit of both, increase capacity and change behaviour. For a tax to relieve congestion - it has to be high enough to change what people do and there is no doubt if there is no pain there is no gain. It will hurt those less able to pay and also will hurt disproportionately those businesses that have to deliver into the congested areas.

The real choice we have is unplanned rationing by congestion which has a cost but does not generate any revenue. Or to attempt to raise revenue from congestion with road pricing which at least offers a new revenue stream for capacity improvements. And surely we can come up with varying the charges for essential deliveries or for essential workers.

We will never be able to have enough capacity to satisfy the demand if everyone decides to go to the same place at the same time but we can get nearer to matching demand with supply and thereby not choke off the economy.

If we do not do this the gap between the transport systems we need and what we have will get wider and wider and with it the attraction of the region as a place to invest, work, visit or live.

Have US HealthcAre Costs Sunk Jaguar

There is no doubt that the US automakers are in trouble, GM, Ford and Chrysler are all giants struck low. Chrysler was recently sold to private equity partners Cerberus Capital Management and both GM and Ford have been struggling to reduce their cost base. The big weight around their necks are the historic costs of pensions and in particular, in the US, health insurance costs which have always been a major part of contact negotiations with the powerful United Autoworkers Union.

What changed the structure of the US auo industry was the arrival of the Japanese, first Honda then, Toyota and Nissan locating plants on green field sites far away from the historic centre of the industry in Detroit. With new employment practices, state of the art plant and workers from outside the traditional auto industry culture they where able to create an industry with a much lower cost base.

This year Toyota overtook GM as the world's largest auto makers and in the last financial year struggling to adjust to this new environment Ford lost £6.5billion. With sales falling across all its product range US commentators warn that this summers contract negotiations between Ford and the United Auto Workers could be brutal with the Union determined to defend the system of job banks which keeps idle workers on the payroll to maintain contracted US employment levels.

Ford synonymous as a mass market brand had pursued a strategy of trying to take the company up market in search of higher margins. This was partly achieved by buying 'up market brands' like Mercury and Lincoln in the US, Sweden's Volvo and Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover in Britain.

Initially they sought to integrate these businesses into the Premium Automotive Group. The hopes that integration woulkd reduce costs whilst maintaining brand values have only been partly met. In the UK Land Rover has probably been the most successful in Ford ownership. BMW, the previous owners, had developed a new product development and introduction process at Land Rover. This resulted in the new Range Rover, The Range Rover Sport and the Discovery 3, which have all been well received by customers.

Aston Martin too has a good product range but it is always going to be a small prestige brand. Ford sold the marque to Prodrive and there is no reason the brand cannot continue to be a player in the very high value auto market allow at low volumes.

Jaguar is however in a much more difficult position. There was a great deal of heart searching when the firm left its historical home in Coventry. For many industry commentators however that plant closure was too little too late.

Jaguar seems to have managed to get both its product strategy and its production strategy wrong. The vehicle that was to be the flagship for the company was the X-Type the "baby jag" that was to take on BMW.

The car was a retro design looking back to the Mark 2 "Inspector Morse" style. The Morse program was very popular when the car was being designed. The Rover 75 launched very close to the X-Type also looked back to what was perceived to be the golden age of British car design in the 1950's and costs where cut by using Ford components under the bonnet sadly whilst a lot of people said they liked this style of the vehicle not in sufficient numbers to sustain either model and no one wants to pay extra for a Jaguar that looks like a Rover.

The X-Type never reached the 250,000 levels of production that may have justified having a production strategy that included a third plant at Halewood on Merseyside. Whilst Jaguar manged to increase production across the product range from 50,000 to 150,000 this was not enough to support three production sites. Halewood with its supply chain up and down the M6 may have been closer to the USA the main market for Jaguar than Castle Bromwich, in Birmingham, but not close enough.

The introduction of new product in Jaguar has been too slow and the production base too expensive. With the US as their main market a rising pound and sinking dollar means that the argument that Jaguar, like BMW, should produce cars in the US rather than Liverpool has never been stronger.

Jaguar and Land Rover are both iconic recognisable global brands but to compete globally they need the global volumes they need to be profitable - that means they need to be produced globally. At the very least in Asia, the US and in Europe.

The current owners have clearly run out of patience and cash. The new owners if they are to turn around these companies and retain the 50,000 jobs that are dependent on them will need both cash and patience but they will also need flair and ambition if these iconic brands are to become the world beaters they deserve to be.

At least however much we complain about the National Health Service UK healthcare costs will not be a mill stone around the necks of the new owners.

RISING BROWN WATER

What did for George Bush's Republican Party in the mid term elections was not just the continuing quagmire in Iraq but the complacency and incompetence of the Federal authorities in dealing with the terrible floods in New Orleans.

The disaster unfolding on live national and international television showed the world how out of touch central government was with its own people.

It has been rather surreal watching our TV news over the past week seeing how disconnected some of our politicians have become from the concerns of our people. This was made apparent to me when I saw Sheffield MP David Blunkett carefully polishing Tony Blairs halo. This at a time when the home of Sheffield Wednesday was - in high summer- under water. His constituents had been struck by an almost biblical tsunami and had abandoned their homes and businesses.

I suspect had any journalists asked someone wading through three feet of water in his living room what he thought of Tony Blair's legacy he would have received short shrift.

Now our ex- PM is going to Jerusalem to act as a peace envoy. Of course we all wish him the very best of luck. Peace is a precious thing. But given his record on the Middle East, well what is a man who has been incapable of coming up with a transport policy or a health policy that works or now apparently being unable to keep us dry in high summer going to do to bring to a political, economic, cultural and religious conflict that has been going on for the best part of a century is hard to fathom.

The national media have become part of the problem when it comes to this disconnect between politicians and the people they are meant to serve. There are thousands of column inches and hours of speculation on who will fill this or that position and what it all means. This is truly the time when yesterdays papers are fit only for chip wrappers.

The contrast between regional and national coverage is stark. As the national press obsesses if a Tory or Lib Dem will be junior minister for paper clips it has been left to the regional press to ask why half the country is under water?

The regional press is asking the hard questions and expressing the real concerns of the people whilst the national media have been searching for Tony Blair's legacy.

Well part of that legacy is the inadequate flood defences in South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and here in Shropshire and Worcestershire. The Environment Agency and the Association of British Insurers had warned us repeatedly about the inadequacies of our flood protection systems and as long as ten years ago academics at Sheffield Hallam University warned about the weaknesses in that city's flood defences.

The safety of citizens has to be a governments first priority as John Reid was always reminding us. But safety is about much more than terrorism.

Water is a vital resource for farmers and many of our key process industries but we cannot manage with hose pipe bans one day and floods the next. Here in the West Midlands the Regional Assembly and Development Agency are rewriting the regional economic strategy, does it contain a policy for water? Does our regional spatial strategy take into account the likelihood of what the climate scientists call, "extreme weather events"?

Responding to these issues will require some of those hard choices politicians are so fond of. Choices like serious reafforestation in Mid- wales and the Marches, the abandonment of flood plains to soft flood defences like wet land and marshes. This will require us to say no to inappropriate development whilst still requiring a significant budget to protect what already exists.

It is not as if we are not capable of looking after our own water supplies and drainage systems. We know how to do this the City of Birmingham was building pipelines from Mid-Wales before most of us where born.

In New Orleans the US Federal Government response was too little too late - the impact of flooding on that great city destroying the homes and businesses of thousands of people but also destroying the reputation of George Bush in the process. Let us hope Gordon Brown does not make the same mistake.

One of the key messages from his lengthy non-election campaign was the need to reconnect the political class with the British people. Here is his chance to make a new start he was too slow to go to Sheffield and Gloucester go to Gloucester and Upton find out what they need and get it too them.

Tony Blair's gravest fault was to mistake headlines for action. Good government gets a good press for good works. If Gordon Brown is looking for a new motto it should be - by your works shall you be known.

YAM-YAM's AM WE

Historically Birmingham and its very near neighbour the Black Country have enjoyed a close but separate existence. Birmingham's reputation as the workshop of the world was underpinned by the coal and steel supplied from the Black Country. Withe the massive transformation of their economies in the 1980's and 90's there is no doubt that Birmingham recovered a sense of purpose much more quickly than the Black Country becoming the thriving multicultural centre it is today.

The Black Country has always had very close communities despite the view from Birmingham that everybody in the Black Country is a Yam-Yam. For those unfortunate enough not to come from Birmingham or the Black Country, Yam-Yam is an affectionate onomatopoeic term for us Black Country folk based on the sound of our accent. Local history experts however tell us that the tightness of each local community in the Black Country is such that each small community generated its own accent. Indeed it is said that even communities in such close proximity as Bilston and Bradley or Dudley and Gornal had distinctive local dialects.

It was the strength of these local communities that held the place together in the dark days of the industrial restructuring in the 1980's. Today whilst many people think that Birmingham needs to rediscover a sense of purpose the Black Country has been quietly breaking out of those tight communities and getting on with it.

The four Black Country Boroughs, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton have been working on Black Country wide development plans which have begun to change both the perception and the destiny of this important sub-region. Today this sense of renewal is well represented in Gordon Browns new Government.

The man with Gordon's ear, his Parliamentary Private Secretary is Dudley North MP, Ian Austin. Ian cut his political teeth on Dudley Council before becoming the press officer for the Regional Labour Party progressing by replacing the infamous Charlie Whelan as Gordon Brown's press spokesman before becoming the MP for the town in which he lived.

Across in West Bromwich we have Tom Watson, from Kidderminster, former curry house plotter; now given the responsibility of protecting Labour's majority in the government whips office. Tom has found his true vocation; his skills have always been in organisation, firstly, with Young Labour, then in the Engineers Union, before being one of Labour's key by-election specialists, he is currently working in Ealing Southall, indeed Liam Byrne MP now 'Mr West Midlands' owes a his by-election victory in large part to Tom's hard work in Hodge Hill.

In Wolverhampton South East we have Pat McFadden, another rising star on of the few who worked in No 10 to have been on good terms with the Blairites and the Brownites.Edinburgh University educated Pat first made a name for himself by being one of the most effective members of John Smith's team before going onto work in government with Tony Blair. He was spotted by 'Lord Bilston, Dennis Turner, the towns longstanding MP. For many Bilstonians Dennis was a Lord long before he received the official confirmation. Dennis is a shrewd politician who was aware that his beloved constituency had gone through a fundamental change and that nostalgia for a past industrial glory was not going to equip Wolverhampton to compete in this new world.

Pat is now Minister of State at the new Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. An important set of issues for many businesses across the Black Country.

The last member of the quartet is Ian Pearson MP. One of the few MP's to represent the constituency in which he was born, another who cut his political teeth on Dudley Council but who has a few years extra parliamentary experience than his colleagues having come into the house following the Labour landslide in the Dudley West by-election. Ian, a Brierley Hill Grammar School boy, who has a reputation for being rather clever, with his Oxford degree and Masters and a Doctorate from Warwick University, did have a life before politics being joint Chief Executive of the West Midlands Enterprise Board.

Today Ian is Minister of State in the new Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills, with responsibility for Science. A Black Country lad responsible for the nations science!

As an unapologetic Yam-Yam I feel that it is great to see so many high fliers being attracted to a place that once exported its best talent and to see Black Country MP's making the decisions rather than just making up the numbers. After all the Black Country is and important place with a population larger than Birmingham, Leeds or Manchester or for that matter Edinburgh and Glasgow added together.

At last it is getting the kind of political representation it deserves. This quartet certainly have the youth, energy and intelligence on their side to be able to turn that Black Country marketing slogan from rhetoric into reality - Black Country Bright Future.

Nick Matthews is a Son of Wednesbury or 'Ikea Junction Nine' as it is now known.

Dope at University: Not Me

I see it is now fashionable for cabinet ministers to admit to smoking cannabis at University. Including our own Worcester Woman no less than the Home Secretary Jaqui Smith. When I wonder will it be fashionable for my own vice to reach such high levels of respectability. Yes I can now admit it, having studied at what was Wolverhampton Poly, I like a nice pint of Mild. Even Banks's can't bring themselves to call their famous beverage mild any longer preferring the epithet "Original". It is now time I think for us Mild lovers to come out of the closet. Yes let us proclaim we are "born to drink mild".