Total number of UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 425
Robert Adley is a forgotten hero from the past.
He was a strongly opinionated Tory MP who was denied a knighthood because he had a working brain.
He chaired the Transport Select Committee in 1993. He skillfully persuaded the committee and its Tory majority to oppose the Privatisation of the Railways. It was a remarkably prophetic report. The conventional wisdom of the day was that other privatisations worked and reduced costs. So would this one. That's what PM John Major thought.
The Daily Mirror reports that, 'In the years leading up to privatisation – which came into force in 1994 – British Rail was supported by Government money to the tune of between £988million and £1.6billion, averaging £1.14billion.
Yet last year Network Rail was subsidised by the taxpayer at a cost of £3.96billion".
Robert Adley died a few days before his report was published. He had a train named after him. I was proud to have served on that committee and honour Robert Adley's memory.
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