DEFENDERS of the Starmer government on the left habitually point to its intention to renationalise the railways as an earnest of its radicalism amid so many counter-indicators.

It is not a claim that stands up to much scrutiny. The more details emerge, the less Labour’s plans look anything like the integrated publicly owned railway the country needs.

As is well known, the Tories did not just privatise the network, they shattered it into hundreds of fragments, separating track from train operation, maintenance from both and train ownership from everyone else.