Railtrack mentioned in PMQ'S???

[Bodie]

I may have been missing something but did anyone else see David Cameron's reply at PMQ's to one Caroline Flint's question about the need for UK steel?

His answer started by mentioning 'organisations' that they, the government had been dealing with to get I assume orders for UK steel.

One of the 'organisations' he gave was RAILTRACK!!!!

I had to rewind a few times to make sure I heard it right.

Did Cameron really just refer to a company that ceased to exist nearly 14 years ago!!!

If I'm right it that one utterance could sum up politicians knowledge of the railways and frankly real life.

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

Yes...

My copy of Hansard (Yep, I get an email and a paper copy!) indicates he did indeed say this

Caroline Flint (Don Valley) (Lab):
There will never be a future where we do not need steel, but the Government are spending millions of pounds to compensate for the loss of UK steelmaking. Will the Prime Minister send a clear signal today to potential investors in our UK steel industry that he will do whatever it takes to back a sustainable, cutting-edge UK steel industry in the future? We want more steel that is used in the UK and across the world to be stamped “Made in Britain”.

The Prime Minister:
I completely agree with the right hon. Lady. We want to support our steel industry, which is why we are taking action on procurement. If we consider what we have done through our Royal Navy, and what we can do through Railtrack and other organisations, we should back British Steel. We will also exempt heavy energy users such as British Steel from the higher electricity charges, and that rather goes to the questions asked by the Leader of the Opposition. If we endlessly push up bills for everybody else, it costs even more to exempt the high energy users, and that is why we need a balanced programme. Everything that we can do to help British Steel— including a clear infrastructure plan that the House will hear a bit more about in a moment—is all to the good.

Now, whilst Hansard has printed it as Railtrack, it could be a simple typograpical error and it should read as "rail track" meaning the railway lines. Although, to be fair, his mind was off the ball today as his PPS, one Chris Martin, had died from cancer just that morning.

 

[mikeg]

Having seen the PMQs on repeat on BBC Parliament, he definitely says 'Railtrack' and the fact he refers to it as an organisation says it all.

Seems odd we have a prime minister who doesn't know the name of the state company his government want to sell tiny pieces of...

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

Well to be fair to Mr Cameron, I have sometimes referred to Network Rail as Railtrack - mind you, I sometimes call Northern Rail "Northern Spirit"!

As I said before, though, his mind may have been wondering on other things given the death of his PPS that morning

 

[Condor7]

Having seen the PMQs on repeat on BBC Parliament, he definitely says 'Railtrack' and the fact he refers to it as an organisation says it all.

Seems odd we have a prime minister who doesn't know the name of the state company his government want to sell tiny pieces of...

For goodness sake at worst it was a slip of the tongue, let's not turn it into making political brownie points.

 

[Murph]

For goodness sake at worst it was a slip of the tongue, let's not turn it into making political brownie points.

I strongly agree. There's no sign of any attempt to deceive, obfuscate, spin, or anything else that politicians do to facts and the truth. The PM isn't someone who normally spends significant chunk of time dealing with the railway, so he's not someone who uses the various organisational names routinely. Railtrack and Network Rail are de facto the same organisation, it's only the legal basis and ownership that has changed. Additionally, the current name of "Railtrack plc" is "Network Rail Infrastructure Limited", so one can even argue that they are de jure the same organisation.

It was a very simple and entirely honest mistake that anyone who does not deal with the railway daily could make. Additionally, I would be highly surprised if the vast majority of the members of the house did not immediately understand who he was really referring to.

 

[DarloRich]

I think he means NR - i am suprsied Hansard haven't "clarified" the test

 

[MarlowDonkey]

British Steel as a Company doesn't exist either. It merged with the Dutch group Corus which was then taken over by Tata. So his comments should read British steel, to just mean steel made in the UK. Unless he still thinks there is a Company of that name.