0605 [0558] Hrs GMT
London
Wednesday
19 May 2010.
By © Muhammad Haque.
I have posted a few minutes ago the following brief rejoinder to the SPECTATOR magazine [London] promotion of Phillip Hammond as having stated his commitment London Crossrail scam. I shall in the very near future update the KHOODEELAAR! diagnosis of CROSSRAIL and its peddlers beyond the point where I ended the comment to the Spectator. It will be 'interesting' to see what, if any, answers the Spectator magazine can find to some of the questions that I have contextually included in my rebuttal of the latest promotion of CRASSrail.
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You quote Phillip Hammond as saying
"It's happening, it's being built, spades are in the ground… We are making sure that in delivering the project we absolutely optimise value for money."
Questions:
Has Hammond audited the granting of £100million by Alistair Darling [who as Hammond's predecessor in that post in December 2005 made that sum available under S 6 of the dubiously enacted Railways Act 2005, to CLRL]? Unless of course it is ‘assumed’ that £100million of UK public money is peanuts and is unworthy of a ‘fuss’! What about Rod Eddington’s report? Eddington had been appointed by Gordon Brown [while Chancellor of the Exchequer] to look at the Railways and, as Channel 4 News reported on 5 October 2007 advised Brown AGAINST Crossrail. Where is ANY objective evidence that Simon Jenkins [EVENING STANDARD web site and prints, 28 –30 April 2009] is wrong to argue against CrossRail, urging Boris Johnson to prioritise the ‘bankrupt tube’ infrastructure of London? Saying ‘absolutely optimising’ things is one thing, getting the transport economics right about London is quite another. There is no evidence so far that Hammond has spoken in your quote with independent knowledge of his ‘brief’. Let alone with any different [far less ‘higher’] standard of accountability than could be found in the conduct of any of the four occupants in that post AFTER Alistair Darling: Alexander, Kelly, Hoon and Adonis]. But then nor did Alistair Darling who had introduced the ‘Crossrail Bill’ in the House of Commons in February 2005 by making false statement on which I have challenged him dozens of times. As David Laws has ‘found’, the legacy of Alistair Darling via that Liam Byrne ‘note’ is not a good one to cite in promoting Hammond! And this is even before contextually constitutionally examining the role of an ‘aide’ to Douglas Alexander [Darling’s immediate successor As Secretary of State at the DfT] as the USA Bechtel Corp’s chief enforcer upon the UK Parliamentary bureaucracy in implementing the de facto passage of the ‘Crossrail Bill’ into the ‘Crossrail Act’ [2008], as reported by the Private Eye magazine!