The fares hike is another kick in the teeth for long-suffering rail passengers.
The 2.8% increase will add an extra £100 to the cost of the average season ticket.
Even before this rise, we already had the highest prices in Europe. A 23-mile journey here costs four times a similar trip in France – and eight times one in Italy.
Passengers are paying more despite a year of timetabling chaos, delays and overcrowding.
Our broken system of privatisation sees state subsidies from the taxpayer funnelled into the pockets of shareholders.
The structure is so perverse it lets state-run foreign firms, who are involved in the running of 22 of the 28 operators, to fleece passengers to subsidise operations in their countries.
The Government aids this corporate greed by letting firms link ticket rises to the more expensive RPI rate of inflation, rather than the cheaper CPI. It could end this practice now.
Better still, it could show it was genuinely on the side of travellers by taking our railways under state control.
A rough deal
It is shameful thousands sleep rough every night in a nation as rich as ours.
And it is scandalous that at least 235 homeless people have died in the past six months.
Since the Tories took power in 2010 there has been a 165% increase in rough sleepers.
They are the victims of spiralling rents, a lack of temporary accommodation and a shortage of social housing.
To make matters worse, many homeless people are denied the support and healthcare they so desperately need.
A compassionate government would have felt a moral obligation to end this scandal.
Tikiiri torment
The harrowing images of Tikiiri, a 70-year-old elephant left close to death by her Sri Lankan owners, are a reminder of humankind’s capacity for cruelty.
Hopefully, the public outcry will result in her spending her remaining years being treated with the dignity and kindness she deserves.
