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Railways

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, for introducing the debate this afternoon. I am acutely aware of my limitations in this because I have no background in the railway industry. I do, however, understand technology a little. Whenever I talk to anyone who has expertise on the railway industry outside this House, one name always comes up: that of the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley. He is not some anorak who will tell you some obscure detail about the utilisation of a particular piece of rolling stock. He had a substantial track record, and few noble Lords can match his experience. He continues his excellent work with his chairmanship of the Rail Freight Group. The noble Lord teased me slightly about our policy on these Benches, but actually we are quite enjoying watching the business flourish in the private sector and in the way he described. He said that in the UK we were about 30 years ahead of our EU partners. I noted the comments made by the noble Lord, Lord Dykes. Like the noble Lord, Lord Graham of Edmonton, I am not quite sure why the noble Lord did not join Liberal Democrats much earlier than he did. But it would be quite easy for me to be really—