I WAS astonished and angered to read your report about Julian Roskams’ comments that our railway system should be re-nationalised (Gazette, January 9) with your reported reaction from our MP, Harriett Baldwin, that this was a “wacky, far-left socialist idea”.

Mrs Baldwin should be aware that for the last few years the East Coast mainline service had to be run by a public operator, when the previous private operator failed to make a go of it mid-franchise.

The subsequent record show that that state-run operator handed back handsome profits to the Exchequer – in contrast to the vast subsidies being paid out to Virgin and the rest to cover their incompetence.

These subsidies are over and above the repeated hikes in fares, which your leader comment quite rightly criticised.

The public are not stupid – polls show consistently that a majority of us want to see precisely the sort of re-nationalisation advocated by Cllr Roskams.

But Mrs Baldwin clearly doesn’t wish these inconvenient facts to derail the gravy train of rail privatisation that her party unleashed on us in the 90s, enriching the rail privateers at the expense of the taxpayer.

No doubt many of those robber barons are funding the Conservatives in return for preserving their cosy status quo.

Unfortunately, Mrs Baldwin may retain her seat under the iniquities of the first-past-the-post voting system which her party champions.

But with these stupid and contemptuous comments about us she has lost any remaining respect from a significant section of her constituents.

Steve Smart

Malvern