Tbh Blair's biggest mistake (well there's a lot of them) was not trying to push harder to nationalize it. Talking to my tory relatives they seem to think it's mad that Major sold it off-heck didn't Thatcher call it the poll tax on wheels?
The problem is that Burnham looks rather like he's trying to copy Corbyn. He's had to ditch his whole campaign plan of not looking too left wing since he expected to be fighting Cooper
The interesting thing is that since privatisation there has been a dramatic spike in passenger numbers according to this graph:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/GBR_rail_passengers_by_year.png
Maybe people are in favour of nationisation in an abstract way without thinking carefully about what British Rail was actually like to use on a day-to-day basis before 1995.
But, does a correlation exist? Or the rise is due to young people having less car + train seen as more green than a car for long travel? Or a mix of these?
And, even then, why it would suddently run badly as soon it's nationalized?
