[A-List] UK corporate state

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

Here's a revealing article telling us something about Tony's "big tent"
strategy, and the new party-network nexus that Blair and co. have been
busily constructing for the last 8 years.


Ian McAllister knows cars. Now can he get the trains moving?
By Marie Woolf Chief Political Correspondent
The Independent, 26 March 2002

Ian McAllister, a former chairman of Ford UK, is the businessman charged
with the formidable task of running the UK's rail infrastructure.

Given the public opprobrium that was heaped on Gerald Corbett, the
former chief executive of Railtrack and in effect one of Mr McAllister's
predecessors, it is not a job that many would envy. He will run Network
Rail - or CLG, the company limited by guarantee, as it was known until
yesterday - the not-for-profit company created by the Government to take
over Railtrack.

At 58, Mr McAllister has the pedigree for the role, having once been
tipped as a contender to run the Strategic Rail Authority. He has sat on
a number of public bodies, including the Cleaner Vehicles Task Force, of
which he is co-chairman, and the Qualifications and Curriculum
Authority.

He retired after 38 years at Ford last year, and is highly rated in
government circles, where it is believed that he can give the network
strategic direction. He was described by a former colleague in an
interview as "a typical Ford senior manager, in that he is something of
a bully - but what's unusually refreshing is that he's almost always
right".

And Mr McAllister will be familiar with heading a company in financial
difficulty: in 1990, Ford UK made record pre-tax losses of £660m.

Network Rail will have the power to raise money on the capital markets,
including billions of pounds of loans from City banks. But it will also
be backed by a £300m grant from the Government and will be able to
raise funds from the sale of assets from Railtrack group.

Surprisingly, others want to share Mr McAllister's responsibilities.
David James, the businessman who was brought in to rescue the Millennium
Dome, maintained yesterday that his Swiftrail consortium may still have
a part to play in Britain's rail infrastructure.

Swiftrail, a private consortium backed by the German bank WestLB, is in
talks with Network Rail and will be seeking assurances from the
Transport Secretary, Stephen Byers, that its offer will receive a fair
hearing.

Mr James has a reputation as a corporate troubleshooter capable of
reviving the fortunes of struggling companies like Railtrack, a record
that has earned him the nickname of the Red Adair of the business world.

As well as the Dome, his talents have been turned to Dan-Air, the
airline, and the British Shoe Corporation.

Brought up in Blackheath, south-east London, Mr James started his career
with Lloyds before working, by coincidence, with Ford and then for an
insolvency specialist. One of his assignments was with the English
Symphony Orchestra, in which he became involved after the discovery of a
scam.

He also worked for Eagle Trust, where he spotted the resemblance between
some steel pipes and an enormous gun muzzle while on a visit to a
subsidiary of the industrial firm. He reported his suspicions to MI6. It
turned out that he had unearthed some of the earliest evidence that
British companies were making parts of a supergun destined for Iraq.

Full article at:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/story.jsp?story=278471

Michael Keaney
Mercuria Business School
Martinlaaksontie 36
01620 Vantaa
Finland

michael.keaney@xxxxxx