The rail industry is sucking on the teat of public subsidy and its bosses are a bunch of wet wipes, says Jacob Rees-Mogg

That's a normal thing for trade unionists to say. In some ways, it's the job of a trade union leader to get more money for his members, in spite of the fact that ASLEF has rejected an offer that would have seen train driver salaries reach £65,000.

With overtime included, some drivers are already taking home salaries that put them in the top 5% of earners in the country.

But the more illuminating part of this story is that the rail bosses are a bunch of wet wipes.

The government has passed legislation enabling these companies to keep minimum services of at least 40% of normal operations but all 18 operators affected by the strikes have avoided this.

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One had a go, was even wetter and had a very feeble little effort to use the legislation. But then ASLEF said they would go on strike for five more days, so they backed down.

This is so feeble, so utterly wet. The rail industry is just sucking on the teat of public subsidy.

It's your money. It's the railway’s gravy train. Last year alone you paid rail companies nearly £12 billion in subsidies.

They are happy taking your money. The whole point of privatising rail services was to make them stand on their own two feet.

But by giving them endless subsidies - free money as they call it themselves - we have enabled them to exploit you, the taxpayer.

In other words, the rail companies could have softened the blow of these strikes significantly, avoiding the inconvenience for millions across the country.

But because of the endless flow of free money provided by you, they refused to try.

The point of free markets is that businesses have to feel the consequences of their decisions.

When we subsidise businesses, these consequences cease to exist.

The rail bosses pick up very generous salaries in part paid for by you, while you can't get to work.

And then, they are so unutterably wet. I think it's time the government stood up more to the rail companies, and so they don't make use of legislation provided keep trains running, they should lose some of their subsidies.