Jim Ratcliffe is turning to Trump instead of 'negative' Britain while Starmer gives train drivers £600 for overtime - Kelvin MacKenzie

So, as trains became as rare as a Labour minister buying their own suit, Aslef demanded, and their members received, a 75% rise in Sunday overtime payments. The negotiation was simple; No money, no trains. What an incredible state of affairs for an industry which, to many, is their life blood either for work or play.

Even with that deal anybody who takes trains regularly knows it’s a lottery. On Sunday a mate of mine went from Weybridge to Southampton via Woking) for the Spurs game and train after train was cancelled. The explanation; shortage of train crew. The railways is simply a symptom of a nation in trouble.

A nation where Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a council house lad who went on to make an £21 billion fortune, says Britain is too ‘’negative’’ and so he’s putting his company’s money into Trump’s America rather than here because Labour have raised tax on his net profits to a staggering 78%.

Who can blame him?

And you really have to worry about our nation when the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) shows UK companies are shedding jobs at the fastest rate since the global financial crisis of 2009. I guarantee that the UK will already been in a minor recession.

It’s clearly not only Starmer’s fault, but he has actually made it worse. The Tories were shockers. Spending money they knew we didn’t possess. And they were supposed to be the numerate party. The ones who could actually add up. That turned out to be untrue.

My bet is it will take at least three years before the memory of what the Tories did over the last 14 years is erased and replaced by Starmer’s wholesale attack on the middle classes by Starmer.

The people I feel most sorry for right now is anybody running a small business of say 5-10 people. The hours a long, the pain of losing contracts is enormous and the with Labour’s new industrial laws the power lies exclusively on the side of the employee/worker.

I have my doubts that if Sir Jim Ratcliffe set out today from his council house background in Failsworth in Greater Manchester, whether he could have created the same success.

A chemical engineering degree was followed by an MBA and then a career in industry Courtaulds and Esso. Finally he came to the crossroads.

Continue with his successful life or take a risk. He decided to gamble. After a pow wow with the family he mortgaged the house and then set out with a business partner and a private equity backer to buy his first business.

The bet worked. Today Ineos is a global success in the chemical industry which means they put their money down where they think it will give the greatest return. And that means America.

What it doesn’t mean is the UK.

The future lies with the Jim Ratcliffe’s of this world and not with train drivers. Until Starmer ( and other political leaders) understands this we will not make the best of ourselves.