Tory chaos reaches the railways

Christian Woolmar, one of the leading commentators on all matters rail, starts off:

So much happening all bunched together, that I have had no time to blog - how do those professional bloggers do it, and earn their living as well?

Then we come to his attempts to interface with Tory party over the high speed rail announcement:

My recent dealings with the Tories confirms that they are in a real mess. I was asked by the New Statesman to do a big set piece interview with Theresa Villiers for a pre-election issue. I then proceeded to ring her office every day for a week, left messages but never received a call back. I was then given the name of a press officer at Central Office who, again, never returned my calls and then decided to turn the interview request down but when I pressed him as to the reason, it was clear that he had never even asked her.

While conceivably the Tories might be reluctant to talk to a left of centre magazine, one would have thought that they would have enough confidence about their ideas to give the interview. It might even have got them some publicity. But worse was the incompetence. For it to take more than two weeks, and about 15 phone calls for me to get an answer out of them suggests they really have no idea.

Woolmar is not alone with his comments on how the Tories have handled this important but non-political announcement.