The Government gravy train for nepotist continue to grow unabated. It is interesting even if status quo apologists like Chris Wolmar admit that the Channel Tunnel Link can hardly be described as private considering it has recently received £5.2bn of public money. Yet the man behind benefitting privately from privatised public schemes that the audit commission finds scandalous, Network Rail, British Energy.

Crossrail is promoted as an East West London publicly financed rail scheme. It is claimed Crossrail will have London-wide benefits even though it will primarily only serve the City and Canary Wharf by linking them to each other and Heathrow. Crossrail will leave poor communities in the East End of London with most of the harm from the scheme and taxpayers footing the bill for a flawed scheme that will cost £17bn according to the latest revisions by the promoters. Labour Mayor of London Ken Livingstone’s support for Crossrail and his lack of accountability to London’s communities is another example of his abuse of public monies.

In another report by a journalist Jack Johnson we find out the full history of Adrian Montague.

Jack Johnson reports on why tax payers should worry about the track record of Crossrail chairman Adrian Montague.
Adrian Montague isn’t a name that resonates with the public. This is strange considering his involvement in schemes and organisations that rely on his financial expertise alongside huge amounts of taxpayers money: PFI/PPP, British Energy and now Crossrail. In fact, Montague has a history of acquiring government subsidies – both Tory and Labour – for the private sector.
Montague’s biggest legacy is the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), which has since become the Private-Public Partnership (PPP). In 2000, he was made Sir Adrian Montague “for services to the private finance initiative”.
Under “New” Labour, the ex-City lawyer became the £160,000 a year head of Gordon Brown’s Treasury Taskforce on PFI. Montague extolled the virtues of PPP at an annual conference for Public-Private-Partnerships in 1999. “It is not enough for public authorities to decide what sort of deals they want, they must also be aware of what sort of deals the private sector is willing to do”, he proclaimed.
Montague helped John Major draw up the privatisaton of British Rail according to Red Pepper. But in 2000, John Prescott made him a member of the Strategic Rail Authority, which was designed to help fix the privatisation of British Rail. During a house of commons debate in May 2004, Joan Walley, MP asked “Why is the SRA not accountable for the way in which it runs its services? But Paul Marsden MP asked “Why has he not been able to find a way to stop the apparent abuse of taxpayers’ money? ”
His was then allowed him to “rescue” a failing PFI scheme: the collapsing Channel Tunnel Rail Link. According to the National Audit Office, “the taxpayer could be exposed to further financial risk of £360 million”.
Doubts about Adrian Montague delivering London taxpayers value for money remain.
During a commons debate on the 15 June 2004 Tim Yeo, MP said “Re-franchising agreements struck by the SRA have resulted in station cuts and longer journey times for London commuters”
Prescott also made him his Private Finance Adviser, focusing on the ppp (public private partnership) privatisation of London Underground. Leading transport author and journalist Christian Wolmar says: The ppp is not a good deal for London passengers or the Government and Adrian’s role was central in pushing it through.”
After becoming the Chairman of British Energy, Montague asked for a government bailout falling foul of EU law. In 2002 the EU ruled that - under a system to restrict state subsidies for failing companies that it was “illegal” for the company to receive a £410 million government payout. British Energy did eventually attain the government subsidy, but it made little difference. In February 2003, British Energy agreed a last-minute rescue deal with its creditors, saving it from administration.
In late 2004 the EU itself allowed around 6 billion Euros of taxpayers money to be given to British Energy. In response to this judgment, Jan Vande Putte of Greenpeace said: “This decision allows for billions of euros of taxpayers money to be squandered on an unsafe energy system, run by a company which is not capable of making itself viable without a massive financial prop”.
Adrian Montague is now focusing on the controversial Crossrail undertaking. After writing an “independent” Crossrail inquiry for the Secretary of State for Transport, he was appointed Chairman.
Crossrail led by Adrian Montague will be dipping into the (public) coffers of Transport for London (TfL) and the Department for Transport (DfT).