IT IS interesting that the hardline Brexiteer, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, claims that leaving the EU, and by definition the single market, is about being patriotic.

However, as mentioned in the Press on December 31, he is happy to allow EU governments (France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy) to run our privatised railways, but also argues that the UK government is not competent to run the East Coast Line.

As anyone who uses the East Coast route knows, when the previous franchise failed in 2009 and was taken over until February 2015 by the East Coast (UK) it was more efficient, cheaper and also all profits (>£1 billion) were paid to the Government and then reinvested in the railway rather than being paid to shareholders.

Surely, the truly patriotic action would be to renationalise the East Coast so that it is run by the UK Government rather than an EU Member State government?

Or, as I suspect, is Chris Grayling’s decision based on a hard-right political ideology in which the train service, UK economy and quality of passenger service is unimportant compared to the pursuit of his own political ideology.

Helen Webster, Main Street, Fulford, York