Hello!


Welcome to my website!

It should give you an idea of what I’m up to, as well as copies of recent articles and lectures.

Please look at ‘categories – current news’ to see the various pages of news and information about things I’m involved in, and for more in-depth stuff, go to ‘Pages’. My Illustrated Weekly Salvo is in ‘current news’: comment, news and gossip on railways, politics and culture – sometimes altogether. The weekly ‘crank question’ is strangely popular.

There’s a short biographical sketch on a separate page of this site – ‘The Life of Paul’. Suffice to say here that I’ve been in the railway industry, one way and another, for over 35 years, with experience in a wide (some would say bewildering) range of sectors and disciplines. I originated and developed ‘community rail’ and was directly involved in the establishment of over twenty community-rail partnerships which have led to increased use of local and regional railways and additional investment. The next great leap forward is to bring some kind of stability and public accountability to the railway industry which doesn’t involve going back to the old centralist BR but gives the public, and the people who work in the industry, a real stake in it.

I write for several periodicals ranging from Chartist, Tribune and TSSA Journal to Yorkshire Post, New Transit and Today’s Railways. My latest book Socialism with a Northern Accent is published by Lawrence and Wishart (www.lwbooks.co.uk) and is now available.

In my spare time I’m active in the Labour and Co-operative Parties, as well as my union the TSSA.I’m vice-chair of our Constituency Labour Party, which celebrated its 120th anniversary in 2011.  I am Labour’s local election candidate in Golcar for the May 2012 elections. We hope to win!

I am General Secretary of the newly-formed ‘Hannah Mitchell Foundation’ (www.hannahmitchell.org.uk) which aims to get regional government back on the agenda as well as promoting the North’s ethical socialist traditions in a modern context. The North is missing out while Scotland, Wales and London have their own devolved administrations.

I’m active in my local community and a student of the Free University of Slawit. Philosphically, I would describe myself as a social democrat with an anarchist tinge. This is despite having accepted an MBE in 2008 for ‘services to the rail industry’. Huh!

Since September 1st 2011 I have become a ‘visiting professor’ at the University of Huddersfield, in the Department of Transport and Logistics. This involves some lecturing and developing projects such as the ‘Reforming The Railways’conference on March 23rd.

If you want to get a better idea of what I’m currently up to, The Illustrated Weekly Salvo in the news section of this website will keep you entertrained. To get in touch, go to ‘Contact’ page.

The Age of Austerity: Salveson and Friend