Like my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Great Yarmouth (Squadron-Leader Kinghorn), I propose to leave the Parliamentary Secretary to settle the disparity in figures with the hon. Member for Bucklow (Mr. Shepherd) who initiated the Debate. It is fairly obvious that they are not comparing like with like. The main complaint, as I understand it, is against the policy of nationalisation and is to the effect that all the evils arising in the present situation are due to that policy being adopted. The chairman of the Railway Executive has been quoted during the last 10 minutes. If he can, I should like my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to quote any hon. Member opposite who would declare now that the policy of nationalisation ought to be abandoned and that we should go back to private ownership in respect of transport.

I re-read the Debate initiated by the hon. Member for Bucklow on 16th December and I thought that perhaps tonight he would bring forward figures to disprove something which the Parliamen- tary Secretary said on that occasion. I felt sure that he would make an attempt to discredit what I regard as the bright features of that Debate. For instance, the Parliamentary Secretary forecast that by the end of the year 7,000 special trains would have been run, three million passengers would have derived benefit and an additional £1 million would have been received. That is an indication of the progress made in the last 12 months and there is abundant evidence that progress has continued. That indicates that the zeal of the Railway Executive will bring to the British public a far more efficient service than ever we had before.

What is the magic about the year 1938? I suppose that year was quoted because it was the year before the war. If we are going to make anything like a reasonable comparison, why not compare the year 1948, three years after the war, with the year 1921?