Did Byers really buy any favours?

Politics

So former transport secretary Stephen Buyers, sorry, Byers is in the news and in trouble for allegedly ‘fixing’ the deadlock between incumbent transport secretary Lord Adonis and National?Express Group over the East Coast rail franchise.

The news that Adonis did indeed have a brief word with Byers led to a flurry of speculation and innuendo on the internet. Perhaps one contributer to the Railway Eye blog got closer to the truth. “So in June Lord Adonis was clearly receptive to the idea of a management contract [for NXEC],” they said. “What changed his position and made him determined that National Express would never darken another franchise’s door again? Perhaps it wasn't Richard Bowker who wound him up but Byers!”

We can only speculate...