The new men in charge
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• Critics of the Government's transport policies can expect a rough ride from the new Department of Transport team under surprise supremo Cecil Parkinson. He has made it clear that the plan to sell off British Rail and give the private sector a bigger role in road planning and running will be vigorously pursued.
Parkinson has also said that people who want more and improved roads but don't want to pay for them will have to explain their case to him, Meanwhile, the new Roads and Traffic Minister Robert Atkins is no slouch when it conies to political debate. Before his appointment as junior industry minister in 1987, he was renowned as a back bench Tory "bovver boy" — always ready to "put the boot" into Labour MPs.
Atkins, MP for South Ribble, was for a time parliamentary private secretary to the exTrade Secretary Lord Young, and is a pro-Common Market politician who has fought hard to protect the interests of British Leyland which had bus and truck interests in his Lancashire constituency.
He is a former industrial consultant and sales executive, and has described himself as a "seat-of-the-pants realistic political operator, who has never lost any campaign that I have organised or been involved in".
Cut and thrust
Atkins, 43, does not pretend to be an intellectual, but likes the cut and thrust of Commons debates and can expect to be as equally, if not more, robust in his high-profile portfolio as his predecessor Peter Bottom ley.
The two men join the DTp's anchor man Michael Portillo, who is already marked out for high office but has given the Ministry stability as the only member of the original team still in place after the recent reshuffle.
The fourth man is Patrick McLoughlin who enters government for the first time and was Lord Young's parliamentary aide before the shake-up.
McLoughlin, the MP for Derbyshire West since a byelection in 1986, is a former mine worker who DOW takes responsibility for aviation and shipping which includes airlines and airports and all marine matters including the Coast
guard, pilotage and the ports.
Portillo will act as Parkinson's number two and continues as minister for public transport, responsible for the railways, buses, taxis, London Regional Transport and for coordination transport in the London docklands.
His area of responsibility also includes the Channel Tunnel rued link and the export of Britain's transport expertise. Portillo also has special responsibility for the Department's financial planning and for promoting private sector finance in all modes of transport — especially roads.
As Roads and Traffic Minister, Atkins takes over the motorways and trunk road building programmes, local roads and London's roads and traffic as well as road freight, safety, traffic law, driver testing and training and road taxation and vehicle and driver licensing. Transport for the disabled, and the tolled and estuarial crossings also fall within his remit as does departmental research.