Have just popped over to Guido's for his weekly bash-a-Lib-Dem thread. I would have thought that he could have come up with something better than "Ming has a Facebook profile"* to attack the man, though.

I don't get it. He has an e-mail address too, perhaps we could have a go at him for that?

No, I know exactly what this is all about. Ming's opponents have absolutely no ammunition when it comes to matters of substance, and so resort to the political equivalent of chanting "Old man, old man..."

Isn't that ultimately why it piqued your interest, Guido?

I like Ming. I like where he's taking the party - I like some of the free market reforms he's brought in. I like many of the young politicians he's promoted to his Shadow Cabinet. In that regard he's every inch a modern politician - and you'd think that young Mr. Fawkes, as a proud free-market libertarian, would be praising that.

But no - and yet he seems to have no problem cosying up to the new Tories who seem to value Polly Toynbee over Smith and Hayek. How's that for sticking to your principles?

I know Ming has an image problem in some quarters - but he will never ever have a substance problem. Sorry Guido.

* It's taken Guido a while to notice this - he joined in January.

Today's news of £2.4 billion to be spent on railway expansion in the UK is welcome - indeed, it's long, long overdue.

The investment isn't as London-centric as I'd feared - however the biggest single spend is still the Olympic transport project at £400 million.

However, news from France puts this all into perspective.

The rail speed record in UK: 208 mph
The new rail speed record in France: 356 mph

This is how far we are behind our Continental neighbours - time to start catching up, and soon.

Oh, and which train holds the UK speed record? The Eurostar, of course!