Beeching cuts and the Cotswold Line between Oxford and Worcester has increased significantly, and double track has now been reinstated on the Golden Valley Line. The Conservatives increased their Commons majority in the general election of 8 October 1959, their first with Harold Macmillan as prime minister, who famously said that most people "had never had it so good". Ernest Marples, previously the Postmaster General, was made Transport Minister two weeks later in a cabinet reshuffle; Marples was described by some as "cocky", "flash", "slick" and as a "construction tycoon", and Macmillan noted that the Northern working-class boy who had won a
Our Lady of Good Health saving of the Portuguese sailors from a tempest in the Bay of Bengal in the 17th century. A Gothic-styled basilica stands in Velankanni in memory of the apparitions September 8, the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, is also commemorated as the feast of Our Lady of Good Health. The celebration starts on 29 August and ends on the day of the feast. The feast day prayers are said in Marathi, East Indian, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Konkani, Hindi and English. A Tamil language movie was made in honor of Our Lady of Good Health with the title "Annai Velankanni"