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
Never So Bold the best sprinter in Europe in 1985, winning the Temple Stakes, King's Stand Stakes, July Cup and William Hill Sprint Championship. After a poor run in the Breeders' Cup Mile he was retired to stud where he had limited success as a sire of winners. Never So Bold was a "big, rangy, good-looking" bay horse with a small white star bred by the Mount Rosa Stud. During his racing career he carried the red and white colours of Edward Kessly. He was trained at Newmarket, Suffolk by Robert Armstrong, who had trained another outstanding sprinter in Moorestyle, and was ridden