COCK-UPS rather than conspiracy is often the way in politics, as has been said before. What's worth adding is that governments make cock-ups and oppositions charge about on their high horse, suspecting it was all a big mistake but gravely insisting that what has happened is the biggest conspiracy in the history of politics.

It's handy to have such thoughts in mind when considering the sad case of the disappearing Stephen Byers. True, the Transport Secretary has yet to be swallowed up by the cul-de-sac of no return; but the signs aren't good.

There is a grim stand-up routine in politics when a minister in trouble is repeatedly offered the support of the Prime Mnister, and with each new pat on the back, the slow hand-clapping in the background grows ever louder.

So what has the seemingly-doomed Mr Byers done to earn loud grumbling from certain Tory-inclined newspapers and the down-at-heel Conservative party itself? He wound up Railtrack, the privatised rail authority which had been pouring public money into a big black hole. A private company with a vital public role had been given extended use of the public purse to continue doing a bad job. So Mr Byers swept Railtrack off the Monopoly board.

This was bad news for directors and shareholders, who reportedly earned £10 million and £700 million respectively in the five years since 1996; better news, surely, for the rest of us, especially exasperated rail travellers.

Mr Byers's only other option would have been to extend more public largesse to the company, and blow further countless millions.

The disappointment is that no one is sure what form Railtrack's replacement will take. The idea of a not-for-profit organisation makes some sense - but why not go the whole buffet car and re-nationalise the company?

The war against terrorism has, understandably, pushed Railtrack down the news agenda. New Labour and the Tories mostly nod as one on the Afghanistan campaign, leaving an impression of general togetherness.

Yet the differences over Railtrack expose a cultural divide and give disgruntled, neutered Labour backbenchers something to cheer about for once. Here is a challenge to the two decades of Tory-led privatisations and sell-offs; here, for once, is a hint that there might be a different approach.

And even Thomas The Tank Engine could opine that there has to be a better way to run a railway.

So I'll give Stephen Byers a couple of cheers at least; and straightaway, before he enters that cul-de-sac.

A COURT order is preventing the Sunday People newspaper from printing details of a married footballer's affair with two women. As the freedom to print something which can be proved to have happened is a fundamental right of newspapers, such a legal gag has broad implications; it could even prevent a newspaper carrying any details about a famous person's love life.

Having said which, isn't all this tawdry and depressing? Newspapers often cry press freedom when what they mean is the right to print sordid stories about footballers and lap dancers.

It is true that such tatty tales enliven many a reader's Sunday morning, but the mountain of indignation looks out of scale next to the molehill of dirt in question. And besides, other nations, such as the French, don't get so worked up about the peccadilloes of the famous.

What should be of much more concern is Tony Blair's apparent wish to see the Freedom Of Information Act delayed, possibly until 2005. Now there is a piece of evasion that really should alarm newspapers. What's Tony so keen for us not to know?