Mark Hopwood's own LinkedIn page says he's Interim MD.
I guess a permanent MD is an interim MD who has been there for quite a long time, whereas an interim MD can be a permanent one who doesn't stay long. Words mean what we want them to mean, sometimes for the most subtle of reasons.
On the subject of plainer speaking, I rather like this snippet:
I know you don’t want to hear parts of the industry blaming each other for issues you just want to see fixed. So my approach is that it might not be our fault, but it is still our problem.
I think that is a welcome step back in the direction of an earlier ethos, before we had separate companies all trying to blame each other whenever something went belly-up. I shall be watching that in operation with considerable interest, in the hope that it works well and encourages other
TOCs▸ (and
NR» ) to think along similar lines.
Good luck, Mark Hopwood, and I look forward to great improvement on the
SWR» !