Planes, trains and buses - yes, there's a theme to this week's political news. Here, Paul Francis gives his views and analysis of the week...

As the children's song goes... the wheels on the bus go round and round - until a Conservative revolt…

Are the controversial plans by the county council to axe 38 bus services unravelling?

Anyone who listened to a debate on the issue at a cross-party committee meeting recently would be entitled to come to the conclusion that the authority may be preparing the ground for a tactical withdrawal of the plans that have managed to stir up so much opposition.

It is rare to see such open revolt at County Hall.

The fact that disenchanted Conservatives joined forces with the Green party, Labour and the Lib Dems in a call for a deferment of the cuts suggests that the ruling Conservative administration has failed to mollify councillors whose e-mail boxes are inundated with complaints.

To see such opposition of the “blue on blue” type, you know something is afoot.

Even the Conservative chairman of a cross-party committee described the impact of the cuts as “an utter nightmare” and voted for the programme of cuts to be deferred.

Yet the scale of the mounting opposition appeared not to have impressed the politician overseeing the implementation of the policy.

Cllr David Brazier, cabinet member for transport, rebuked his critics on the cross-party scrutiny committee, saying much of the discussion had been “highly emotional” and that was not the basis for a good debate.

He also told the committee that the public had confused decisions by commercial operators to axe services with the subsidised services maintained by the county council.

File that under “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”

If you were to devise from scratch a strategy to address many, if not all, of these objectives, you would probably make the provision of a bus service one of your key priorities.

So, what now? The Conservative cabinet now has to decide if it will accede to the call for a debate on the cuts at next month’s full council meeting, which could have the effect of pausing the implementation of the policy.

Stand by for a tactical retreat, if not a full u-turn.

Manston

The long saga over Manston airport, closed in 2014, has it seems reached an end point.

Owners have finally secured a Development Consent Order from the government to develop the site as a cargo freight hub.

Not surprisingly the announcement has divided opinion; supporters have welcomed the news; opponents say it will never take off and in the middle, a lot of people are wondering what all the fuss is about.

Still, at least the fate of the airport seems a bit clearer than it had been.

But time will tell whether it is a game changer and if all legal routes have been exhausted by those who remain implacably opposed to the plan.

Eurostar

Not boarding at Ashford or Ebbsfleet... any time soon.

What does the future hold for Ashford International station? The answer - nobody knows.

The only thing we do know is that Eurostar services had been expected to resume stopping services at the station next year.

This week we learnt that the timescale had shifted back again with the company saying that services could stop in Kent not in 2023 but 2024…and possibly delayed by 2025.

It seems a long time and it is, not least because some of the considerable investment in the town, as many have pointed out, has been predicated on the station’s high-speed connections.

The French government has agreed a rescue package for Eurostar but the UK has not.

Time for a rethink?