The Politics Thread

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Privatisation everyone .....pay more for a worse service because you have no choice!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46731749

FailingGrayling and the abominable train companies should be sacked immediately. What a disaster our railways have become.

You must have forgotten how bad British Rail was before privatisation. How dirty the carriages were, how they were often late and how the workers were poorly paid (in relative terms). I am not sticking up for the railways but not everything was rosy before privatisation. Plus, why do you think re-nationalising the railways will be better? Putting the entire railways and rolling stock in the hands of MP's doesn't seem a great idea to me.

With reference the cost, at least you can get a discount rail card if you are under 30 years of age. Those geriatric losers over 30 get feck all.

As someone that used the trains a lot pre and post privatisation the only majorly noticeable difference is the far far higher prices today, even taking inflation in to account. Shit service then and just as shit now. Difference is the passenger pays significantly more and so does the taxpayer.

That said, its nearly 7 years since I last took a train, so could be all hunky dory now... Though not according to my old commuter buddies that shared my misery a those years ago.

[malcd1]

Privatisation everyone .....pay more for a worse service because you have no choice!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46731749

FailingGrayling and the abominable train companies should be sacked immediately. What a disaster our railways have become.

You must have forgotten how bad British Rail was before privatisation. How dirty the carriages were, how they were often late and how the workers were poorly paid (in relative terms). I am not sticking up for the railways but not everything was rosy before privatisation. Plus, why do you think re-nationalising the railways will be better? Putting the entire railways and rolling stock in the hands of MP's doesn't seem a great idea to me.

With reference the cost, at least you can get a discount rail card if you are under 30 years of age. Those geriatric losers over 30 get feck all.

As someone that used the trains a lot pre and post privatisation the only majorly noticeable difference is the far far higher prices today, even taking inflation in to account. Shit service then and just as shit now. Difference is the passenger pays significantly more and so does the taxpayer.

That said, its nearly 7 years since I last took a train, so could be all hunky dory now... Though not according to my old commuter buddies that shared my misery a those years ago.

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of ... itish_Rail the cost per km travel has not significantly increased since privatisation (It was a surprise to me as well). See also a separate page showing the Real Term Rail Prices page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Real ... ger-km.PNG

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Privatisation everyone .....pay more for a worse service because you have no choice!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46731749

FailingGrayling and the abominable train companies should be sacked immediately. What a disaster our railways have become.

You must have forgotten how bad British Rail was before privatisation. How dirty the carriages were, how they were often late and how the workers were poorly paid (in relative terms). I am not sticking up for the railways but not everything was rosy before privatisation. Plus, why do you think re-nationalising the railways will be better? Putting the entire railways and rolling stock in the hands of MP's doesn't seem a great idea to me.

With reference the cost, at least you can get a discount rail card if you are under 30 years of age. Those geriatric losers over 30 get feck all.

As someone that used the trains a lot pre and post privatisation the only majorly noticeable difference is the far far higher prices today, even taking inflation in to account. Shit service then and just as shit now. Difference is the passenger pays significantly more and so does the taxpayer.

That said, its nearly 7 years since I last took a train, so could be all hunky dory now... Though not according to my old commuter buddies that shared my misery a those years ago.

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of ... itish_Rail the cost per km travel has not significantly increased since privatisation (It was a surprise to me as well). See also a separate page showing the Real Term Rail Prices page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Real ... ger-km.PNG

I forget where now, but the taxpayer bill for the railways was somewhere near to triple. A number of years have passed since and I know the government has been reducing taxation being spent on it and using the fare increases to fund more of the the 'improvements'.

I think those prices per passenger numbers aren't allowing for significantly more passengers now, bringing down the cost per passenger.

I can only go off my own miserable experiences and those of fellow commuters. Just as many delays, dirty barely functional trains and significantly more expensive. The answer is not necessarily privatisation, but fragmentation is to blame for many of the problems. So much so that many of the operators spend a lot of money on staff whose sole job is to make sure blame, and the compensation receivable and payable, is in their favour regardless of where the blame lies. Thames link used to profit from the bad delays when I commuted on their line by receiving more compensation than they paid out to passengers. They didn't have enough drivers, but half the time managed pin the blame on rail track!

[malcd1]

I totally agree with everything you have said, AT.

You cannot have a world-class railway without massive investment from the government. There has never been the appetite to provide that in this country, ever. Pre-privatisation or post-privatisation.

I commute into Manchester and London fairly regularly. My biggest gripes are to do with the lack of carriages at rush hour, lack of parking at the stations and cancelled trains due to engineering works / industrial action. Generally it works fine and is considerably cheaper and faster than driving into Manchester in a morning and then paying for parking.

[Hoboh]

New evidence of Labour’s shift to the left has emerged as candidates backed by Unite and Momentum are set to dominate the battle for marginal seats in the next election.

More than a third of the candidates selected to fight marginals for Labour were backed by, or closely aligned with, the leftwing pressure group Momentum, while nearly half were backed by Unite, the union closest to Corbyn.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -marginals

Not going to gather them much support then except in the Marxist Kingdom.

[BWFC_Insane]

Privatisation everyone .....pay more for a worse service because you have no choice!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46731749

FailingGrayling and the abominable train companies should be sacked immediately. What a disaster our railways have become.

You must have forgotten how bad British Rail was before privatisation. How dirty the carriages were, how they were often late and how the workers were poorly paid (in relative terms). I am not sticking up for the railways but not everything was rosy before privatisation. Plus, why do you think re-nationalising the railways will be better? Putting the entire railways and rolling stock in the hands of MP's doesn't seem a great idea to me.

With reference the cost, at least you can get a discount rail card if you are under 30 years of age. Those geriatric losers over 30 get feck all.

The problem is by almost every measurable outcome the service is worse now than it was then. I think ultimately it depends on where you catch trains now and then.....East coast mainline for example was a lot better under BR.

I never suggested re-nationalising them. My point was that privatising them has made things worse as costs have sky-rocketed for the consumer but the service has got worse. Privatisation isn't the answer.

Also the profits - these go back to European countries, in some cases to fund their arms length publically owned railways...how ironic!

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Jeremy Paxman: "Have we really got such a bunch of snowflakes in parliament that they can't face hearing the people who pay their wages?"
Me: "Yes, Jeremy."

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Bertold Brecht: Perhaps the Party will have to dismiss the people and elect another one.

[Enoch]

The revolting peasants.

[Enoch]

Apparently the electoral roll in Turkey has seen a rash of first time voters registering, with around 6000 folk over 100 years of age appearing. Among them is 165-year-old Ayse Ekici, allegedly born in 1854, at the time of the Ottoman empire.

On a different tack there are a reported 1,000 registered at a single apartment, there are many apparently registered at buildings that are empty, or at construction sites, or in one case on the fifth floor of a four-storey building.

Don't ya just love democracy at work.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Ha!
UK, Spain, USA, Germany, Italy and France back Guaido.
Russia, Mexico, China, Turkey, Iran and Zimbabwe back Maduro.

What can one say? Well this: Cromwell, Franco, Trump, Hitler, Mussolini, Petain. Lenin, Zapata, Sun Yat-sen, Atatürk, err and omg. (That's without Stalin, Mao, Khomeini, Mugabe and Mnanagwe even rearing their ugly heads).

It is politic of politicians to stay outside of other countries' politics, no matter how ugly.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Lord Ricketts (yeah, me too. Apparently former ambassador to France)
"Theresa May's strategy is seriously damaging. All through this process that tactic has been, let's put off this decision and delay, and delay"

His answer to this: "This is a wake up call! If we can't get a clear agreement we must delay. Let's not go over the cliff without pausing and thinking".

Without doubt the clearest exposition of why politicians are tits that I've come across in many a month. Keep taking the tablets mate. I suggest vitamin D.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Guess where this 'politician' comes from:
"Thes no fonds availubull"

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Guess where this 'politician' comes from:
"Thes no fonds availubull"

And guess who said this: "policy will be made by Labour members, not the leader”.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Guess where this 'politician' comes from:
"Thes no fonds availubull"

And guess who said this: "policy will be made by Labour members, not the leader”.

And finally in this round, which leftwing Marxist revolutionary whose face appears on many a T-shirt made this statement after a 1959 victory "We are going to do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the revolution, by which I mean: nothing".

[Hoboh]

SEVEN anti-Corbyn rebels led by Chuka Umunna and Luciana Berger QUIT

I hope these 'honourable' members are now going to step down and fight by-elections, after all they should have no problems in being returned seeing everyone agrees with these remainiacs. Thought not.

[Hoboh]

With a bit of luck and good fortune, Rudd, Hammond, Greive, Sourface and a few more might join them, then they can do the Honorable thing, fight by-elections (which they should sail through after all because everyone agrees with them) and the rest of us could take great pleasure in seeing the whole anti-democratic lot of them wiped out!

[Hoboh]

More anti-democracy from the remainers, just who elected these independents to Parliament?
Oh that's right the mythical majority they represent

Chukka chucked his career in politics

Berger doesn’t do irony does she?
Lamely attempts to play the race, faith and gender card ten days back, after she was totally rumbled by locals in Wavertree, after she constantly voiced her desire to leave and set up her own party.
Now she proves what a shameless, bare faced lair she actually is.

Bring on the by-elections, do the democratic thing, let's see how popular you really are.

[Prufrock]

I think they've almost certainly thrown away their careers in politics and knew they were doing so.

Some of the abuse Umuna and particularly Berger have received (and from supposedly their own side) has been unacceptable and I can't blame them for leaving.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I think they've almost certainly thrown away their careers in politics and knew they were doing so.

Some of the abuse Umuna and particularly Berger have received (and from supposedly their own side) has been unacceptable and I can't blame them for leaving.

Luciana Berger has been particularly abused.
I lived in Liverpool for a while, in the only truly independent Liberal constituency at the time when the country was going bananas for fxcking Thatcher.
What a turnaround.

To make it plain: Labour aren't fit to be a party, never mind govern. And that's from somebody who voted for them, solidly, for over forty years.