The rail network between Norwich and London was total and utter chaos yesterday, due partly to over-running engineering works from the weekend. Ips -> Felixstowe didn't run at all and there were major disruptions between Ips -> Lowestoft. Cue profuse apologies via twitter and 'advice' like 'we strongly recommend you delay your journey for as long as possible'. Now, today, this - which eclipses any / all of yesterday's "achievements"
It's not Abellios fault though, if the rails ain't usable they can't put their trains over them. It's the useless twats at network rail who want shooting. The whole thing is a mess from privatisation.
That and the fact that there has been chronic under investment in the rail infrastructure in decades!!!
At least when it was BR the profit wasn't going into shareholders pockets. The underinvestment was because Thatcher hated the railways with a passion. There was underinvestment before that too but it was the Thatcher era that left the railway as it is now. We would've had the pendolino trains by the late 80s if the old witch hadn't killed off the APT project just as they were getting the bugs out she was also very anti Inter City too.
That "old Witch" and her cronies certainly left their mark on this country. Under investment in all Nationalised Industries and Utilities,and then sell them off to Foreign Companies. No Mines,No Electricity,No Sewerage,No Water,The list goes on and on I hated that woman and all she preached
What gets me Dave is that people still praise the "old witch" Having been born in the East Midland Coal Field area,I saw first hand the destruction she did to whole communities. Many of my pals who worked in the mines,never worked again. We are now paying the price regarding energy and being held to ransom by Putin for gas.God knows what will happen in the winter if the Russia/ Ukraine situation gets worse. One turn of the switch and Putin will plunge us all into darkness For a country that sits on Millions of tons of coal and shale gas we really have been dropped in the ****. And don't even start me on council house sales.
No, she just made us completely reliable on a banking system that keeps failing. we have no decent exports other than being a country where rich people can come and get awesome benefits and tax breaks while those without money are left to chase what jobs they can. There are many issues with Labour but at least they try to run the country for the people (what a government is supposed to do) rather than for the rich.
By people you mean the client state where millions were dumped on benefits and dependent on the Government for handouts! Thank god the country has moved on from all this nonsense and started getting people back into work!
Of course we should round up all those ghastly people relying on state handouts and just nuke the lot of them, how dare they try to make ends meet, put a roof over their heads and feed their families. And some of them even have the temerity to have Sky TV (at a heavily reduced rate that is never mentioned), go out sometimes and, dare I say it, smoke cigarettes!! The nerve of those people, honestly.
By the way how many people were reliant on food banks under a Labour government by the way? I'd be interested to see how that compares with how many do nowadays. And don't give me that "getting people back to work" crap - if you think zero hour contracts are a success story of this coalition then you're even more deluded than I thought you were (and that's saying something!)
The reason they are dependent on handouts,is because of the millions of jobs done away with by the witch and her cronies. Nationalisation was not perfect,but it has got to be a better system to subsidise these industries and keep millions in work,than scrap them all,and have to pay even more in benefits.
I tend to avoid these threads because I think these discussions should not happen on a football forum. However, I thought I'd leap in just to say how amused I am by those who moan about "lazy scroungers on benefits living off our taxes". Leaving aside the emotive language and the irresolvable debates about the rights and wrongs of benefits, levels, taxation, etc. Does it never occur to these people what life would be like without these "lazy scroungers"? Who would they look down upon then? Would the next target be the "idle low paid who don't work hard enough"? And if we got rid of them who would you look down upon? Never forget, Tory voters, the value of having someone to look down upon. Be grateful for these "lazy scroungers". Otherwise you might just find yourself at the bottom of the pile - someone has to be.
Ah yes the good old days when inflation was running at over 20% and we had to go cap in hand to the IMF for bail outs! Income TAX rates at over 60% on the basic rate and up to 98% on some incomes! The good old days when militant unions held the country to ransom demanding pay rises of over 30%! The good old days when it took the Post Office 7 weeks to install a telephone! But hell it didn't matter so long as millions were being employed to do non jobs in the vast state monoliths that were uncompetitive and dying on their feet.
State owned companies do not have to be competative. They have a monopoly,thats the whole point of nationalisation.