The EU debate - Part II

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Where? You said something about it costing billions, but i didnt see anything else

I said quite simply, that if there's a complaint about lack of investment now, what do you think would happen in the highly unlikely event that Corbyn came to power and announced renationalisation?
 
Without looking, I don't know about how long we're talking about?

Secondly, if people are complaining about under investment now, what do think would happen once these companies realise that their franchises won't be renewed?
If the services become so bad that they do not meet the requirements of the franchise agreement, terminate the contract and take it over straight away. There should be something in the small print about that
Many of the companies that have these franchises are large companies that have fingers in other pies. They will not want the negative publicity that bad service would brings as it may affect their profits elsewhere. Southern look ripe for this at the moment.
 
Ahh im glad Farage is a moderate. That's put my mind at rest

He's not a moderate, he's a soft fascist, just as Corbyn is a soft Trotskyist. As in the 1930s, the far left and far right share a lot of common ground - economic protectionism, distrust of markets, offering simple solutions to complex problems, anti-semitism, those sort of things.
 
and breathe......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37016123

Warmer weather helped Britain's retailers sell more in July than during the same period last year, defying predictions of a post-Brexit slump.

Total sales increased by 1.9%, according to the British Retail Consortium and KPMG's latest survey.

A separate report, by Barclaycard, showed that spending in restaurants, pubs and cinemas had also increased in the month following the vote.
 
The whole thing is academic, anyway.

Firstly, Corbyn will never be elected. Secondly, looking at it, most of the major rail franchises expire before 2021 - the likely date of the next GE - as the average duration of the current franchise is around 20 yrs. Assuming that those are renewed, even if by some incredible quirk of the British electorate Corbyn were elected he'd have a hell of a wait before he can put his grand plan into action.

And, if you need a good reason why the rail system is suffering uneccessarily, take a look at the current strike on Southern. Driver operated train doors have been commonplace on several other lines for many years with no major problems, yet the RMT see fit to disrupt over this point, yet again!...
 
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Privatisation of the railways has been an unmitigated disaster, and putting the long term future of key public services in the hands of franchises only concerned with short term profits is a joke. This is a classic case of Tory dogma taking precedence over common sense.

Re nationalisation of key public services is an idea whose time has come again. Nothing radical about that, but it won't happen until we get another Labour govt, and with Captain Birdseye at the helm of the soon to be re-named Left Wing People's Protest Party, we might be waiting a while for that.

Regarding Driver Operated doors on trains, there is a wealth of evidence showing an increase of incidents at the passenger/train interface where they have been introduced. The RMT are right about this, in my opinion.

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Privatisation of the railways has been an unmitigated disaster, and putting the long term future of key public services in the hands of franchises only concerned with short term profits is a joke. This is a classic case of Tory dogma taking precedence over common sense.

Re nationalisation of key public services is an idea whose time has come again. Nothing radical about that, but it won't happen until we get another Labour govt, and with Captain Birdseye at the helm of the soon to be re-named Left Wing People's Protest Party, we might be waiting a while for that.

Regarding Driver Operated doors on trains, there is a wealth of evidence showing an increase of incidents at the passenger/train interface where they have been introduced. The RMT are right about this, in my opinion.

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I tend to agree on your first point. However, re driver operated doors, at the moment you have a situation where at a station like Victoria the Gatwick express pulls away using driver operated doors, as it has done for years. Five minutes later a Southern train leaves for the same destination with conductor operated doors.

In my experience, driver operated doors have worked almost everywhere except maybe the tube. But then that's people, they'd rather try to cram themselves last second onto one train, than wait three minutes for the next one. I use the tube all the time when I'm in London and see it many times every day. People will deliberately ignore 'stand away' being shouted at them, whoever is saying it.
 
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You think the private sector running public sector contracts is efficient?!?
In some areas most definitely. I've worked with the public sector on and off for about 25 years and have seen first hand the wastage and inefficiency that the sector can deliver. Large areas of council services have been improved by outsourcing, it's a simple fact
 
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I tend to agree on your first point. However, re driver operated doors, at the moment you have a situation where at a station like Victoria the Gatwick express pulls away using driver operated doors, as it has done for years. Five minutes later a Southern train leaves for the same destination with conductor operated doors.

In my experience, driver operated doors have worked almost everywhere except maybe the tube. But then that's people, they'd rather try to cram themselves last second onto one train, than wait three minutes for the next one. I use the tube all the time when I'm in London and see it many times every day. People will deliberately ignore 'stand away' being shouted at them, whoever is saying it.


Passenger numbers on the railways has increased exponentially since Driver Operated Doors where introduced.
 
and breathe......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37016123

Warmer weather helped Britain's retailers sell more in July than during the same period last year, defying predictions of a post-Brexit slump.

Total sales increased by 1.9%, according to the British Retail Consortium and KPMG's latest survey.

A separate report, by Barclaycard, showed that spending in restaurants, pubs and cinemas had also increased in the month following the vote.
Barclaycard also pointed out that, overall, spending had decreased by 1%.
 
Privatisation of the railways has been an unmitigated disaster, and putting the long term future of key public services in the hands of franchises only concerned with short term profits is a joke. This is a classic case of Tory dogma taking precedence over common sense.

Re nationalisation of key public services is an idea whose time has come again. Nothing radical about that, but it won't happen until we get another Labour govt, and with Captain Birdseye at the helm of the soon to be re-named Left Wing People's Protest Party, we might be waiting a while for that.

Regarding Driver Operated doors on trains, there is a wealth of evidence showing an increase of incidents at the passenger/train interface where they have been introduced. The RMT are right about this, in my opinion.

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Sorry archer but that guys an idiot. Hes tried to squeeze himself on like a lot of the londoners do and obviously this is the end result when there isnt enougj space on the tube.

I'm all for nationalisation of key resources that are monopolies, rails being one of them. They cost the government an arm and a leg to subsidise, the service is pretty bad and i dont see how privatisation has added any value. Added to this the bonuses they award themselves and how they rise prices on tickets as high as they can, its basically a cash cow as people always have to use the trains on a particular line.
 
The MoD is facing extra costs of £700m a year due to Brexit after effects.

That's only two tranches of the £350m a week savings Boris promised the gullible so it should only cause the NHS a few problems for a couple of weeks a year.
 
The whole idiotic episode is a clusterfuck of gigantic proportions.

The machinations and self motivated manoeuverings of Court jester Boris and that total **** Gove and his idiotic amateur Machiavelli of a wife, those that majorly engineered this monumental stupidity, will have their effect on the UK for a long time.

As for Farage, he's just a racist ****, I never expected anything better.
 
HSBC are predicting the GBP will have parity with the Euro by November.

Cost of living is going to keep rising.

But we got our country back!

It's poor and its weak but it's ours (whatever that means).

At least Great Britain has become a classic case study of how to screw up your own economy. The rest of the world will thank us for that!
 
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