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Whilst I understand what you are saying it feels dangerously close to 'lets ask the businesses what they would like to contribute'...
Railway nationalisation is actually an issue where right and left seem to meet around the back quite often. It doesn't make sense to pump public money into something that produces profit for private companies. Especially when you consider the levels of service and perception of most commuters that the cost of train tickets is absurdly high. I don't feel like we are getting a good deal as a country.
In terms of the cost, it is almost as though you haven't read it or even thought about it. There is absolutely no reason why nationalisation of the railways would cost a penny. Energy industry is a different kettle of fish but the approach in the manifesto appears to involve setting up publicly owned companies to effectively regulate the industry from within by providing competition.
Good manifesto, fair play to him for having the balls to put stuff like the railways in it.
I would just like to see it run well. I don't care if we steal the blueprint for this from the eskimos or from the jetsons. At the moment it costs a lot and is shit, chuck one franchise out and there is a good chance another shit one replaces it. Something needs to change - maybe we just say if x% of the trains are late then the CEO gets his nuts chopped off.
I had a long chat with one of Arriva's Revenue Protection people a few days ago. He made a stoic defence of the company. He said the Assembly's to blame for overcrowded trains because they grossly underestimated the increase in passenger numbers when awarding the franchise. He also contended that they can't get hold of extra carriages as there's none to be had. I was surprised to learn he worked for a sub-contractor and he along with all his colleagues are on zero hour contracts.
For a start, I don't live in Wales so my comments are regarding the train system of the UK (but mainly around London).
Well it wouldn't be run 'by the wag', in the same way that Jeremy Hunt isn't sitting at the front desk of my local hospital taking names. The likelihood is it would be staffed by roughly the same kind of people with the same kind of experience. The upside would be that currently every decision is made based on the potential for profit, if it was not-for-profit and publicly owned the decisions could be made based on how best to transport passengers from A to B (i.e. the point of a railway).
I think it stands to reason that I wouldn't specifically comment on a train system I don't use.
I can accept privatisation as a good alternative if there is the potential for competition. In general, customers can't 'shop elsewhere' so there is no incentive for failing franchises to improve, they end up leaning on the government more and more but still somehow making a profit. I live in one of the few small towns to have two stations with two different operators as they are different lines. I actually have choice, the downside of this is you get to see how disjointed the system has become over the last 20 years. Oyster is available at one and not the other because it hasn't been rolled out by one provider.
I am not specifically advocating a return to British Rail and everything being run centrally. I just think decisions about vital public services shouldn't be made with shareholders in mind.
How does the publicly run rail service in Northern Ireland compare to franchises in England and Wales in terms of delays and customer satisfaction?
The quite small nation that is sweden are not really what we are looking.
It isn't a case of employers always squeezing employees. In my experience is very often the other way around.
If you think universal collective bargaining would be a good thing for workers then I hope you manage a workforce on a budget in the future.
Last edited by LordKenwyne; 12-05-17 at 10:11.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017...d=tmg_share_tw
Maybe Labour will clarify their costing...
Well it benefits everyone to have as educated workforce as possible. Unfortunately university has become about delaying entering the workplace (in a lot of cases) while learning almost nothing useful. Domestically it was possibly the worst move labour made in government in my opinion, so hard to reverse the trend of university being the default. The whole system is designed to load debt onto kids and is mental really.
Part of the blame should be placed on further education itself. They shouldnt be offering some of the crappy courses that they do but like everyone else these days they cant resist going for the cash.
I do agree rail effects so many lives, however that central control efficiency will it work ? does it bring with it old fashioned power struggles unions v government , it needs to be a protected service to the public as per policing, people should not be held to ransom . .
Lets be honest the skills we need for this have gone and not needed since us joining , its a pity we cant get a cross party consensus on this type of issue and others like NHS , immigration ,unfortunately each of the parties like to use the subjects as emotional battering rams and gain browny points with the electorate .
Coalition politics is the way forward ,I wonder how many would now vote for a Cameron / Clegg party instead of the current choices ?
http://www.labour.org.uk/page/-/Imag...sto%202017.pdf
Here's the manifesto