Britain - The Official Thread
- Thread starter Ross
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Ace.
Let's Criticise Starmer for doing a deal with fake-tan-flavoured sebum, so we can hand the next election to Tory scum that will do back flips to give Trump what he wants anyway.
Let's Criticise Starmer for doing a deal with fake-tan-flavoured sebum, so we can hand the next election to Tory scum that will do back flips to give Trump what he wants anyway.
- 30,414
- Bratvegas
South Western Railways nationalised
Amongst the mirth of "Great British Railways seeing a return to nationalised railway services" (in most of England because TfW, ScotRail and a few others are exempt), am I one of the few saddos who sees the reporting as either biased or even just plain lazy? The following railway companies are already under direct government ownership:
Northern Trains
Southeastern
TransPennine Express
London North Eastern Railway
You're supposed to think that South Western Railways is the first area of the island being put under GBR control but it's actually just joining the other failed private operators that have needed the Department for Transport to step in as an "operator of last resort". Additionally, two more operators, c2c and Greater Anglia, are also heading for DfT and were going to any way. GBR, if its implementation goes ahead, won't be for another 2-3 years.
The first big franchise failure was National Express East Coast. The government stepped in in 2008, took over the service and by 2015 when the contract was retendered, the nationalised East Coast had had years of profitable and punctual success, having returned over £1 billion to the Treasury.
If it's a time to dunk on the principle of nationalised railways, I don't think seven private operators failing is a good way to go about it. These private operators agreeing to multi-year contracts and then pulling out when they can't be arsed isn't a ringing endorsement for capitalism with railway services. Whatever way railways should be managed and operated, it's quite clear that the current regional cartels don't work and haven't for 20+ years.
Amongst the mirth of "Great British Railways seeing a return to nationalised railway services" (in most of England because TfW, ScotRail and a few others are exempt), am I one of the few saddos who sees the reporting as either biased or even just plain lazy? The following railway companies are already under direct government ownership:
Northern Trains
Southeastern
TransPennine Express
London North Eastern Railway
You're supposed to think that South Western Railways is the first area of the island being put under GBR control but it's actually just joining the other failed private operators that have needed the Department for Transport to step in as an "operator of last resort". Additionally, two more operators, c2c and Greater Anglia, are also heading for DfT and were going to any way. GBR, if its implementation goes ahead, won't be for another 2-3 years.
The first big franchise failure was National Express East Coast. The government stepped in in 2008, took over the service and by 2015 when the contract was retendered, the nationalised East Coast had had years of profitable and punctual success, having returned over £1 billion to the Treasury.
If it's a time to dunk on the principle of nationalised railways, I don't think seven private operators failing is a good way to go about it. These private operators agreeing to multi-year contracts and then pulling out when they can't be arsed isn't a ringing endorsement for capitalism with railway services. Whatever way railways should be managed and operated, it's quite clear that the current regional cartels don't work and haven't for 20+ years.
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Wait... you're not suggesting that the entirely trust worthy right wing press aren't accurately reporting on this blatant Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist-Corbynite Commie plot by two-tier, free-gear, might-be-queer Starmer to take away all our freedoms and send us back to the dark ages are you?
/s
Of course reporting is biased and lazy...
- 30,414
- Bratvegas
A big deal was also made of South Western's first service under DfT control being a rail replacement bus. That exact same thing happened with the first train of the private era in 1996 - the 1am train from Fishguard to Paddington was a bus as far as Cardiff.
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- Fezzik1983
- Fezzik1983
The things people will do for a bit of cheese. Cost of living crisis has hit hard.
uk.news.yahoo.com
Watch daredevils risk Gloucestershire cheese rolling race as German YouTuber retains title
Daredevils have thrown themselves down a steep hill in the annual death-defying Gloucestershire cheese rolling race. Brave competitors sprinted, tripped and tumbled down Cooper's Hill in Brockworth to try and win the 8lb double Gloucester. The recent dry weather had made the racetrack harder and...
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Tired Tyres
Premium
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- Tired_Tyres
- Tired Tyres
‘Grenfell was caused by corporate greed’: report calls for far stronger penalties over unsafe cladding
Exclusive: Thinktank calls for stronger penalties for corporate negligence in England, including directorship and public-contract bans
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- Adelaide
- Neomone
Ugh, but they're still trying to hold companies to account instead of individuals. I get that it's hard, but even relatively small gaol terms for directors and technical people deemed responsible would hopefully get them to think twice about what they were doing.‘Grenfell was caused by corporate greed’: report calls for far stronger penalties over unsafe cladding
Exclusive: Thinktank calls for stronger penalties for corporate negligence in England, including directorship and public-contract banswww.theguardian.com
Probably not, because none of them expect to get caught. But in which case at least the specific people who have demonstrated that they are not safe to have wandering around in society would be put somewhere that they can't harm anyone else.
