West Coast mainline fiasco and Tory handling of our railways

First topic message reminder :

I was just wondering how many midwives you could train and employ with 40 million pounds?

Apparently the government "got their sums wrong".  Do they try hard at being as thick as two short planks, or does it just come naturally? They're forcing austerity on the poorest and then wasting 40 million because the transport budget couldn't stretch to a couple of calculators! Dearie Me!  

At the Labour Party Conference, Ed Miliband also stated he would repeal NHS reforms..

I seem to be experiencing great difficulty in obtaining a link that confirms the Labour party intends to repeal all NHS reforms, and will this happen if the reforms turn out to be good for the one nation ?

"I seem to be experiencing great difficulty in obtaining a link that confirms the Labour party intends to repeal all NHS reforms,"

Thats because I actually heard him say it. So much was said at the conference, I can't recall when or where he actually said it, all I know is when he did my ears certainly pricked up, as it was one of the things I wanted to hear from Ed Miliband.

As Far as "and will this happen if the reforms turn out to be good for the one nation ?

This I guess remains to be seen, even so, what allmost everyone I speak to, want the NHS to be in the public domain and not a cash cow for the likes of Branson.

I seem to be experiencing great difficulty in obtaining a link that confirms the Labour party intends to repeal all NHS reforms

http://www.politicshome.com/uk/story/29750/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19812852

http://thewall.co.uk/topics/35849-labour-confirms-plans-to-repeal-nhs-bill

http://www.nursingtimes.net/nursing-practice/clinical-zones/management/burnham-vows-to-repeal-health-act/5050201.article

If you want to continue discussing the Tory decimation of the NHS, please do so here:-
https://cuttingedge2.forumotion.co.uk/t7-is-the-nhs-really-safe-in-tory-hands

This thread is about the West Coast mainline railway fiasco. Please stick to the subject.

Ta.

Just asking.

Tosh wrote:Ivan,

Quoting David Camron is wasted on me, I wouldn't vote a Conservative into power if the opposition was Michael Foot and Clement Freud.

Can you provide me a link confirming this manifesto committment ?

The Labour party manifesto will be out just before the next G.E, when every other party puts there's out also both Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham have said it so it os on record just in case you think they are trying to pull the wool over your eyes, if they did not the total Labour party membership would have there guts for garters.

Adele Carlyon wrote:I was just wondering how many midwives you could train and employ with 40 million pounds?

Apparently the government "got their sums wrong". Do they try hard at being as thick as two short planks, or does it just come naturally? They're forcing austerity on the poorest and then wasting 40 million because the transport budget couldn't stretch to a couple of calculators! Dearie Me!

My own 'take' on this is that the Tories told the civil service what result they wanted - and that there was no way they wanted it to be Branson, as he was too chummy with Blair. Of course, once it comes out they expect the servants to fall on their sword, just like Hunt's SpAd.

Or am I being too cynical?

City bond traders, who used to demonstrate their wealth by consuming magnums of champagne, wearing red braces and driving a Porsche, now have another way of displaying conspicuous consumption.

They take their friends onto a Railway Train. With tickets not purchased in advance.

skwalker1964 wrote:

Adele Carlyon wrote:I was just wondering how many midwives you could train and employ with 40 million pounds?

Apparently the government "got their sums wrong". Do they try hard at being as thick as two short planks, or does it just come naturally? They're forcing austerity on the poorest and then wasting 40 million because the transport budget couldn't stretch to a couple of calculators! Dearie Me!

My own 'take' on this is that the Tories told the civil service what result they wanted - and that there was no way they wanted it to be Branson, as he was too chummy with Blair. Of course, once it comes out they expect the servants to fall on their sword, just like Hunt's SpAd.

Or am I being too cynical?

I quite agree with your take on this skywalker, only thing I would change is the reason IMHO money changing hands back handers to the right people ie gov't. They are expecting Branson to keep it going for the next two years until another franchise has been sorted, I would laugh if he told them to get lost and run it themselves because we both know Branson will not get it after the next round of franchise, and no your not being too cynical skywalker.

Skywalker said: "My own 'take' on this is that the Tories told the civil service what result they wanted - and that there was no way they wanted it to be Branson, as he was too chummy with Blair. Of course".

More proof that Herr Cameron is driven by Greed and spite.

bobby wrote:Skywalker said: "My own 'take' on this is that the Tories told the civil service what result they wanted - and that there was no way they wanted it to be Branson, as he was too chummy with Blair. Of course".

More proof that Herr Cameron is driven by Greed and spite.

The entire tory party are just little "Balls of Spite & Hate" I often wonder if they were born or arrived via a U.F.O.

A fair deal for passengers and taxpayers

From an article by Mary Creagh:-

"The Labour Party is committed to our railways, unlike the current government who seem more concerned pushing their ideologically driven desire to reprivatise the East Coast mainline. The last Labour government made our railways the safest in Europe. We abolished the disastrous Railtrack and set up Network Rail as a not-for-profit provider of the railway infrastructure. Labour invested more in the railway than any previous government.

Our ticket prices are among the most expensive in Europe: commuter fares have risen over 20% under this government. And people feel they are being ripped off because they can’t work out which is the cheapest ticket for their journey. The West Coast Main Line fiasco cost taxpayers £50 million directly and hundreds of millions more from delays to investment and the tendering of other routes.

Labour will introduce a strict cap on rail fares. We shall also create a legal right to the cheapest ticket for your journey, ending passengers’ confusion. We will bring Network Rail together with a new representative passenger rail organisation. It will plan investment and services; contract routes; coordinate services; oversee stations, fares and ticketing; procure and lease new rolling stock; raise skill levels and ensure customer satisfaction across the network.

Since the East Coast railway was taken into public ownership, both passenger satisfaction ratings and punctuality are consistently excellent. It will have returned over a billion pounds to taxpayers by March next year. We will legislate to allow a public sector operator to challenge private train operators on a level playing field."

For the whole article:-
http://labourlist.org/2014/08/a-fair-deal-for-passengers-and-taxpayers/

Labour will not get in power at the next general election, because people are stupid, and also they have no real opposition have they?
So let's face it folks another 4years of being even more downtrodden than we have in the past because he knows now that as soon as he gets back in push through all the posts that people will detest as he has 3 more years to sit back and bathe in all his f in glory.

You may have been depressed by the avalanche of propaganda against Labour from Conservative Central Office and the media, but opinion polls continue to show Tories behind Labour.  (Which is of course the reason for the increasingly shrill Right-wing propaganda.)

There is another British Winter to be enjoyed between now and the General Election next May, and any more expensive Tory riverside luxury dwellings swept away on the tide will finish David Cameron for good.

Oh oftenwrong I do hope you are right, and peoples fuel bills will push them further away from Cameron.
I do hope my prediction does not become a reality.

The success of East Coast shows that another model can work. And that’s why it terrifies the government

From an article by James Bloodworth:-

"It should be obvious by now that privatisation has become an end in itself for this government. This was demonstrated last year by the rushed privatisation of Royal Mail, sold at a fraction of its worth despite bringing in a significant profit to the taxpayer as a state-owned company.

The latest example of ideologically-driven stupidity is the flogging off of the successful East Coast Mainline to a consortium made up of Virgin and Stagecoach. Despite the not-for-dividend operator returning some £800 million to the taxpayer in the last financial year, the government has been seeking to return East Coast to private hands as speedily as possible.  

The scale of East Coast’s success is all the more impressive considering the service was previously abandoned by a failing private sector – first by GNER in 2007 and then by National Express in 2009. Just as the government cannot allow banks that are ‘too big to fail’ to sink without trace, so it could not permit the companies that run our trains to fail – the consequences would be just too severe. As should be obvious to even the most fanatical libertarian, the railways can’t be turned off for a week on the ideological basis of ‘letting the market run its course’.

According to recent opinion polls, over half the British public support full nationalisation of the railways. But in these supposedly non-ideological times, ideology is regularly trumping pragmatism. Is there anything, after all, that’s more damaging to the Conservative privatisation agenda than an example of a people before profit service that actually works?"

For the whole article:-
http://leftfootforward.org/2014/11/the-success-of-east-coast-shows-that-another-model-can-work-and-thats-why-it-terrifies-the-government/



https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B3bwKGvIIAA2m4r.jpg

In the paper today that royal mail workers are being paid too much compared to their dutch counterparts? next thing for sell off?

stu. Your post seems ambiguous; I'm sure you know that the Royal Mail was privatised on the cheap a year ago, with George Osborne's best man netting a cool £36 million in the process. That's what the Tories call "rewarding hard work"!  

The UK taxpayers' 40% stake in Eurostar is up for sale now. No doubt that will end up in foreign hands like so much else, but it won't stop Tories from waving union flags around, pretending to be the party of patriots.

Yes Ivan I did, that is why I thought it was strange that their workers were being paid too much? so maybe no pay rise for a while then?

West coast....east coast


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqtGqHgXgAETCru.jpg

Actually, I think it's typical Tory misdirection to refer to railway Privatisation since the taxpayer continues to provide and maintain at public expense the track on which privately owned trains are being run.

A Labour government need only charge the market rate (a capitalist term) for that service, which is the only thing that made "privatisation" possible in the first place, to stop our money being funnelled to foreign investors.

privately owned trains

However, the trains are not all privately-owned. Britain's railways are being taken over by foreign, often state-owned, firms. For example, trains on seven routes belong to Arriva (which is owned by Deutsche Bahn), Scotrail now belongs to the Dutch state railways, while Essex Thameside is owned by Trenitalia, part of Italian state rail. When the Tories sold off Eurostar, 55% of it was bought by SNCF (French state railways) and 5% now belongs to the Belgian equivalent. So our ‘patriotic’ Tories don’t mind if foreign states own our infrastructure, as long as the British state doesn’t!

http://www.cityam.com/256824/owns-uks-railways-well-not-british-firms-many-cases

As we are frequently reminded, "A week is a long time in Politics", but someone taking a rather longer view of British history might acknowledge the fact that foreign investors are now drawing dividends from the British Economy as a not entirely inappropriate payback for the way Victorians drained The Empire of its resources for home consumption.

What goes around comes around.

Chris Grayling vows to scrap first class on commuter trains to ease overcrowding

http://www.cityam.com/268926/together-chris-grayling-vows-scrap-first-class-commuter

(Rest of Tory Party recoils in horror)