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Post by Red Rackham on Mar 10, 2024 16:33:32 GMT
Even though it will never be admitted publicly, I'm fairly confident the corroding effect of diversity and inclusion has not gone unnoticed in the corridors of power. Unless one of the falling aeroplanes manages to hit the house of commons or Whitehall, i doubt it will bother them much And that's what makes it such a crime, it's so obvious yet no one dare mention it for fear of being labelled a racist. |
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Post by Totheleft on Mar 13, 2024 1:24:21 GMT
We had just one bus company here where I live, the United Automobile Bus Services, otherwise known to everyone as simply "United". I think that I can perhaps remember one strike, and the services were extremely reliable, unlike today the buses always turned up. Bus services were certainly not shit, but they are today, and of course the other huge advantages of a regulated bus service was that there was only one company, with one set of bus timetables. Whereas today there are different bus companies and different timetables, nothing is joined-up like it used to be. As for train services, theres just no comparison to the services today in the North compared to pre-privatization, we must have the worst train services in Europe, they are terrible. I have an open mind on public transport, but what I do know as a fact is that bringing the railways back into state ownership is a policy popular with a lot of Tory voting commuters.50% of the current rail franchises are currently under state ownership - I bet you cannot tell me which ones without looking them up. Their performance does not stand out from the ones run by the private sector - when 100% are under state ownership and the service does not improve what will be the excuse then?, lack of subsidy I suppose.. JAN 02 2023 Embargoed: 00:01 Monday 2nd January 2023 Rail subsidies since the beginning of the COVID pandemic will have cost £42 billion by March 2023, according to new research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance. That includes £30 billion in additional subsidies to cover for COVID disruption. This amounts to around £1,300 for every taxpayer including almost £1,000 for COVID subsidies alone.. Analysis of figures from the Office of Rail and Road has found that subsidies, already running into the billions before the covid pandemic, have soared, and will amount to £11 billion in 2022/23 alone. That is well above pre-pandemic levels. Of this £11 billion, £6.3 billion is estimated to be for COVID-related subsidies. It will mean that the average subsidy per journey taken in 2023 will be higher than the average fare per journey. These figures are revealed ahead of widespread disruption for rail users, with strikes scheduled from the 3rd to the 7th of January. With rail usage unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels anytime soon due to shifting working patterns, and with the industry already benefiting from substantial taxpayer support, the TaxPayers’ Alliance has warned that any pay increases over and above forecast average earnings will have to be met by taxpayers through an increased subsidy |
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Post by Totheleft on Mar 13, 2024 1:32:52 GMT
This is full fact in 2017 .
I just wanted to make the point about the railways, in terms of my understanding is that the railway companies, the private ones, receive four times as much funding as British Rail did in the 1970s and 80s.”
BBC Question Time audience member, 11 May 2017
This is the right order of magnitude. Figures we’ve seen indicate it’s now about three times what it was at the end of the 1980s, although these don’t include loans to Network Rail.
Britain’s privatised railways have been getting around £5 billion on average in government support over the last five years. In the last five years of the 1980s—the earliest period we have figures for before privatisation—it was an average of £1.6 billion in today’s money
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Post by Totheleft on Mar 13, 2024 1:44:31 GMT
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Private firms that lease out trains for Britain’s railway have seen their profits treble in a year, with more than £400m paid in dividends, official figures show.
The rolling stock companies paid out a total of £409.7m to shareholders and profit margins rose to 41.6% in 2022-23, according to the Office of Rail and Road, as the rest of the railway was told to make swingeing cuts and salaries were frozen. Taxpayer subsidies are still running at twice pre-pandemic levels.
Unions have urged a windfall tax on the huge dividends, describing the financing of trains as a “racket” without risk to the leasing firms.
Financial analysis by the ORR, the rail regulator, shows that although the total in leasing costs paid by train operators fell slightly last year to £3.1bn, it is still almost 30% higher than five years ago, in a period when overall rail industry staff costs remained static.
The ORR said the rolling stock companies, or Roscos, paid dividends of £409.7m in 2022-23, up from £122.3m a year before. Their net profit margins went up from 14.3% to 41.6%.
Since the collapse of franchising, train operating companies are now on management contracts of margins of about 2%. Train operators’ contracts are now structured for the government to make up the shortfall between revenue and costs, meaning taxpayers are now effectively paying the £3.1bn spent last year on leasing trains, almost a quarter of total industry costs
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Post by johnofgwent on Mar 13, 2024 21:56:14 GMT
We had just one bus company here where I live, the United Automobile Bus Services, otherwise known to everyone as simply "United". I think that I can perhaps remember one strike, and the services were extremely reliable, unlike today the buses always turned up. Bus services were certainly not shit, but they are today, and of course the other huge advantages of a regulated bus service was that there was only one company, with one set of bus timetables. Whereas today there are different bus companies and different timetables, nothing is joined-up like it used to be. As for train services, theres just no comparison to the services today in the North compared to pre-privatization, we must have the worst train services in Europe, they are terrible. I have an open mind on public transport, but what I do know as a fact is that bringing the railways back into state ownership is a policy popular with a lot of Tory voting commuters.50% of the current rail franchises are currently under state ownership - I bet you cannot tell me which ones without looking them up. Their performance does not stand out from the ones run by the private sector - when 100% are under state ownership and the service does not improve what will be the excuse then?, lack of subsidy I suppose.. I think it worth pointing out when Virgin and Stagecoach chucked in the East Coast Main Line Towel, Direct Railways Ltd the government shell company ran the line at a huge profit… because they did not have to cover the insane franchise payments nor butter up shareholders EDF are able to subsidise french customers with the raking in from british ones and the man in seat 61 provides all the evidence you need that the german state railway company is ripping us off to give germans and anyone else riding german trains cheaper journeys My experience 1981-2019 has been that a french, belgian, german or italian train generally goes 3-10 times as far as a british one for your english pound |
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Post by Pacifico on Mar 13, 2024 22:11:49 GMT
But we are still massively subsidising the 50% of franchises run by the State - there has been no reduction in their subsidy or any improvement in their performance.
Sorry but the idea that making the railways State run solves their problems is not supported by the evidence.
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Post by happyhornet on Mar 14, 2024 6:38:09 GMT
McKinstry mentions, almost in passing, the corroding effect of the 'Diversity and Inclusion' culture which has taken over not just public bodies like the NHS but private business also. What he doesn't do, however, is explain how this results in an epidemic of mediocrity as standards are lowered and squabbling over access to resources takes over the political discourse. A few examples would not have gone amiss, delivered in the Sun-reader friendly language of the rest of the piece. Yeah, nothing to do with who's been in power for the last 14 years. |
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Post by jonksy on Mar 14, 2024 7:31:56 GMT
McKinstry mentions, almost in passing, the corroding effect of the 'Diversity and Inclusion' culture which has taken over not just public bodies like the NHS but private business also. What he doesn't do, however, is explain how this results in an epidemic of mediocrity as standards are lowered and squabbling over access to resources takes over the political discourse. A few examples would not have gone amiss, delivered in the Sun-reader friendly language of the rest of the piece. Sadiq Khan warns rising cost of living is fuelling crime in Londonistan....
Who the fuck has been in charge of Londonistan for the last 8 years HH? It didn't take him long to Fuck up London did it? But still the left fly a flag in the defence of the self-serving mossie arsehole..
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Post by Orac on Mar 14, 2024 7:49:15 GMT
McKinstry mentions, almost in passing, the corroding effect of the 'Diversity and Inclusion' culture which has taken over not just public bodies like the NHS but private business also. What he doesn't do, however, is explain how this results in an epidemic of mediocrity as standards are lowered and squabbling over access to resources takes over the political discourse. A few examples would not have gone amiss, delivered in the Sun-reader friendly language of the rest of the piece. Yeah, nothing to do with who's been in power for the last 14 years. Of course it has something to do with who has been in power. However, your 14 year timeline is a bit limited. The 'wrong people' have been in control in the UK for decades. Unfortunately and despite increasing disquiet and realisation in the population, they seem to be relentlessly consolidating power so they can't be removed. |
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Post by steppenwolf on Mar 14, 2024 7:49:32 GMT
The reason nothing is working is because the civil servants never came back to work after Covid - only about 5% go into the office now. Believe it or not it's the civil servants who run the country, not the politicians, and they are simply not doing their job. I think it's a deliberate attempt to get rid of the Tory govt. Blair politicised the CS and they now refuse to thins that they don't agree with. Sack the lot of them.
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Post by jonksy on Mar 14, 2024 7:56:19 GMT
The reason nothing is working is because the civil servants never came back to work after Covid - only about 5% go into the office now. Believe it or not it's the civil servants who run the country, not the politicians, and they are simply not doing their job. I think it's a deliberate attempt to get rid of the Tory govt. Blair politicised the CS and they now refuse to thins that they don't agree with. Sack the lot of them. The establishment have been running the UK ever since Blair took over... |
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Post by Handyman on Mar 14, 2024 8:06:07 GMT
Whitchfinder is front centre sporting a very fetching double breasted overcoat.  That brings back good memories of my youth, my grandad use to drive coaches like that all over the North and Lake District he loved it. Thanks  |
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Post by wapentake on Mar 14, 2024 8:28:06 GMT
But we are still massively subsidising the 50% of franchises run by the State - there has been no reduction in their subsidy or any improvement in their performance. Sorry but the idea that making the railways State run solves their problems is not supported by the evidence. You are ignoring the facts in Jogs post,east coast mainline failed and the state run enterprise in the interim brought it back to how it should be but the govt refused to let them carry on running it. What use is the dogma state run is inefficient and costly so privatise it which turns out even more expensive and badly run. The water industry is a prime example billions paid to shareholders and now it’s said London and the south east will run out of drinkable water in twenty years. |
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Post by Pacifico on Mar 14, 2024 8:41:12 GMT
But we are still massively subsidising the 50% of franchises run by the State - there has been no reduction in their subsidy or any improvement in their performance. Sorry but the idea that making the railways State run solves their problems is not supported by the evidence. You are ignoring the facts in Jogs post,east coast mainline failed and the state run enterprise in the interim brought it back to how it should be but the govt refused to let them carry on running it. What use is the dogma state run is inefficient and costly so privatise it which turns out even more expensive and badly run. The water industry is a prime example billions paid to shareholders and now it’s said London and the south east will run out of drinkable water in twenty years. Well London has been trying to build a new reservoir for the past 30 years - but local politicians have been fighting to stop it. The same politicians I might add who promote open borders and mass immigration. |
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Post by wapentake on Mar 14, 2024 8:49:59 GMT
You are ignoring the facts in Jogs post,east coast mainline failed and the state run enterprise in the interim brought it back to how it should be but the govt refused to let them carry on running it. What use is the dogma state run is inefficient and costly so privatise it which turns out even more expensive and badly run. The water industry is a prime example billions paid to shareholders and now it’s said London and the south east will run out of drinkable water in twenty years. Well London has been trying to build a new reservoir for the past 30 years - but local politicians have been fighting to stop it. The same politicians I might add who promote open borders and mass immigration. Nice Swerve there Pacifico still doesn’t answer my question.  |
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