howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
First up is Labour and their Shadow Defence Secretary has promised us 10, 000 extra police persons once in power, one for every day of the year apparently.
Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
The only thing missing was the views of the voters .
Guest 1881- Registered: 16 Oct 2016
- Posts: 1,071
Mr Bibby: "
Seeing a uniformed police presence is important to people. More people were dissatisfied than satisfied with levels of uniformed policing in their areas. They were over four times more likely to say they have seen a decrease than an increase in numbers of officers and PCSOs over the past year." Source:
http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/publications/public-views-policing-england-2015-16/#local-policing
I would regard that as listening to the voters.
Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you. PERICLES.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Shrewd move to make the Brexit issue low key then sit back and watch the Tories tear into each other at their conference.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/25/john-mcdonnell-labour-members-didnt-want-to-split-party-on-brexitCaptain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,070
Honesty at t'Conference from Skinner - 'We'll borrow the money'!
Can't see how this can possibly go wrong. A bit like that PFI or Student Loans really.
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Bringing back Energy, Water, Royal Mail and the Railways will go down well with the voters but I doubt the legality of cancelling PFI contracts.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-conference-live-brighton-jeremy-corbyn-a7963551.htmlCaptain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,070
Go down well with voters when they find that it's the pension funds they are relying on for their old age which are going to be presumably compensated with Monopoly Money when these are 'taken back into public ownership'? I think not!
https://realestate.ipe.com/news/infrastructure/pension-funds-and-insurers-provide-1bn-in-funding-for-uk-rail-companies/10019500.article"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Button
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,053
Shame these conferences aren't held in Dover - money into pocket for us, and topical knowledge into head for them!
(Not my real name.)
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Share prices and the knock on effect can go down as well as up, investors know this when they speculate. The mostly Tory voting commuters that are getting a dire service as well as high travel costs are also subsidising the operators out of their taxes and are most vocal about re-nationalisation.
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,070
Next time someone says (or you read) "Britain has the highest rail fares in Europe", you'll know this is only 15% of the story. The other 85% is that we have similar or even cheaper fares, too.
The big picture is that Britain has the most commercially aggressive fares in Europe, with the highest fares designed to get maximum revenue from business travel, and some of the lowest fares designed to get more revenue by filling more seats. This is exactly what airlines have known, and been doing, for decades.
https://www.seat61.com/uk-europe-train-fares-comparison.html
As the article also says 'Commuter/short distance fares are largely subsidized, and broadly-speaking it's a political choice between higher taxation, higher subsidy, lower fares, and lower taxation, lower subsidy and higher fares, which we Brits have tended to make lower down the tax/subsidy range and higher up the fare price range than other countries, for better or for worse.'
So putting it in simplistic terms 'should a highly paid city worker pay for his season ticket or should it be heavily subsidised by a low earning tax payer who never goes near London'?
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,070
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,875
Political conference season .......The time for impossible promises and popular waffle that the supporters want to hear but has little chance of happening.
This is regardless of which party is involved but the media lap it up and report it as if it is important.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
I see that the BBC is providing a bodyguard for their correspondent Laura Kuenssberg at Conference due to Labour supporters complaining of bias against their party. Considering that most Tory supporters believe the broadcaster is biased against them the Beeb must be doing an excellent job. Time to put the licence fee up I say.
Captain Haddock likes this
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,070
There are two visions of a future Corbyn government. One, outlined in Labour’s election manifesto earlier this year, is a programme that feels dated and left-wing by recent British standards but which would not raise eyebrows in much of western Europe, nor do the country catastrophic harm.
The other, which can be pieced together from the recent statements and lifelong beliefs of Mr Corbyn and his inner circle, is a radical agenda that could cause grave and lasting damage to Britain’s prosperity and security.
https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21729431-labour-track-rule-britain-who-rules-labour-party-jeremy-corbyn-britains-most
Six months ago the opposition was in a battle for survival. Now it is preparing for government
https://www.economist.com/news/britain/21729437-six-months-ago-opposition-was-battle-survival-now-it-preparing
An evening with Momentum at the Labour Party conference
https://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2017/09/bagehot "We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Guest 1881- Registered: 16 Oct 2016
- Posts: 1,071
Captain Haddock wrote:Next time someone says (or you read) "Britain has the highest rail fares in Europe", you'll know this is only 15% of the story. The other 85% is that we have similar or even cheaper fares, too.
The big picture is that Britain has the most commercially aggressive fares in Europe, with the highest fares designed to get maximum revenue from business travel, and some of the lowest fares designed to get more revenue by filling more seats. This is exactly what airlines have known, and been doing, for decades.
https://www.seat61.com/uk-europe-train-fares-comparison.html
You make a valid argument about high-paid city workers, I might counter that not everyone that commutes is highly paid.
Anyway, your source. A simple look at his "about me" section reveals:
I'm a career railwayman who ran away from Oxford to join the circus - or as we called it in those days, British Rail - as soon as he could. Starting out in delightful rural Kent on what was then BR's Southern Region, I was the Station Manager for Charing Cross, London Bridge & Cannon Street railway stations in London in the early to mid 1990s. After a spell as the Customer Relations Manager for two major UK train companies, I worked for the Office of the Rail Regulator and later the Strategic Rail Authority, ending up at the Department for Transport in charge of the team regulating fares & ticketing on the British rail network.
Hmmmm, vested interest is fabricating "commercially aggressive fares" spin, methinks.
Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you. PERICLES.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Come the glorious day Bob will be first up against that wall, meanwhile I will continue to read my first edition "Das Kapital" personally signed by John McDonnell.
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,070
I can assure you Howard that come the day, I shall be on my yacht, heading offshore to join all my money.
howard mcsweeney1 likes this
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,920
Hooray Bob's going lol
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Weird Granny Slater
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 3,065
Tailored suits, evasive or non-answers to difficult questions, a veneer of unity over policy divisions, over-confidence in the victory to come: yep, Labour must be made up that they've amassed most of the Tory qualifications for good government. Where they let themselves down is that they don't yet have a leadership that doesn't have a clue, or a bunch conniving toffs looking to steal the crown.
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"