Nationalisation..

[Tuearts right boot]

Three day weeks began under Heath.

Indeed it was.

 

[Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese]

Would love to agree this but all you need to look at is the tube so it would end up as a backward step. Just regulate the fuckers properly

I think you are right. The lack of regulation has allowed privatised industries to become cartels instead of competitive. It's competition that will deliver low bills to the customer.

 

[sir baconface]

Let’s put ideology aside and imagine you’re in government with a tight budget under hundreds of competing pressures. Not an unheard of situation.

Now, rank these in priority order, bearing in mind you hope to be re-elected:

- NHS expenditure
- Social care
- Nurses’ salaries
- Preserving the value of benefits
- Uprating personal allowances and pensions in line with inflation, and
- Investing in new sewer pipes or railway signals.

Which becomes bottom of the priority list?

Repeat 10 years running.

Result: nationalised industry infrastructure is bolloxed.

That’s exactly what happened previously.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Well, the Shadow Chancellor said it's happening if they get in. He reckons people are sick of being ripped off. He's not going to pay the market rates to put them back into public ownership.

I can see it being a vote winner with some.

So, what do you reckon? I think there would be a huge legal battle over the price.

It's a vote winner because theft has been legalised and that sits alright with some people. I can partly see a case for nationalising all the old stuff, but is anyone gonna take a chunk of British Steel, it it still exists, and I would bet an NHS prescription to a Northern Rail Littleborough to Victoria train ticket that it will make absolutely fuck all difference to improving what now exists. My experience of Northern Rail is mixed. My experience of Virgin Rail is very positive. I can see the whole shebang, once nationalised going the way of Northern Rail, on a good day!

 

[Stuuuuuu]

Would love to agree this but all you need to look at is the tube so it would end up as a backward step. Just regulate the fuckers properly

But the tube is an outstanding service. Yes, I would like it to be cheaper but it is incredibly reliable.

 

[urban genie]

Let’s put ideology aside and imagine you’re in government with a tight budget under hundreds of competing pressures. Not an unheard of situation.

Now, rank these in priority order, bearing in mind you hope to be re-elected:

- NHS expenditure
- Social care
- Nurses’ salaries
- Preserving the value of benefits
- Uprating personal allowances and pensions in line with inflation, and
- Investing in new sewer pipes or railway signals.

Which becomes bottom of the priority list?

Repeat 10 years running.

Result: nationalised industry infrastructure is bolloxed.

That’s exactly what happened previously.

We subsidise all the industies we sold off, gas, electric, water, rail, we are still using taxes to prop them up while not reaping the rewards in profits to reinvest in the other things you mentioned.

 

[Stuuuuuu]

My experience of Northern Rail is mixed. My experience of Virgin Rail is very positive. I can see the whole shebang, once nationalised going the way of Northern Rail, on a good day!

I can't comment on Northern Rail but although Virgin Rail provide a pretty good service, the price is absolutely appalling. It simply should not cost anywhere near that to travel. We've got used to being ripped off by transport companies so people just seem to accept the shocking prices.

 

[city986]

But the tube is an outstanding service. Yes, I would like it to be cheaper but it is incredibly reliable.

That's when it's not holding London to ransom

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I can't comment on Northern Rail but although Virgin Rail provide a pretty good service, the price is absolutely appalling. It simply should not cost anywhere near that to travel. We've got used to being ripped off by transport companies so people just seem to accept the shocking prices.

Ah, I do have a Senior Railcard so it doesn't seem too bad for me.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

What I refuse to accept is that just because some nationalised industries were poorly run in the past, that this is an overwhelming argument against nationalisation ad infinitum, as some appear to believe.

Rail network, prisons, and certain utilities should be owned and run by the state. Anything subject to reasonable levels of competition should be in private hands.