The Labour Government

[MillionMilesAway]

I seen something about waters and it basically said that the companies would have to poison people for an extended period of time for the government to step in. Even then, the companies would retain overall control until the end of the contract. A rolling 25 years seems to ring a bell?

I think it's more if one goes bankrupt, Thames being the obvious one, I think.

 

[BlueHammer85]

Renationalising the rail service means the staff transfer to the public sector, good for them, bad for the rest of us

You’re really against this ?

Privatisation has been a disaster for our rail industry

 

[Blue and true]

Renationalising the rail service means the staff transfer to the public sector, good for them, bad for the rest of us

Why is that bad for the rest of us?

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

In other news Labour are starting to fulfil their promise of nationalising the rail services which I think the vast majority support.

Gas and Electricity next please.

I think they support this on the understanding that these services will improve measurably or the cost of them will be reined in. I suspect there will be no difference in general performance -same track, same trains, same personnel, same stations. Where is the imrpovement going to come from?

 

[The Future’s Blue!]

You’re really against this ?

Privatisation has been a disaster for our rail industry

A mate brought it up this morning, complaining about Labour. Wasn’t against the plan, just Labour.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

You’re really against this ?

Privatisation has been a disaster for our rail industry

The only ones to benefit from privatisation were those who bought OUR family silver at knockdown prices and have continued to rake in at the expense of proper investment. Thames Water is the classic way of getting a return. You just don't want their water down yer pipes.

 

[blueinsa]

You do appear to get quite animated by this, so I've helpfully provided some figures for you to place the issue into context.

The Treasury has useful spreadsheet on its website which list the various PFI deals, shows which government signed off the deals, the capital value of the projects, profile of repayments and so on. Unsurprisingly, they do show the very large majority of deals being signed off by the Labour government.

As of end March 2023, the latest data available, there are 669 deals outstanding in total, with a capital value of £50.2bn, resulting in repayments of £278.3bn.

The Labour government signed off 576 of these deals, accounting for £42bn of the capital value and £246.7bn of the repayments. That's 89% of the cost of the deals. They also signed off a deal just 5 days before the 2010 election, so they clearly didn't discontinue the use of PFI at any point.

Interesting figures given the speculation of Reeves reintroducing PFI. She can't be that dumb, can she?

Yeah…….but……Tories!

 

[TinFoilHat]

Renationalising the rail service means the staff transfer to the public sector, good for them, bad for the rest of us

Why is it good for us?

I support Nationalisation but I know the trade off will be lower pay rises.

We don't have a final salary pension scheme. So there's no 'gold plated pensions' as the Daily mail put it.

The railways should be run as a proper public service. The re-nationalisation bill doesn't go far enough in my eyes and will cost more to start with as not all board vacancies are currently filled meaning more tax money wasted on 'consultants'.

 

[BayernMan]

 

[TinFoilHat]

A Blairite speaks.