Vote the conservatives out

Nasa - budget of c$20 billion a year since 1960 - output Teflon

The nationalised railways were in their time world leading.

You have got to be joking. What "time" did you have in mind? What form did this leading take?

The Modernisation Plan was probably the single greatest disaster for UK transport policy in at least the last 100 years, as it meant that the Treasury were not willing to let the railway industry near sharp objects for a generation; its failure almost inevitably brought about Beeching, which was another disaster. The Modernisation Plan and its failure were the inevitable consequence of confused, sclerotic central planning by short-term government interests; I hold no brief for the post-war ex-LMS management of BR, and their respective memoirs are self-serving hindsight, but had the railways remained in private hands after the war (ie, the "Big Four") they are highly unlikely to have fucked things up on the monumental scale BR managed 1955 to 1968. They had a good history of long-term planning, and it's telling that BR did nothing in its first thirty years that the LMS hadn't managed to squeeze into the period May 1945 to 1 Jan 1948.

That the Research Arm in Derby did some interesting work on tilt (arguments about BR almost always degenerate into wild claims about the wonders of APT-E) are undermined by the fact that tilt is a dead-end: Shinkansen doesn't need it, TGV doesn't need it, HS2 won't need it, not even ECML needed it. A fantastically complex and expensive solution to a problem you shouldn't need to solve ("how do we make trains run faster when we don't have the political will to fix a few tight corners on WCML around Rugby") brings to mind the old quote about c'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre: c'est de la folie. British railways (with a small r) were blighted all through the period 1850 to 1947 by stupid compromises brought about by a refusal to fix civil engineering issues, and APT-E is just the same ludicrous internecine squabbling within the industry with more state money to squander. So the Italians took tilt over and then sold it back to us: that's two countries whose rail policy has been completely fucked for fifty years.

Shelly

Yes, cunts do want a right leaning government and child poverty.
i hope you are ashamed, but doubt it.

Awww, you've got such a lovely way with words.

NASA is part of the US government.

I'd say they're a world leader, wouldn't you? Responsible for more innovation than you could shake a stick at.

Closer to home, the NHS is a world leader in its field (although for how much longer, who knows). Responsible for innovation and inventions also.

The now defunct UK independent forensic labs were world-leading. Before this government got rid of them.

The nationalised railways were in their time world leading.

Shall I go on ...

Sorry, your point was?

Marking place.

Will sign tomorrow. There's a few good petitions regarding the Tories on 38 degrees site about the cuts to child tax and disability benefits that I've signed but I hadn't seen this one

Of course countries with nationalised industries do so well - name a nationalised industry that has developed any new product or is a world leader in its field?

And

"It may make sense to some to open service sectors up to competition. But under [TiSA] governments may not be able to regulate staff to patient ratios in hospitals, or ban fracking, or tighten safety controls on airlines, or refuse accreditation to schools and universities.

Foreign corporations must receive the same "national treatment" as domestic ones, and could argue that such regulations violate their ability to provide the service. Allowable regulations could not be “more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of the service,” according to TiSA’s domestic regulation annex.

No restrictions could be placed on foreign investment—corporations could control entire sectors."

An excerpt from that article ^^

"The deal would liberalize global trade of services, an expansive definition that encompasses air and maritime transport, package delivery, e-commerce, telecommunications, accountancy, engineering, consulting, health care, private education, financial services and more, covering close to 80 percent of the U.S. economy. Though member parties insist that the agreement would simply stop discrimination against foreign service providers, the text shows that TiSA would restrict how governments can manage their public laws through an effective regulatory cap. It could also dismantle and privatize state-owned enterprises, and turn those services over to the private sector. You begin to sound like the guy hanging out in front of the local food co-op passing around leaflets about One World Government when you talk about TiSA, but it really would clear the way for further corporate domination over sovereign countries and their citizens"

bigchoc TTIP is incredibly worrying, I agree.

I was talking about TiSA though, the Trade in Services Agreement

Wiggly I expect the trade agreement you are thinking of is TTIP, being negotiated by the EU with the USA.
The Tories and even Labour seem in favour of it, but it would give multinationals, especially from the USA, frightening power to sue governments and effectively prevent legislation they don't like.

USA companies are expected to sue to prevent e.g. plain packaging anti-smoking legislation, current EU law labelling food containing GMOs, meat containing hormones.
EU startup companies, especially in the IT field, expect to be sued to death, to stop them becoming rivals to established US firms.

If the EU Trade reps agree to current TTIP proposals, they are either the dumbest fuckers alive or the most heavily bribed. I hope the EU Parliament vetoes TTIP, but their snouts are usually deep in the trough too.

We were waiting for the ambulance for the best part of an hour and it was still nowhere near.

Got distracted from posting about TiSA as woman screaming outside as her DH had just kicked the shit out of her, she'd run out of her house screaming.

She had swelling to the head and said she dizzy and sick. We called the police and ambulance and waited with her.

Police have just given up waiting for the ambulance as it is still at least half an hour away and taken her in.

They were having to keep her awake, she was fading fast.

The Policeman said "the ambulance service is in am even worse state than us".

This is the effect of the cuts. People dying on the streets because there are no fucking ambulances. Or going back to abusive husbands because the refuges are desperately underfunded.

I can't post any more right now I am too sad and angry.

You do all realise the majority of property price inflation was under the Labour party. The Left destroy people's lives by poverty of ambition and destruction of wealth and leave others to take the blame.
There has never been a successful socialist government in the world - and those countries which have tried end up with a worse standard of living for all.

What Gemauve said.

All political parties accuse each other of lying. It's what they do.

Maybe the electorate wanted the Tory liars more than they wanted the Labour liars?

I detest the Tories btw and would cut my arm off before voting for them. But I respect others' right to vote for who they choose to.

MorrisZapp what if the majority of voters really were tricked and lied to.

They weren't. The "all the other voters are idiots who can't see the truth that I can" line is never convincing.

Ask yourself this: if the trickery and lies were so convincing, why were you able to see through it? What special powers do you think you have that the majority of the population don't?

Regarding this governmentioned handing over more power to corporations, I'm not mentioning that glibly or lightly. That really is what they're up to. However it's not something they wish to discuss so you could be forgiven for not knowing about it, it's not generally in the press or the public imagination.

We would all do well to educate ourselves about what powers are being given to corporations however as this will shape the world our DCs and grandchildren grow up in.

One example us the trade agreement TiSA. This an international trade agreement that the US are pushing through and being very secretive about. Our government should be resisting it but as far as I know they agree.

I'll see if I can find some info on it ...

MorrisZapp what if the majority of voters really were tricked and lied to. What then?

Christ, not this pish. We had quite enough of that after the Scottish Indyref. Apparently the majority of voters were tricked and lied to so the outcome doesn't count.

Look, we either have elections or we don't. And you respect the result or you don't.

This petition is crazy. We will have the opportunity to "vote the Tories out" in five years time. They won the election. That's how democracy works.

They are taking away the safety net.

Also, the main reason benefits get to the levels of a salary are because of housing benefit. And that money isn't going into the pockets of the benefit claimants, it goes direct to landlords.

It represents a huge transfer of wealth from public (ie our) money rather to private hands.

The lack of any kind of policy to deal with the housing crisis from this government - or any government in my lifetime - is a much more serious issue than "benefit lifestyles" which is a con IMO.

Yes there are areas with lots of people on benefits. But lots of those areas did have jobs and industry until Thatcher got rid of the jobs because she was playing politics,.in an attempt to smash the unions.

A couple of generations later, there's still no work yet the people are being called benefit scroungers.

Fucking disgraceful IMO.

Why not make work pay at a living wage instead of robbing the poor to pay the rich which is exactly what they are up to.

There has to be a point where benefits are a safety net not a lifestyle choice so they can't be set as high as a wage.

Also you mention the Tories want to transfer more power to corporations but this thread started off with using Facebook to collect a petition to re-run the election? That's some power they would have if it were possible. It's not otherwise the SNP would have a petition every week till they get the result they want.

£100 a week or whatever is not a salary. It is a pittance.

No body should be forced to work for that in a rich country like ours.

Would you be happy to look after a family on £100 a week? Would you have a decent standard of living? Would your children get the best opportunities?

"I think they want to take away our human rights and make it normal for people to have to work for benefits, for example."

Could that be like a salary?

Shelly

Yes, cunts do want a right leaning government and child poverty.
i hope you are ashamed, but doubt it.