Westminstenders: 10 day count down

[RedToothBrush]

10 days to go...

... Wake me up when the shit show is over.

She's pointing out that the main thrust of anti-Corbyn propaganda circles around his (supposed) lack of patriotism.

Again with the patriotism

As I said to PP I'm sure you haven't deliberately & disingenuously made a great leap of your own imagination when attributing things to me so I will search diligently for where I have used such words...

From Twitter:

The UK in a Changing Europe
@UKamdEU

'How are people deciding who to vote for? The @BESResearch finds that most people are using the 2017 result, only 6 per cent are using tactical voting websites. But only half of the electorate know who finished in second place last time.'

This is why Hugh Grant's intervention is so useful.
People want to vote tactically - but information is not cutting through.
His presence is incredibly beneficial.
I wish other high-profile Remainers would follow suit.

Don't bother with the diligent searching, Dusty.

I only give a finite amount of time to attention-seekers. After that, I assume it's best they learn other methods to assuage their unmet needs.

Nothing patriotic about a party that gets so much Russian funding

If Labour were getting millions from the Russians I would expect screaming headlines every day, a far more important issue than not watching the Queen's Speech

I found a nerdy fact sheet about rail usage here

A wee bit of humour: Chief Inspector Miekelson interviews all the Scottish party leaders (this aired last night....I'm surprised that there hasn't been more publicity )

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000c5t1/scot-squad-the-chiefs-election-interviews

Don't bother with the diligent searching, Dusty.

Why? Because you made it up?

Shocked I am 😮

I only give a finite amount of time to attention-seekers. After that, I assume it's best they learn other methods to assuage their unmet needs.

Likewise I have a finite amount of time for people who create a strawman & run with it so we're square then

Personally I’d love to see the train fares going down so that more people can use trains and buses.
You know environment, traffic congestion and all that.

FWIW I have a train station very local to me (I know I’m extremely lucky...). To go to the next town, it is more expensive to take the train than to use the car...
To go to another nearby town, you have to take the car because there are no buses (it’s a different county you know!!). Even to move with the the same locality is near impossible (think 1h30 commute by bus when the same trip takes 15mins by car).
Etc etc

I wonder when governments in general will finally wake up to the climate change issue and actually do something about it.
And yes that man’s more bus routes and cheaper train fares. So what? I’d rather have that than knowing my dcs will be left with a nightmare of a world.

Fair point Dusty, but people ARE being priced out due to hefty price hikes year on year.
Too many people rely on cars as there is no reasonably priced alternative. If rail fares carry on rising as they are, more and more pressure will be put onto the roads.

Too many people rely on cars as there is no reasonably priced alternative. If rail fares carry on rising as they are, more and more pressure will be put onto the roads.

I agree re a reasonably priced alternative to cars obvs, but for the majority there's no option but to use a car

I'd like to see the rail network expanded & developed massively so that there's greater access

A long time poster on these threads has previously articulated my thoughts on it all (might have been Peregrina, I'm not sure though) about developing the rail network throughout the country

But until it's something that a majority can use & access regularly then I'm against the mass subsidy of a few that Corbyn is suggesting

Iceland puts well-being ahead of GDP in budget https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50650155

....alongside Scotland and NZ.

Infrastructure - affordable and efficient transport, communications - are essential for a modern, prosperous economy

It's a major factor for companies in choosing where to invest:
that their workers don't need higher pay to cover commuting costs, that their components can efficiently be transported in and products can transported out
Much of Britain is competing for investment with one hand tied behind their back.

Why does daily life have to be so hard for so many in Britain ?
It's not something to boast about, how 'ard the country is

Millions of people commute daily to work, do their shopping, relying on public transport
Why do British people have to pay so much more than say in Germany where I live - and for a much worse service ?

Why do British families have to pay so much for childcare ?- other countries make life easier for working families and for women to return to work.
My colleague in Germany pays 110Euros monthly per child for ft childcare

Why does the UK have much fewer doctors per 100,000 population than comparable European countries ?
That's why the waiting lists, the struggle for a GP appointment
In Germany, I have always been able to get a same day GP appointment, in all the villages I've lived in since the late 1980s
Always been able to have specialist treatment (eyes, ears, knee) within a few days

Why do families who have to rent have so little sense of security, when their LL can massively raise the rent, or sell up any time ?
In Germany, there is security of tenure - sitting tenants are a positive advantage for an LL buying / selling property
The previous tenant at my last flat lived their 40 years
Rent increases are controlled by law,
tenants can redecorate as they want, including flooring.
LLs do very well, despite all the extra rights for tenants

To lighten the mood:

But until it's something that a majority can use & access regularly then I'm against the mass subsidy of a few that Corbyn is suggesting

Developing the network doesnt bring in money so there is no chance the market will do it, same as with broadband, until we own our own infrastructure again our quality of life is at the behest of shareholders who want nothing more than money

Now I remember why I've not kept up with these threads

BCF said it a billion times better than me

Demanding that nothing be done unless it benefits a large majority is just another way to stop anything ever being improved.

If you want to expand public transport so say 80-90% of people can use it daily, then that means reversing the Beeching cuts, expanding lines, buying more trains

I've seen a figure of an additional 100bn quid to get back to something like the pre-Beeching nationwide service, with East-West connections too.
Probably an under-estimate

Demanding that nothing be done unless it benefits a large majority is just another way to stop anything ever being improved.

Fares Fair. A paradigm of the Tory horror that someone else might be getting the benefit of my taxes.

It's impossible to overstate the instant effect FF had on London traffic - almost eliminating traffic jams overnight.

If you want to expand public transport so say 80-90% of people can use it daily, then that means reversing the Beeching cuts, expanding lines, buying more trains

YY

And I'd much rather money was invested in that, rather than poured into subsidising rail fares for people who are statistically more likely to be in the wealthier category of people

Looking at what worked wrt military housing or military anything else doesn't work for the general population:

The military are younger & healthier than the average, usually move every couple of years and have an exceptional support network
Accommodation is organised for them, along with much else of their day to day life - NAAFI, housing officers, welfare officers, living on estates full of colleagues etc
It's a major reason why ex-military men, including those who've never been in a combat zone, have disproportionate social problems afterwards in civvy street when they are on their own and have to sort out everything for themselves

Ordinary people / families have to rely on their own resources for everything

A recent thread discussing SAHMs (again !) had some saying how they could afford to be SAHM because their OH was in the military and hence they paid peanuts for heavily subsidised rent.

Frances Ryan
@DrFrancesRyan
·
4m
Labour will provide free breakfasts to 'poverty-proof' schools, close the SEND gap, reintroduce EMA for low income over16s, and spend £7bn on England’s crumbling school buildings.

In one of the richest nations on earth, all kids can have a decent future.

@DustyDiamond,do you think the next Tory Government will do that? I don't. Johnson's record is less than spectacular and they will be doing it on a reduced GDP as they deal with the fall-out from Brexit.

I agree with @canihaveadrink. Surely we’ve got to make rail travel more attractive so that people use their cars less? Reduce pollution/emissions...
Lower fares would really help (the journey to my last job was cheaper by car than train); but capacity would also have to be increased. There is frequently overcrowding on trains.

This made me chuckle - Cassetteboy at it again:

m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=LI87PRgIKks

Surely we’ve got to make rail travel more attractive so that people use their cars less?

Or, in 2019 see if there are ways to reduce the need to travel to begin with ?

"I'd much rather money was invested in that, rather than poured into subsidising rail fares"

It's not an equal choice wrt cost
Reversing Beeching's cuts are at least an order of magnitude more expensive than subsidising fares

Nationalisation of rail has little cost in itself, just means not renewing franchises, or not bailing out franchisees who get into trouble and can't fulfill their contract.

Other comparable European countries subsidise fares so that people on every income can afford them
Having expensive fares excludes a great many people - isolating those who also can't afford a car / can't drive due to disabilities
It is an obstacle to firms investing and expanding
Cheap bus fares e.g. in my area of Germany means that even the lowest paid stay mobile
We don't have free bus passes for the elderly, because there is little need to do so

Even in the UK, it's by no means just the better off who mostly use rail
All those people on very ordinary jobs e.g. in the capital commuting in - the median London wage is about 35k
By the time they've paid out a few thousand for a season ticket from their net pay, most will be around the national average