Like the illusion of Wall Street, with its vast and powerful investment banks, now shuttered, China too is an illusion perpetuated by the Globalists that gave us the 15,000 mile Caesar salad, poisoned cat food and lead based paint on babies' pacifiers. Like the illusion that money would come from thin air to always push housing prices higher, China has spent a generation pursuing its illusion. Pursuing an unattainable dream to be like the West, while 6000 years of its carefully shepherded top soil blows into the sea.
At last the Conservative party has admitted that its railway privatisation was a mistake. The sinner has repented, albeit 15 years too late. The cost in underperformance, delay, waste and subsidy has been incalculable and unaccountable.
You can only sell the family silver once, and then if you have to rent it you're losing twice over.
Thatcherism(UK), Reagonomics(US), Rogernomics(NZ) were all smoke and mirror fleecing schemes. _________________ "Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers." - Henry Louis Mencken
Joined: Mar 02, 2006 Posts: 1198 Location: England
Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:15 am Post subject: Re: UK Tories admit BR privatisation a crap idea
I lived abroad when the UK rail was privatised.
When I left we had one single rail service.
Shortly after I got back, I wanted to get a train ticket ... it was impossible ... so many new rail companies, with widely different prices and separate timetables.
And have you seen the RailTrack family tree? Some companies own the track, some own the carriages, some run the trains ... nuts.
I didn't use the rail services for YEARS after that ... it was easier to drive, rather than spend 2 hours working out your route & price!
It's now a bit easier with the integrated web timetable service thank goodness.
They should have simply privatised one single British Rail ... we only needed to replace the surly, slobby, unionised staff with a keen hard working privatised staff. _________________ Technology will save us!
Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 3:21 pm Post subject: Re: UK Tories admit BR privatisation a crap idea
You could not re-nationalise the railways as the expenditure from the public purse would have alarm bells ringing at the IMF. The UK international credit rating would be downgraded.
Dont quite agree with the comments on the railways prior to privatisation. A lot of work was put into the system to attract the eventual private investors. Ironically before privatisation we had got at times a superb product. Intercity really came into its own, with dining as good as anything I have experienced in travel. a lot was achieved alas for the wrong reasons.
Joined: Sep 06, 2004 Posts: 5315 Location: Smalltown New Zealand
Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 3:23 pm Post subject: Re: UK Tories admit BR privatisation a crap idea
NTBKtrader wrote:
Could they just nationalize it?
They certainly could but it would be embarrassing, unfortunately politicians prefer the unworkable to being embarressed.
Unfortunately most privatisations have been detrimental.
But once the govs got the privatisation bug into their thick heads they sold the family silver as fast as they could. _________________ "Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers." - Henry Louis Mencken
At last the Conservative party has admitted that its railway privatisation was a mistake. The sinner has repented, albeit 15 years too late. The cost in underperformance, delay, waste and subsidy has been incalculable and unaccountable.
You can only sell the family silver once, and then if you have to rent it you're losing twice over.
Thatcherism(UK), Reagonomics(US), Rogernomics(NZ) were all smoke and mirror fleecing schemes.
YEP, and all you have to do is look at the Victorian privatisation to see what happens outside Britain...and then there's Pacific National, the Australian Privatised Rail Freight service that was supposed to be a New Age (Golden Age?) of Australian Rail.
It's being killed by the government run Queensland Rail (QR National) who are out-competing it at every turn. YUP, a govt run bodiy, which has to compete on the same playing field, with the same rules, costs and regulations...is wiping the floor with their private competitors. And they don't get more subsidies than their private competitor (Pacific National) who are demanding bigger tax-payer subsides from the Victoria Govt or they will shut down heaps of regional rail lines.
So Much For Privatisation, the Worst Mistake The West Has Ever Made. _________________ .
"To Get Rich you have to:
Joined: Oct 22, 2005 Posts: 709 Location: European Capital of Kulcha 2008
Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 4:56 pm Post subject: Re: UK Tories admit BR privatisation a crap idea
Much as I loathe them, the Tories managed a tremendous sleight of hand; the fundamental appeal to patriotic flag-waving proletariat wannabes - whilst simultaneously selling off the fabric of the country to largely foreign interests. And, incorporated within a programme of extensive privatisation, encouraging people to feel good about owning their 'own' homes, while transforming them into nothing more than rent-paying tenants of their own country. Brilliant!
Joined: Dec 06, 2005 Posts: 885 Location: Stopped at the border.
Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 1:42 am Post subject: Re: UK Tories admit BR privatisation a crap idea
I'm glad to see talk about this as it is mandatory that public transit ramp up around the world. I have ridden the rails in Britain and have always preferred that mode of travel unless I was traveling in a packed car where we all shared the price of petrol.
I think few people know that rail in Britain used to go to many more places than it does now. The countryside is full of disused trackways which could be brought back in a crisis with government investment. It is possible to envision a future where public transport does go everywhere, not just in and out of London and to your town or city if it lies on such a path. Imagine a localized light-rail web thoroughly connected to the 'esisten' system. It would be salvation itself if you could catch a small train car from Guildford to one of the little B-road towns close in that aren't on the London line. It is a pain in the ass having to get a cab or call a friend to get a ride when you know it could be better (and less petrol intensive). And just imagine being able to travel latterally, like say from Godalming to Dorking, by light-rail.
Of course, Colorado doesn't have squat. Here they have turned down a monorail plan for relieving the Interstate highway congestion along the main mountain corridor. They want to widen and widen the highway. I miss Britain, even as is with its current rail problems, every time I get into my car.
Joined: Sep 06, 2004 Posts: 5315 Location: Smalltown New Zealand
Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 3:42 am Post subject: Re: UK Tories admit BR privatisation a crap idea
evilgenius wrote:
I think few people know that rail in Britain used to go to many more places than it does now. The countryside is full of disused trackways which could be brought back in a crisis with government investment.
Dr Beeching anyone?
Alas most of the actual track was salvaged and the bridges either pulled down or fallen into disrepair.
Wainwright's Coast to Coast follows a few old railway routes, including one from Richmond to Catterick. _________________ "Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers." - Henry Louis Mencken
(To be fair, some however say that Beeching was a nice chap. Paul McCartney even asked Dr Beeching to sort out Apple’s finances!) _________________ Technology will save us!
Joined: Jul 25, 2004 Posts: 681 Location: Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia
Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:37 pm Post subject: Re: UK Tories admit BR privatisation a crap idea
evilgenius wrote:
I think few people know that rail in Britain used to go to many more places than it does now. The countryside is full of disused trackways which could be brought back in a crisis with government investment.
LOL, an awful lot of Preservation Groups know about it. My father talked about the rout (ie: defeat) of Rail, but we now know that it was all done because the then British Transport Minister had been bought by the Road Lobby, as it is called in other places.
Oh, well, I dunno what the heck you;re gunna do with all those thousands of kilometres of motorways once the cars can't use it...mostly they go too far away from people to be much use Post Peak Oil. I suppose one could put rail on top...but then you'd need to rebuild the bridges.
Joined: Sep 06, 2004 Posts: 5315 Location: Smalltown New Zealand
Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:41 pm Post subject: Re: UK Tories admit BR privatisation a crap idea
SoothSayer wrote:
(To be fair, some however say that Beeching was a nice chap. Paul McCartney even asked Dr Beeching to sort out Apple’s finances!)
Did he decommission unprofitable tracks from their albums? _________________ "Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers." - Henry Louis Mencken
Joined: Jul 25, 2004 Posts: 681 Location: Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia
Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:41 pm Post subject: Re: UK Tories admit BR privatisation a crap idea
rogerhb wrote:
untothislast wrote:
Much as I loathe them, the Tories managed a tremendous sleight of hand; the fundamental appeal to patriotic flag-waving proletariat wannabes
... and having a successful colonial military adventure in the South Atlantic.
However it was all "buy now pay later"....
NO: the Falklands War darn near neded in complete disaster for the Brits. Y'see the military wanted to put their supplies all on a huge cargo ship, and send them via container off to the Task Force.
Pity the Argentinians found out about it (as in: what the HECK is this cargo ship - flying a British Flag - doing miles away from the regular cargo routes...let's see how it likes a few Exocet missiles).
The British troops ran out of bullets, because all of the supplies ended up sinkign with said ship. Luckily the Argentines surrendered just as the British were considering surrendering to them.
Pity it din't happen, in a way - Margret Thatcher would have resigned in utter disgrace as not even she could have bluffed THAT one out. _________________ .
"To Get Rich you have to:
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