Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Milly closes the gap on Camoron.......

Guardian/ICM poll: Labour lead over Tories widens to eight points

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/nov/11/guardian-icm-poll-labour-lead-tories-miliband-cameron

TANKER a lot of pensioners at my local Con club are fed up of no interest on their savings. They are saying will not vote or will vote UKIP.

Michael Dugher ‏@MichaelDugherMP 18m
Commons rises tonight - so Cameron can miss PMQs tomorrow. Now we hear Autumn Statement moving to a Thursday - so he'll dodge another one..

Hays,

In the case of Railways think of subsidies as payment out of the tax payers pot into the Shareholders hands;

If the railways hadn't been allowed to deteriorate by subsequent governments after the WW2, it wouldn't have decayed into the state it had.


Before crowing over the success of British Railways and privatisation read the following and it continuing subsidisation.

------------------



'Bust'
The bigger picture here is this - despite the fact that the railways were privatised nearly two decades ago, the industry is still propped up by bundles of public money.

Ministers handed over nearly £4bn last year. Successive governments have been working hard to get that figure down, mainly by charging more for tickets, hence the endless, above-inflation fare increases. But it is still more than 40% of the total cost of running the network.

All four rail unions (ASLEF, RMT, TSSA and Unite) together with the TUC are highlighting these figures as part of their ongoing "Action for Rail" campaign. They argue that the figures prove the franchising system is bust, because it just means public money that could be used to improve services, ends up in the pockets of train company shareholders.

They've worked out that train firms gave £1.17bn in premiums to the government last year, and got £3.88bn back in subsidies. Expect to see protests at many stations across Britain on Friday.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19914219

Franchising - giving private companies contracts to run train services - is clearly under a lot of pressure since the government messed up its sums on the West Coast deal.

----------------------

And of course from what might be your favourite paper after party handouts.



http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/410039/The-great-train-robbery-How-we-subsidise-foreign-rail-fares


The great train robbery: How we subsidise foreign rail fares

BRITISH rail passengers are subsidising German trains by paying the highest fares in Europe, a powerful union claimed yesterday.

By: John InghamPublished: Tue, June 25, 2013
32Comments
The RMT argues that profits earned in Britain are helping to subsidise fares overseas The RMT argues that profits earned in Britain are helping to subsidise fares overseas

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers said 65 per cent of this country’s rail firms – 17 out of 26 – are foreign owned.

Nearly one in four operators are owned wholly or in part by Deutsche Bahn, the German state railway.

SNCF, the French state railway, part-owns six operators. three are wholly or part-owned by Dutch state railway Nederlandse Spoorwegen.

UK passengers can pay up to 10 times more for a season ticket to London than an equivalent journey in Italy and more than four times as much as in Germany.

The imbalance was revealed in a study by the Campaign for Better Transport last year. Since then British passengers have had another inflation-busting fare rise – the 10th year on the trot – as the Government tries to reduce its subsidy to the industry.

It would be interesting how much the Railways are subsidise out of County Councils "Taxes"?

If a Company is privately owned should it be subsidised and dependent on the public purse?

It is interesting that when a company is profit making it wants to keep all the profits and when it is financially failing it wishes to be bailed out by the public purse.

..

Amid increasing negativity about the government and personal economic prospects, French Euroscepticism is on the rise

Last Friday the French government was forced to defend France’s credit-worthiness after Standard and Poor’s (S&P) downgraded their credit rating for the second time in as many years. S&P blamed the rating on the inability of reforms to raise growth prospects.

However, new research conducted for YouGov’s monthly EuroTrack survey shows that economic pessimism and government disapproval were ticking up even before news arrived about the credit downgrade. The research shows that economic and political discontent have apparently even spilled over into French attitudes towards the EU, with an equal number now interested in leaving the Union as wish to stay.

The most recent survey, conducted between October 28th and November 4th, shows one-third (33%) of French people would now vote to leave the EU, virtually the same number as would like to say in (34%). This is a low-point for French sentiment about EU membership, just as sentiment in Britain reaches its most EU-friendly level since January.

Hollande’s economic and social policies – which include raising the a top-income tax rate to 75% and introducing a new 'eco-tax' on heavy goods vehicles used by farmers – have caused dramatic backlash in some parts of France. Even today, Paris Armistice Day ceremonies, led by the French president, were disrupted by protesters chanting ‘Hollande resign!’

Hays Hays Hays........

Bedroom tax debate starts at about 12.30 to 12.45, acording to top totty Luciana Berger LAB who as just tweeted me. Should be on parliament channel.

Dont expect labour and others to win but to give torries a good kicking in the debate.

I D Smith..... COWARD isnt even turning up.

Luciana Berger‏@lucianaberger
@MickKipper will start approx 12.30

gf
Bedroom tax (although that,s the wrong name) is very popular with the public - around 80%

You ought to meet her dad gf, a real charmer.

Hays,

Are you a pal of Wavey Dave.

It seems some of his mates are stating what they think of him.

Max LOL, hey Im only 7 year older than her.

Got to be the toppest totty in the commons.

Dont you worry bud Ive got her in reserve for special occasions.

ps, and shes single.

She's also as rich as Croesus (thru her parents)

Another champagne socialist who's never done a days work in her life.

Goldfinger

Didn't you know that Luciana Berger‏ read's these threads

Watching the debate, I hadn,'t realised that Labour introduced the bedroom tax for private accommodation and announced that they intended to extend it to social housing. Once again Labour are shown to be hypocrites.

The same is true of the Libs. They are full of millionaires. Lynne Featherstone (Lib) is hugely wealthy due to owning the Ryness chain of electrical shops.

Is a labour hypocrite the equivalent of a tory liar?