The Truth Behind Traingate

So what is it that you're hoping to gain durham ? Branson is an astute business man who takes huge risks. Sometimes those risks pay off; sometimes they fail. He has worked extremely hard since he set up his first company in 1966 (? I think). He's now a billionaire, living on his own island. He provides employment to many tens of thousands of people. What is it that you want us to say? That he should pay more taxes? Yes, he should. But then so should many other large business conglomerates. What is it that you want us to say about Branson that doesn't apply to Starbucks and Amazon? You seem to have a bee in your bonnet about him personally and want everyone else to get as agitated as you are about him.

Bing always gives me too many American links, petra.

Chewbacca, I do not use Starbucks or Amazon either. You can't have been on long if you do not know that.
I can give you a long list of companies that I avoid.
The thing about catching trains these days is that you do not know which company you are catching.
My son has a family rail card which he booked the tickets on. It does not always show you the company, but even if it did, if you need to be somewhere by a certain time, you can work out what train to catch by working backwards.

Just thought I'd explain all this to you so you can mock again. Isn't that called trolling?

What I am hoping to gain, Chewbacca, is a publicly run railway so that it works for people not profits.
A good idea, I think.

weownit.org.uk/public-ownership/railways

OK durham , good luck with that.

devongirl Mon 28-Aug-17 10:29:37

"There must be a lot of GNers who have access to the top of the labour party as they state categorically that it was a publicity stunt or PR exercise - no I believe', 'I understand' etc.

Perhaps these posters could name their sources?"

Which points raised by posters do you find you require 'sources' to be attributed?

Does the principle behind your post apply only to those who post on Labour Party threads or does it include the 'numerous' threads re other political parties?.

It was self evident as only uninformed people expect to find five empty unreserved seats next to each other on a potentially overcrowded train. Surely a person(s) 'ready for government' would be aware of this elementary fact?!!
I wonder what mode of transport team Corbyn are using while travelling on his present 'meet the people' exercise?
A train?!!!

Daft suggesting to ask the top of the Labour Party if it was a publicity stunt, they are all corbynites and members of momentum

I hear although the powers that be being absolutely sure Waterloo would be open and running smoothly this morning that the usual delays and chaos has been the welcoming start to the week.

Niggly, you have reminded me ? When we had the EU battle Corbyn refused to take part in tv debates, I questioned this and DJ explained he was making countless visits to halls etc around the country , how did he get to these countless appointments and he went on holiday in the middle of it all too.

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting a tomato in a fruit salad.

Corbyn knows this very well, his an expert, that's why the traingate worked so well.

I'm still surprised that so many people think we will leave the EU .

It's the government's fault they have to subsidise the rail network, not Branson's. As I understand it the network was in a really bad state at the point of rail transport privatisation.

I don't know why Remainers are so against Branson for one aspect of his business because I thought he was backing Remain and wanted a second referendum.

Sometimes you have to accept some things you dislike about people as well as those things you agree with.
It's the same with voting for politicians.

itellhim of no consequence whatsoever but what I thought were olives in my salad yesterday turned out to be grapes
Should have gone to .....

As I understand it the network was in a really bad state at the point of rail transport privatisation.

You didn't read the extract from the 'The Great Train Robbery' report that I posted earlier, then, Baggs?

Privatising British Rail was ideologically motivated; nothing to do with its performance at the time.

Try again

Page 16

Public ownership under British Rail after 1948 is widely stereotyped as an awful failure. The academic histories show that BR was politically discredited by operating losses and economically undermined by low investment; but cash constraints and corporate reorganisation at BR did finally produce an organisation that could achieve better than European mainland level of efficiency, which was lost after privatisation (pp. 126-30)

www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/tucfiles/The_Great_Train_Robbery_7June2013.pdf

The report makes very interesting reading.

Branson has committed the unforgivable sin, he has money.

When everyone lives in social housing , the unemployed have the same income as an accountant , the royal family are whisked off to Windsor and shot. The elected !president has moved into Buck house, paradise

Before we all feel so sorry for Richard Branson and his background let's remember that his father was barrister, his grandfather was judge and he was privately educated at Stowe school. Yes he is dyslexic but his education was certainly better than most dyslexics get. His early business was a bit dodgy as well. When he was accused of selling records meant for export and not paying tax his mother mortgaged their London house to pay his settlement. Not something most of us would get. And perhaps the start of his tax avoidance?

I know it was ideologically motivated. And I don't think it was a failure. I think it worked pretty well back then and that it works pretty well now too. I'd have expected similar improvements (which there have been) if it had stayed in public ownership.

All that's a separate issue from its then and current funding.

Replying to maiz

Proof of his tax avoidance please?

Do you mean in the past
www.slate.com/articles/business/how_failure_breeds_success/2014/05/richard_branson_tax_fraud_how_a_youthful_indiscretion_helped_create_a_billionaire.html

Or now?
www.ethicalconsumer.org/companystories.aspx?CompanyId=18530&CategoryId=288176

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting a tomato in a fruit salad.

As you could teach a robot not to put a tomato in fruit salad I would see it as learned behaviour rather than any sort of wisdom so if that is what you see as wisdom it explains a lot about the learned and repetitious comments we see on here.

I could not admire or even feel the views of that robot were worth listening to - and so it is on here.

And actually I think tomatoes in a fruit salad might be quite acceptable today-very Heston Blumenthal!

POGS I haven't got the time or energy to go back through all these pages, but here is a sample:

lemongrove Sat 26-Aug-17 14:41:39

"Since the whole bizzare stunt was a bit of a fantasy..."

Jalima1108 Sun 27-Aug-17 12:47:55

"Stunts will always end in failure and ridicule."

POGS Mon 28-Aug-17 10:15:04

"Traingate was a publicity stunt that backfired on Corbyn and his team."