Has the Conservative Party lost all sense of competence

To nationalise the railways and all of the utilities would not only bankrupt us it would be rank stupidity.

It was privatisation that was rank stupidity. Particularly rail privatisation. I've posted the link to this report before but I'll do it again and hope that people, at the very least, read the executive summary. The only 'profits' that the private companies are making are courtesy the government subsidy. They are taking public money and paying it out in dividend to their shareholders. And contracts are agreed in such a way that any payment to the Treasury is made towards the end of the contract; at which point the franchisees seem to be developing the habit of dropping out, with a minimal penalty payment, so the Treasury (the taxpayer) gets next to nothing back.

The Great Train Robbery

hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/cresc/sites/default/files/GTR%20Report%20final%205%20June%202013.pdf

A couple of points from the Executive Summary:

TOCs can make profits only because since 2002 the quasi-public Network Rail runs the infrastructure with a public subsidy of around £4 billion each year (pp. 58-61, exhibit 28).
Less direct subsidy for the TOCs is balanced by more public subsidy and debt guarantees for Network Rail and in this way the Treasury keeps many of the costs of rail off the public balance sheet and creates the illusion of profitability among TOCs (pp. 73-6, exhibit 40).

Network Rail’s low track access charges are a massive indirect subsidy to the TOCs who have been paying less in charges even as they use the infrastructure more (p. 61, exhibit 29). The cost to the public is the higher annual subsidy for Network Rail plus an accumulated £30 billion of government guaranteed debt on the balance sheet of Network Rail (pp. 66-8, exhibit 35) which now spends more on debt interest payments than on railway maintenance (pp. 71-2, exhibit 38).

How long are you going to wait, jura?

I don't think Wally will read that, Maizie. It would challenge his ideas.

I live in hope, dj!

"EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
(a) privatised rail as a serial shambles creating artificial profits for the franchise holders and hidden costs for the public

Rail privatisation was promoted in the early 1990s with promises of a better, cheaper service for rail users requiring less subsidy by tax payers. Private rail companies would bring in capital and their business expertise which would transform the sector’s performance.

Twenty years later, the privatised rail system requires
billions more in tax payer subsidy each year (p. 24, exhibit 7) and has failed to bring in adequate private investment in track or trains (pp. 24-5) so that average age of rolling stock has actually increased (pp. 25-6, exhibit 9)

Rail privatisation created a situation whereby risk and investment averse private companies positioned themselves as value extractors, thanks to high
public subsidies. Government effectively took the operating risk, covering operating deficits and supplying investment funds. "

That definitely worked, didn't it?

Tory government and MPs being sensible again. Doesn't happen often, so praise where it's due.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-foreign-students-immigration-amber-rudd-boris-johnson-drop-the-target-a8136701.html

They should never have been included in the numbers of immigrants.

I am still waiting, VERY patiently- but perhaps losing hope.

Sometimes what you DON'T say - says more ...

Perhaps the inclusion of EU students in the immigration statistics was more conspiracy than cock-up???

Just noticed that Toby Young has been appointed to the office for students

Doesn’t he believe in eugenics? And didn’t he call working class students “stains”?

He did more than that, whitewave.
I await complaints and a petition to get him removed.

skwawkbox.org/2018/01/02/can-a-person-who-sends-these-tweets-be-a-fit-university-regulator/

Oh! Yuk,yuk,yuk. He needs a slap and educating.

Disgusting. How can such a slug be appointed to anything?

This man has much more about him than the entitled Toby Young.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/christmas-great-depression-poverty-war-1930-a8127166.html

www.independent.co.uk/voices/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-second-world-war-94-years-old-harry-leslie-smith-nuclear-warning-a7932276.html

Even those who don't like skwalkbox should read it.
They won't, of course. Pleased his free school failed.
I wonder if the police should raid Toby Young's work computer.

Harry Leslie Smith called Toby Young a human barnacle.

Oh dear, how patronising is that.

I am still reeling at his tweets. Surely someone involved in Higher Education and with Free Schools (Director of the New Schools Network) should not tweet such sexist and misogynistic filth. Shows how far this government will go to pander to their cronies regardless of common decency.

Corbyn defied the Labour whip numerous times with his extreme left wing views. He bends with the wind and cannot be trusted. The Labour party have said that all the promises they made to young people to get their votes were only aspirations when we know that at the time they were stated as facts.

Wally - I am not sure I read you correctly- are you actually supporting Toby Young's tweets?

Wally - I am not sure I read you correctly- are you actually supporting Toby Young's tweets?

I have never voted Tory in my lifetime it's just that I cannot vote for this Labour party, and I'm an ardent brexiteer.

Tweets???

You have to wonder what the hell is going on. Just googled TY and his father. His father was a Labour peer a sociologist and educationalist responsible for the U3A and Grandparents Plus and lots of other stuff. I think TY is just a silly kid trying to prove he is as good as his dad and only proving he's an idiot.

Read this, Wally. Then tell us you support Toby Young rather than Harry Leslie Smith. I presume being a lifelong socialist you have heard of Harry Leslie Smith?

skwawkbox.org/2018/01/02/can-a-person-who-sends-these-tweets-be-a-fit-university-regulator/

I daren't copy the tweets on the thread.

Yes, trisher, I was quite surprised to learn that Toby was son of Michael, whose work I used to read while doing my degree. The Tories are just trying to hijack the Young surname.

He’s just chippy - I think his father bribed Oxford to take him as he isn’t the brightest is he.