2015 General Election

[Jonathan]

Moor Street's a lovely little station, with a lot of charm to it. On the subject of electrifying the line from London Marylebone to Birmingham Snow Hill, I believe the Snow Hill Lines might be getting electrified over the next few years, so it'd make sense to extend it to London. Also, the Chiltern Main Line route goes through Oxford, which is being electrified anyway as part of the GWML modernisation (as a side note, it honestly baffles me that it's taken so long for the GWML to be electrified). Also, electrifying the Cross-Country Route between Birmingham and Bristol would be a good improvement as well, although there may be the need for more bi-mode diesel and electric trains to be built for services using that route going down into the South West. With regard to the north, there is indeed a lot of work going into it at the moment, but what irks me is that they're getting cast-off ex-Thameslink electric trains while Thameslink is getting shiny new ones which will be replaced in a few years by newer ones, and these first new ones will move to the Thames Valley (apparently), letting that stock go to the South West. Yes, I know it's complicated.

 

[Poisson]

Northern are dreadful. 158s are the only nice trains we have and they don't look after them really. A shining example how privatisation works....

 

[BigT]

Like I said before, how would nationalising the railways help?
Fares are largely set by the government even now and the rail network is still hugely subsidised by the taxpayer.
Most of the companies running the railways are public companies listed on the stock exchange so are already in theory owned by the public anyway.

On HS2 what is being proposed is new money so to speak so it's not at the cost of the current out of date railways.
As with all capital investments at some point you have to decide whether it's worth to keep pouring money down a bottomless pit or to start from scratch with a blank sheet and invest in the best technology currently available.
HS2 will lead to HS3 and then HS4 etc, etc.
And it's not just about London, at some point they will be all connected so you will possibly be able to catch a high speed train from Manchester or Newcastle to say Paris or Frankfurt.
When the Victorian's first started building canals and railways they didn't plan to build it all at once, they built it line by line that's what's going on here.
Personally I see this as possibly the most ambitious capital project for over a century and I'm quite excited by it.

 

[Sam]

Like I said before, how would nationalising the railways help?
Fares are largely set by the government even now and the rail network is still hugely subsidised by the taxpayer.

Because it would remove the profit factor, and that money would get re-invested into the railways. It doesn't matter that the fares are set by the government because they are not collected by the government.

Most of the companies running the railways are public companies listed on the stock exchange so are already in theory owned by the public anyway.

Well, gosh. Where to start? I think where you're getting muddled up here is tha-- nope. I can't do it. I need to take some Paracetamol and lie down. Unless that's meant to be satire, then that's the most spectacularly confused logic I've ever read on the internet.

Apologies if you were joking?

 

[AstroDan]

To save public services.

Don't vote Tory or UKIP.

See: Northamptonshire plans to outsource ALL services making me wonder who is actually accountable anymore.

 

[BigT]

To save public services.

Don't vote Tory or UKIP.

See: Northamptonshire plans to outsource ALL services making me wonder who is actually accountable anymore.

Hardly an independent view that one from a public servant.
Of course you could vote labour or SNP and bankrupt the country like Greece or vote Lib Dems or Green and still let Labour and SNP in by default and still bankrupt the country.

I'm no Cameron fan, I think he's a prat but he is the only genuine choice by default.
I find it interesting that most younger people show a preference towards the left wing parties but change once majority of them start paying income tax.
Unless of course you work in the public sector.

 

[Martin]

I pay income tax.

I work in the private sector.

I would sooner go under the knife to sell my kidneys in a black market Mexican surgery than vote Tory.

At least with the money I'd raise I'd then be able to afford medical treatment once the NHS is gone.

 

[AstroDan]

Hardly an independent view that one from a public servant.
Of course you could vote labour or SNP and bankrupt the country like Greece or vote Lib Dems or Green and still let Labour and SNP in by default and still bankrupt the country.

I'm no Cameron fan, I think he's a prat but he is the only genuine choice by default.
I find it interesting that most younger people show a preference towards the left wing parties but change once majority of them start paying income tax.
Unless of course you work in the public sector.

Do you actually have ANY idea what has happened to public services in the past 5 years?

We have seen private companies end up running a significant (in some areas, a majority) of services. Capita, Serco and many more - running education services, health services, prison services. Businesses running groups of schools - the academies agenda - which has not improved schools any better than regular state schools have under the same term. The changes made have been entirely ideological. Not for the good of the services - many things have been done against the advice of actual doctors and nurses or actual teachers for example.

Do you care for public services being fully accountable to public bodies? If you do - then the way the Conservative party are going and there won't BE a state left in 10 years.

It is a JOKE.

You also don't seem to realise that it was a global downturn. Yes, that is worldwide. Not just the UK. Labour may well not have saved as much money as they should have in the good years - but this blaming the last government rhetoric has got to stop because they are not responsible for the global downturn. Banks are.

 

[Poisson]

Ed Miliband doesn't inspire confidence in me, but he seems the least worse of the lot

 

[AstroDan]

Neither does he inspire me. In fact, I don't really think he looks like a prime minister.

However, as someone on the front line in the public sector - I believe we need to protect the public services, keep them as much in the public domain as possible and limit - but of course not remove entirely - the private sector involvement.

 

[jenniferelka]

Something I'm a bit surprised at is the amount of people I know who are 18ish/just turning 18 that really don't care about voting. I know lots feel this way and maybe don't care for any party but I was a bit surprised when the majority of my year in sixth form were stating they didn't care at all and hadn't even thought about it.

 

[GaryH]

If you want to see how Labour would "improve" the NHS, just look at the state of it in Labour run Welsh Assembly at the moment. Its dire. I work in the NHS myself and there is NO party I want to vote for who I think would look after it and give it the money it needs. Not one.

I think i'm just going to draw a large willy on my voting paper on the day.

 

[jenniferelka]

I work in the NHS myself and there is NO party I want to vote for who I think would look after it and give it the money it needs. Not one.

I think i'm just going to draw a large willy on my voting paper on the day.

To be honest I feel a bit like this too. As someone who is hoping to work in the nhs as well it's disheartening. When I vote I don't expect much to happen for the better for the nhs.

From my personal experience from being an aspiring mental health nurse and someone going through treatment within this sector the lack of funding and staff is really bad and I would love to see more money being put aside for it but again, I lack confidence things will get noticably better anytime soon.

 

[GaryH]

I work in Mental Health. One part of the service was recently taken over by Virgin Healthcare. However, MH is a subject which has been in the press a lot lately and there is a lot of talk from politicians about increasing recognition and funding for it... so, who knows!

 

[Martin]

Natalie Bennett's had another car crash interview I hear. The Greens are their own worst enemy at the moment.

 

[AstroDan]

It was very awkward. She simply seemed unable to answer questions.

:/

 

[BigT]

I pay income tax.

I work in the private sector.

I would sooner go under the knife to sell my kidneys in a black market Mexican surgery than vote Tory.

At least with the money I'd raise I'd then be able to afford medical treatment once the NHS is gone.

Yes but your a scouser so you don't count..

Do you actually have ANY idea what has happened to public services in the past 5 years?

Yes the credit card got declined so cloths have to be cut according, if private companies can run the service cheaper then so be it.
It's called market forces, something the public sector know nothing about.

You also don't seem to realise that it was a global downturn. Yes, that is worldwide. Not just the UK. Labour may well not have saved as much money as they should have in the good years - but this blaming the last government rhetoric has got to stop because they are not responsible for the global downturn. Banks are.

Rubbish, that's straight out of the guardian or off a union newsletter.
I suppose this global downturn ended dead on the last election then, and the fact that the UK has created more private sector jobs in the last five years than all of the rest of the EU together is just coincidence?

I'm not going to argue that everything is perfect, especially as I'm currently sat on a tax bill for over a thousand sheets for miss payment of child benefit but in my opinion things are better now than five years ago.

 

[AstroDan]

Are you denying that there was a global downturn?

Things in the economy are better than they were 5 years ago but that would have been the case regardless of leadership as the global economy has also generally improved. I accept that some policies of the Coalition Government have worked but I am unsure on the lasting legacy of a smaller state.

I do not accept that things are better in schools or hospitals. I do not feel they are.

 

[BigT]

In some ways yes I don't agree there was a global downturn.
China didn't face a downturn in 2008 nor did most of the world's developing economy's.
The fact that the US, UK and euro zone faced a downturn doesn't make it a global event.
In fact if you take all of the world's GDP together only in 2009 was there a slight dip and by 2010 it was back at the level it would of been anyway.
It was a complex situation and certainly isn't fair to say it was a global recession caused solely by the banks.

I would also find it hard to disagree with you that things aren't much better in hospitals and schools but are they much worse also?
Look at Wales and Scotland where the NHS and schools are not run by the Tories, hardly a vindication to saying things would be better under Labour or SNP.

Personally I'd like to see a complete change of policy on both schools and hospitals.
Does it make sense to bus children 15 miles to a school when there is one less than a mile away just because it's in a different county?
Is it right not to charge someone who is so drunk they have fallen and hurt themselves?
Just two things from a large list of stupid wastes in the public services both cost and labour wise, and that's before we even get to employment conditions which can only be described as generous.

I don't think any of the parties up for election have all the answers which is why there is a distinct lack of interest in politics.
But for sure some would make the situation a whole lot worse.

 

[Harv]

Last night was a perfect example of why people don't vote. I just feel bad for the millions of potential voters that tuned in only to find that not one of the seven parties on offer could offer them anything vaguely optimistic. At least Farage showed his true colours, though, so it isn't all bad. I did think that the Greens also put on a poor show, it was a great chance for them to show that they are to be taken seriously and they just didn't really deliver, in my opinion. The best two parties, to me, were the regional ones. Plaid Cymru and the SNP stand to do well in these elections, last night was probably about as good as it gets for them. Nicola Sturgeon, as much as I dislike her, had clearly done her homework. She was more than a match for the two big boys.