IntenseDebate - zaph239

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Shapps has spotted a o... · 3 replies · +1 points

The OP claimed that the state couldn't run railways, I demonstrated that isn't true.

Now if you're claiming the British can't run railways, how will transferring it into the British private sector help? The failure of the entire banking system in 2008 and the collapse of multiple British companies shows that the British private sector has no more claim to be competently run than the British public sector.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Shapps has spotted a o... · 2 replies · +1 points

The 170bn figure you quote is not the bill over one year but the lifetime of the project. It is ignorance of that simple fact which kills so many infrastructure projects in the UK. The masses got outraged by big numbers they simply don't understand.

If that ignorance was just going to kill HS2, that wouldn't be such a big deal. The benefits of high speed lines are debatable. The problem is the ignorance about how infrastructure projects are funded has killed investment stone dead in the UK.

Leaving us with a backwards country which is in constant decline. One of the reasons for the joke state of our economy is the lack of investment in our infrastructure.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Carsten Jung: Why Suna... · 0 replies · +1 points

You answered you're own question. Greece borrowed during a boom, which is not what Keynes advocated.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Shapps has spotted a o... · 2 replies · +1 points

The unions are a problem and pay for jobs like train driving are far too high.

However the Tories absurd obsession with fragmenting the railways and your idiot belief that the private sector is better in all situation is a massive problem. Despite the lying propaganda you put out, the reality is, your privatisation of the railways has been a disaster. Which has massively driven up costs.

Basically I am saying the Labour/Tory, you're both a bunch of incompetent clowns. What politicians in both parties need to do is learn some humility and listening to the experts. Frankly Andrew I wouldn't trust you to wire a plug, so the idea that people like you know how to run something as complex as a national railway system is laughable.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Shapps has spotted a o... · 10 replies · +1 points

The Swiss railway system is run by the state and is it extremely well run and punctual. So the state is in fact capable of running a railway system.

British Rail run with a lower subsidy per mile than the current disaster we have now and was able to complete projects like the East Coast electrification at far lower cost than we could possibly achieve now.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Carsten Jung: Why Suna... · 3 replies · +1 points

"
After all, there is a good reason whyt the EU doesn't want us to do this - because they know it will make us stronger and more competitive than them. If state aid was a waste of money they wouldn't mind us doing it! So this is what we should do: invest in our industries and help them grow, employ more people, make more money and pay more corporation tax. It's a virtuous circle, and all it needs is a bit of government pump-priming.
"

I favour more state aid but what you're saying isn't quite correct. Take the example of far east ship builders. It is an open secret that a large percentage of those ships are built at a loss. The subsidies and state aid are what generates the profit. That doesn't make those yards truly competitive but it does make it impossible for other ship builders to compete because the ships are being built below cost.

Another example is China. Much of Chinese industry is loss making, their steel industry is a good example. Keeping industries afloat with government money doesn't make those industries competitive but it does undermine industries in other countries, like Eu countries.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Carsten Jung: Why Suna... · 0 replies · +1 points

The problem is devising an effective stimulus package for an economy as open as Britain's. How do you prevent any money you inject into the economy being wasted on imports and further inflating the property bubble?

That is what has happened when cheap money has been inject into the economy in the past. It has simple driven house prices ever higher and led to a flood of imports. This will make the growth figures look good in the short run and make everyone feel better but is it a long term solution?

A stimulus works by generating economic growth which allows you to pay off the money you borrowed to fund the stimulus. So how are we going to do that if the stimulus money leaves us with nothing but a housing crash and a ton of worthless imported consumer good and imported cars?

Could someone outline how an effective stimulus package would actually work?

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Johnson's 50:50 target... · 5 replies · +1 points

Could someone explain to me why privately educated rich women with Oxbridge degrees need quotas for anything? In what possible way are they disadvantaged? How will getting more private educated rich women into Parliament change anything? Does a privately educated rich women have anything in common with the advantage voter or even the average women?

Feminism in this country has just become an old girls club, amirror of the old boys club. Quotas for women are a waste of time, they won't fix the real problem. Which is the fact the vast majority are not represented by the career politicians that infest Parliament.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - "The Chancellor has pa... · 1 reply · +1 points

Great, another southerner with a chip on their shoulder.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - "The Chancellor has pa... · 0 replies · +1 points

It is clever politics, central govenement destroys the economy and then attempts to pass the blame for the resulting tax increases to local government.

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