Re: Gordon Brown Is A Disaster
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 11:31 am
I can see where you're coming from Warren (apologies - I don't know how to attach quotes.)
The Tories may well have invented PFI, but it was the labour government who insisted on using it to fund almost everything in sight. Schools, or should that be the Coca-Cola Academies of Excellence, are being built using shoddy materials at stupidly high prices. Whilst I agree that the Tories won't cancel the old contracts - it doesn't stop Labour from refusing to sign new ones. An interesting point is that the Olympic Committee has refused to use PFI on its new stadia etc...on the basis that its too expensive!
Again I can see your point regarding Network Rail. However, the system is beaurocratic beyond belief. Being too young to remember British Rail (although I've heard plenty about them), I actually think re-nationalisation of the railways is the way forward. Until then, we'll have 4 carriage trains running on routes that previously had 10 carriages, standing room only on long distance inter-city services, services that magically take 25 mins to get from Bolton to Manchester, but only 15 on the way out (due to the fact that penalties will only be charged when the train is late into its final destination), Arriva agreeing to increase capacity on certain routes, not by introducing bigger trains, but by removing toilets from current ones, while simultaneously increasing prices by 3.4%.
On house prices, I can see that in some areas, prices aren't as high as others (obviously), but the fact is that for many, a ?200,000 house isn't an extravagance, its a 2-bed semi.
The Tories may well have invented PFI, but it was the labour government who insisted on using it to fund almost everything in sight. Schools, or should that be the Coca-Cola Academies of Excellence, are being built using shoddy materials at stupidly high prices. Whilst I agree that the Tories won't cancel the old contracts - it doesn't stop Labour from refusing to sign new ones. An interesting point is that the Olympic Committee has refused to use PFI on its new stadia etc...on the basis that its too expensive!
Again I can see your point regarding Network Rail. However, the system is beaurocratic beyond belief. Being too young to remember British Rail (although I've heard plenty about them), I actually think re-nationalisation of the railways is the way forward. Until then, we'll have 4 carriage trains running on routes that previously had 10 carriages, standing room only on long distance inter-city services, services that magically take 25 mins to get from Bolton to Manchester, but only 15 on the way out (due to the fact that penalties will only be charged when the train is late into its final destination), Arriva agreeing to increase capacity on certain routes, not by introducing bigger trains, but by removing toilets from current ones, while simultaneously increasing prices by 3.4%.
On house prices, I can see that in some areas, prices aren't as high as others (obviously), but the fact is that for many, a ?200,000 house isn't an extravagance, its a 2-bed semi.