Nigel Farage joins the Tories before they lose the election. Suella Braverman becomes leader after. A few think it's their dream come true. Millions will look for a new home.
Braverman might win the Conservative membership vote but would be unlikely to get enough Conservative MPs votes to make the final 2. When she stood for the leadership last year she didn't even make the final 5 with Tory MPs let alone the final 2
Braverman is doing an excellent job of rolling the pitch for her and her brand of " radical conservatism". Her speech yesterday may have been untruthful conspiratorial gibberish but it was presented beautifully.
If you are a true Tory, like Andrew Boff, you should be arguing against this BNP- not so lite with your every breath, in order to reclaim your one nation party.
Andrew Boff is a very left-wing Tory, and a plant botherer.
It'd be like me bigging up Kate Hoey.
The hunt for the ideological impure used to be a left-wing pastime. Depressing to see right-wingers like you and HYUFD indulge in it too.
Its alright, Rishi clearly understands it is a broad church and is therefore flashing some leg at Nige.
“Jobs at risk as new train orders hit the buffers.
Britain’s four rolling stock companies are set to be left with little or no work by the end of next year because of the government’s failure to order any new main line trains for almost four years.”
Railways have suffered a series of gluts and dearth of new train orders since 1948, and this continued into privatisation. There is only one 'native' builder left; the old BREL carriage works at Derby (now owned by Alstom). A couple more have opened in recent years; Hitachi in the northeast and Goole in the last few years. We probably now have too much train building capacity, after having a shortage.
And the blame for this lies firmly on the DfT, whose dead hand (also partly aided by the treasury) has zero long-term planning.
Serious question. How much of this can be blamed on the Government when the railways are privatised and buying new rolling stock should (I assume) be the responsibility of the private companies?
Problem is that it should be, but it isn't.
The train companies are basically just contractors working for DfT these days, and they can't make any decisions on rolling stock without DfT say-so. At the moment there are reliable, modern train fleets standing idle, despite overcrowding on many lines, because DfT is engaged in a staring match with the lessors (the "ROSCOs") to bring the lease prices down. The ROSCOs won't reduce their prices because they've been dicked around so much in the last few years. And so it goes on.
“Jobs at risk as new train orders hit the buffers.
Britain’s four rolling stock companies are set to be left with little or no work by the end of next year because of the government’s failure to order any new main line trains for almost four years.”
Railways have suffered a series of gluts and dearth of new train orders since 1948, and this continued into privatisation. There is only one 'native' builder left; the old BREL carriage works at Derby (now owned by Alstom). A couple more have opened in recent years; Hitachi in the northeast and Goole in the last few years. We probably now have too much train building capacity, after having a shortage.
And the blame for this lies firmly on the DfT, whose dead hand (also partly aided by the treasury) has zero long-term planning.
Serious question. How much of this can be blamed on the Government when the railways are privatised and buying new rolling stock should (I assume) be the responsibility of the private companies?
Problem is that it should be, but it isn't.
The train companies are basically just contractors working for DfT these days, and they can't make any decisions on rolling stock without DfT say-so. At the moment there are reliable, modern train fleets standing idle, despite overcrowding on many lines, because DfT is engaged in a staring match with the lessors (the "ROSCOs") to bring the lease prices down. The ROSCOs won't reduce their prices because they've been dicked around so much in the last few years. And so it goes on.
Cheers. Didn't know how it worked (or fails to work)
“Jobs at risk as new train orders hit the buffers.
Britain’s four rolling stock companies are set to be left with little or no work by the end of next year because of the government’s failure to order any new main line trains for almost four years.”
Railways have suffered a series of gluts and dearth of new train orders since 1948, and this continued into privatisation. There is only one 'native' builder left; the old BREL carriage works at Derby (now owned by Alstom). A couple more have opened in recent years; Hitachi in the northeast and Goole in the last few years. We probably now have too much train building capacity, after having a shortage.
And the blame for this lies firmly on the DfT, whose dead hand (also partly aided by the treasury) has zero long-term planning.
Serious question. How much of this can be blamed on the Government when the railways are privatised and buying new rolling stock should (I assume) be the responsibility of the private companies?
AIUI the DfT has to okay all rolling stock purchases, as when a franchise ends the stock may need to go on to another provider. So the franchises talk to the DfT; the DFT talk to the ROSCOs, who order the stock, or they DfT orders the trains directly and leases them, giving Hitachi massive amounts of lucre.
It's why so many train companies have been forced to buy the dire IET trains.
It's not exactly a sane way of doing this, which is why we have stupidity like the Nova 3 trains being removed from service after just four years.
It might be. It also creates a challenge for Labour. They basically have three options.
1. Commit to reverse the decision. In which case they're then committing to cutting all the extra spending/reversing all the tax cuts, that Sunak will promise the saved money will be used for.
2. Commit to reinstate HS2, without reversing the extra spending/tax cuts, in which case they can be attacked for extra borrowing or plans to increase taxes.
3. Do nothing. In which case, what is the point of them?
It's small beans compared to the hole the Tories have dug for themselves. They've spent thirteen years spending money on HS2, and *now* they're deciding to bin it?
HS2 is one off capital expenditure -how does that allow a tax cut beyond a very small one from the £x00m "in borrowing costs" saved
I'm getting to the point where all the Treasury needs to go on a basic finance course -
This is capital expenditure
This is ongoing monthly / annual income and expenditure.
Agreed. The savings should be redirected to other - far more needed - projects in the North. Maintain the capital spend but do something more useful with it.
HS3 is a large chunk of the cost of HS2 though. I guess they could reinstate the Picadilly expansion, which is (I believe) sorely needed but was cancelled in May.
Otherwise - more roads further north to try and buy off the blue wall?
Number of people in work per mile of road, England:
East Midlands 101 East of England 104 London 407 North East 96 North West 126 South East 127 South West 74 West Midlands 110 Yorkshire and The Humber 109
Even more stark with Motorways. I think the NE might have an argument for some upgrades, but the north is hardly a road-less wilderness. Workers per mile of motorway:
East Midlands 15,747 East of England 15,260 London 99,943 North East 26,945 North West 7,054 South East 9,288 South West 11,222 West Midlands 8,193 Yorkshire and The Humber 7,634
The full dualling of the A1 is the probably the most obvious road project in England. But the decision keeps being delayed. What more is there to look at !
The only bit that is not dualled is the section in Northumbria and round the corner to Edinburgh.
To Dunbar; it's *now* dual thereafter to Edinburgh.
TBH the A120 now carries a lot of traffic for Harwich and it’s not dualled between Braintree and the A12. It’s getting more and more dangerous.
Just a shame they didn't sort out the rail electrification gaps en route to Felixstowe. ISTR the freight chappies have been howling about this for years for their container cargoes to the distribution centres - ideal for trains.
Absolutely! Access to Felixstowe, Britain’s busiest container port, isn’t too bad by road along the A14, but it’s not good by rail. I don’t know what’s going to happen with London Portway, in S Essex. Lines and roads are crowded there, too.
Nigel Farage joins the Tories before they lose the election. Suella Braverman becomes leader after. A few think it's their dream come true. Millions will look for a new home.
Braverman might win the Conservative membership vote but would be unlikely to get enough Conservative MPs votes to make the final 2. When she stood for the leadership last year she didn't even make the final 5 with Tory MPs let alone the final 2
Braverman is doing an excellent job of rolling the pitch for her and her brand of " radical conservatism". Her speech yesterday may have been untruthful conspiratorial gibberish but it was presented beautifully.
If you are a true Tory, like Andrew Boff, you should be arguing against this BNP- not so lite with your every breath, in order to reclaim your one nation party.
Andrew Boff is a very left-wing Tory, and a plant botherer.
It'd be like me bigging up Kate Hoey.
The hunt for the ideological impure used to be a left-wing pastime. Depressing to see right-wingers like you and HYUFD indulge in it too.
Not really. It's me responding to @Mexicanpete that he's a true Tory.
It's a broad church, that I welcome, but representing someone of the fringe of it as mainstream Tory opinion simply isn't accurate.
I note that Lib Dem canvassers in Mid Beds now seem quite optimistic, claiming over and since the weekend that a large swathe of the Conservative vote is moving to the Lib Dems. Up to now nothing like this has been reported. If accurate and those canvassers usually are, then it appears the Don''t Knows in the last Labour commissioned opinion poll are seemingly nailing their colours to the mast, which should be more than enough to take the Lib Dems past Labour. But what do I know?
I note that Lib Dem canvassers in Mid Beds now seem quite optimistic, claiming over and since the weekend that a large swathe of the Conservative vote is moving to the Lib Dems. Up to now nothing like this has been reported. If accurate and those canvassers usually are, then it appears the Don''t Knows in the last Labour commissioned opinion poll are seemingly nailing their colours to the mast, which should be more than enough to take the Lib Dems past Labour. But what do I know?
Seems plausible. HS2 was the final straw.
It’s not the pros or minuses of HS2 itself, it’s the signal that Britain is just fucked and can’t do anything.
The abject twattery on display in Manchester: chaotic, arrogant when they should have been contrite, Farage, Truss, and Sunak's supply teacher lack of charisma is the last straw for the Conservative coalition. In the coming months I think we will see the Tories third in the polls.
I wonder at what point overnight Sunak decided to axe HS2 to Manchester?
He made it clear in his interviews yesterday that he had not yet decided.
Its obvious that it had been made a while back. The issue for the Tories/government is just how leaky things have got. Aside of whether it is the right or wrong thing to do, the big issue is that its dominated the news for weeks because someone cannot keep their mouths shut. And that is a huge problem. Its ruined any hope of a decent conference.
The blob theorists will surely blame the civil service. They might be right, but equally it could be anyone in the loop with an axe to grind (northern Tory MP).
“Jobs at risk as new train orders hit the buffers.
Britain’s four rolling stock companies are set to be left with little or no work by the end of next year because of the government’s failure to order any new main line trains for almost four years.”
Another moronic conservative cock up. I am beginning to get as angry as Malc about the sheer unrelenting God-awfulness of these tenth rate bunch of shits.
Comments
The train companies are basically just contractors working for DfT these days, and they can't make any decisions on rolling stock without DfT say-so. At the moment there are reliable, modern train fleets standing idle, despite overcrowding on many lines, because DfT is engaged in a staring match with the lessors (the "ROSCOs") to bring the lease prices down. The ROSCOs won't reduce their prices because they've been dicked around so much in the last few years. And so it goes on.
It's why so many train companies have been forced to buy the dire IET trains.
It's not exactly a sane way of doing this, which is why we have stupidity like the Nova 3 trains being removed from service after just four years.
NEW THREAD
I don’t know what’s going to happen with London Portway, in S Essex. Lines and roads are crowded there, too.
It's a broad church, that I welcome, but representing someone of the fringe of it as mainstream Tory opinion simply isn't accurate.
If accurate and those canvassers usually are, then it appears the Don''t Knows in the last Labour commissioned opinion poll are seemingly nailing their colours to the mast, which should be more than enough to take the Lib Dems past Labour. But what do I know?
HS2 was the final straw.
It’s not the pros or minuses of HS2 itself, it’s the signal that Britain is just fucked and can’t do anything.
The blob theorists will surely blame the civil service. They might be right, but equally it could be anyone in the loop with an axe to grind (northern Tory MP).