I am still rather confused how this vote in Italy is being tied into as the bbc just put it "anti-establisment" senitment in the way the election in Austria was.
A "no" is a vote for the status quo is if anything pro establishment.
A NO is perceived as a weapon to overthrow a non-democratically elected PM.
Don't forget Italy hasn't got a democratically elected PM since 2011.
Having said that, NR's very good at two of their tasks: maintenance and renewal. Where they're failing massively is in the third, enhancements.
You're right, but I don't see any evidence that TOCs (or TOC-led partnerships) will be better - quite the opposite.
Chiltern Railways is generally viewed as the model franchised TOC. It's owned by Deutsche Bahn, who are hardly under-resourced and have greater-than-average infrastructure expertise.
Despite this, DfT forcibly took control of the Evergreen 3 enhancements away from Chiltern in 2011 for severe underperformance, and gave them to Network Rail instead.
"Network Rail expressed concern about the quality of designs it had received from Chiltern Railways for approval. It told Chiltern that the designs were “increasing the workload of Network Rail engineers” and “creating significant amounts of rework and re-review that otherwise would not occur”."
Now Grayling is trying to go back to this. They never learn.
I'm not defending these changes; I'm dubious about them. However I'll wait to see what's said when it's announced.
FInd out what Christian Wolmar thinks, and pick the opposite. Never known a pundit to be so consistently wrong on his specialist subject.
Hmmm. I must admit to quite liking Wolmar. I don't agree with him on many things (e.g. politics, Corbyn, or his dislike of HS2), but he's more knowledgeable than most journalists about railways.
However that's one thing that should be remembered: he's a journalist. He's not a railwayman, and he sometimes pretends to be one (or at least that's the way he comes across). His expertise is narrow - I much prefer Roger Ford (who was a railwayman, at least in a way). But in general Wolmar's enthusiasm is a positive for the railways in this country.
I once had to brief Mr Wolmar on Crossrail 2 survey results and options. He wasn't clued up on that. Good speaker though and good Chairman.
I am still rather confused how this vote in Italy is being tied into as the bbc just put it "anti-establisment" senitment in the way the election in Austria was.
A "no" is a vote for the status quo is if anything pro establishment.
Also a vote to make sure they don't accidentally give too much power to their silly populist minority in the event that they came up largest party.
But populism vs establishment is the current media frame, and everything has to be somehow squeezed into that.
I am still rather confused how this vote in Italy is being tied into as the bbc just put it "anti-establisment" senitment in the way the election in Austria was.
A "no" is a vote for the status quo is if anything pro establishment.
Also a vote to make sure they don't accidentally give too much power to their silly populist minority in the event that they came up largest party.
But populism vs establishment is the current media frame, and everything has to be somehow squeezed into that.
I am still rather confused how this vote in Italy is being tied into as the bbc just put it "anti-establisment" senitment in the way the election in Austria was.
A "no" is a vote for the status quo is if anything pro establishment.
A NO is perceived as a weapon to overthrow a non-democratically elected PM.
Don't forget Italy hasn't got a democratically elected PM since 2011.
Having said that, NR's very good at two of their tasks: maintenance and renewal. Where they're failing massively is in the third, enhancements.
You're right, but I don't see any evidence that TOCs (or TOC-led partnerships) will be better - quite the opposite.
Chiltern Railways is generally viewed as the model franchised TOC. It's owned by Deutsche Bahn, who are hardly under-resourced and have greater-than-average infrastructure expertise.
Despite this, DfT forcibly took control of the Evergreen 3 enhancements away from Chiltern in 2011 for severe underperformance, and gave them to Network Rail instead.
"Network Rail expressed concern about the quality of designs it had received from Chiltern Railways for approval. It told Chiltern that the designs were “increasing the workload of Network Rail engineers” and “creating significant amounts of rework and re-review that otherwise would not occur”."
Now Grayling is trying to go back to this. They never learn.
I'm not defending these changes; I'm dubious about them. However I'll wait to see what's said when it's announced.
FInd out what Christian Wolmar thinks, and pick the opposite. Never known a pundit to be so consistently wrong on his specialist subject.
Hmmm. I must admit to quite liking Wolmar. I don't agree with him on many things (e.g. politics, Corbyn, or his dislike of HS2), but he's more knowledgeable than most journalists about railways.
However that's one thing that should be remembered: he's a journalist. He's not a railwayman, and he sometimes pretends to be one (or at least that's the way he comes across). His expertise is narrow - I much prefer Roger Ford (who was a railwayman, at least in a way). But in general Wolmar's enthusiasm is a positive for the railways in this country.
What I remember is lots of his appearances after major events and his opinions & conclusions being very plausible but almost always completely wrong.
His regular tv appearances were always the cause of much mirth on uk.railway & uk.transport.london (where a younger sunil was "sunil on the train")
So essentially is more trouble for Juncker, Tusk and all the rest of the eurocrats?
Yes it is.
Renzi was essentially appointed PM of Italy by Merkel.
The Liberal-European fight back narrative lasted less than 100 hours from Richmond Park till Italy.
Isn't this a vote for the status quo?
Brexit was a vote for the status quo - i.e. don't let Britain be subsumed by the EU. Keep it as a separate country.
hmmm???????????????????????????????/
Are you denying their federal ambitions? It has a parliament, electorate, president, civil service, flag, anthem, currency, central bank, tariff schedule, common foreign policy, banking union, energy union, etc. etc. Soon a defence union if they don't get stopped.
So essentially is more trouble for Juncker, Tusk and all the rest of the eurocrats?
Yes it is.
Renzi was essentially appointed PM of Italy by Merkel.
The Liberal-European fight back narrative lasted less than 100 hours from Richmond Park till Italy.
Isn't this a vote for the status quo?
Brexit was a vote for the status quo - i.e. don't let Britain be subsumed by the EU. Keep it as a separate country.
I think it would be hard to simultaneously claim it was a reaction against elites, against the usual way things were being done, and also a vote for the status quo.
The status quo was accepting the path we were on. Brexit was a vote to take a different path.
But I suspect this is an even stupider semantic argument on Brexit than the usual ones, so I'll not contest any retort.
So essentially is more trouble for Juncker, Tusk and all the rest of the eurocrats?
Yes it is.
Renzi was essentially appointed PM of Italy by Merkel.
The Liberal-European fight back narrative lasted less than 100 hours from Richmond Park till Italy.
Isn't this a vote for the status quo?
Brexit was a vote for the status quo - i.e. don't let Britain be subsumed by the EU. Keep it as a separate country.
I think it would be hard to simultaneously claim it was a reaction against elites, against the usual way things were being done, and also a vote for the status quo.
It was a stop the world I want to get off version of status quo.
More fake news on the Sky paper review. Daily Mirror journalist claiming the FPO are in the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy political group along with UKIP.
I've always thought that German and Austria would react differently to Trump and Brexit compared to everywhere else. They'll probably move to the internationalist left, whereas everywhere else will more to the populist right. Good news for Merkel if so.
More fake news on the Sky paper review. Daily Mirror journalist claiming the FPO are in the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy political group along with UKIP.
It's wrong but irrelevant. Would 'UKIP affiliated party wins Italian referendum' be a better story?
I've always thought that German and Austria would react differently to Trump and Brexit compared to everywhere else. They'll probably move to the internationalist left, whereas everywhere else will more to the populist right. Good news for Merkel.
The populist right is still way up even there, but the electoral system puts a lid until the populists breach 50% in a second round or in PR (in Italy the Populists have breached that in the opinion polls).
Having said that, NR's very good at two of their tasks: maintenance and renewal. Where they're failing massively is in the third, enhancements.
You're right, but I don't see any evidence that TOCs (or TOC-led partnerships) will be better - quite the opposite.
Chiltern Railways is generally viewed as the model franchised TOC. It's owned by Deutsche Bahn, who are hardly under-resourced and have greater-than-average infrastructure expertise.
Despite this, DfT forcibly took control of the Evergreen 3 enhancements away from Chiltern in 2011 for severe underperformance, and gave them to Network Rail instead.
"Network Rail expressed concern about the quality of designs it had received from Chiltern Railways for approval. It told Chiltern that the designs were “increasing the workload of Network Rail engineers” and “creating significant amounts of rework and re-review that otherwise would not occur”."
Now Grayling is trying to go back to this. They never learn.
I'm not defending these changes; I'm dubious about them. However I'll wait to see what's said when it's announced.
FInd out what Christian Wolmar thinks, and pick the opposite. Never known a pundit to be so consistently wrong on his specialist subject.
Hmmm. I must admit to quite liking Wolmar. I don't agree with him on many things (e.g. politics, Corbyn, or his dislike of HS2), but he's more knowledgeable than most journalists about railways.
However that's one thing that should be remembered: he's a journalist. He's not a railwayman, and he sometimes pretends to be one (or at least that's the way he comes across). His expertise is narrow - I much prefer Roger Ford (who was a railwayman, at least in a way). But in general Wolmar's enthusiasm is a positive for the railways in this country.
What I remember is lots of his appearances after major events and his opinions & conclusions being very plausible but almost always completely wrong.
His regular tv appearances were always the cause of much mirth on uk.railway & uk.transport.london (where a younger sunil was "sunil on the train")
Nah, I just called myself "Sunil" back in those days
Seems like it may be an even heavier defeat for Renzi than exit polls suggest. This feels much more AV referendum (poor reforms rejected with general kick the incumbent) than an alt-right / make italy grande again wave.
Comments
But I just cashed out for a little profit.
https://twitter.com/JustYAMuslim/status/804777415163645952
Don't forget Italy hasn't got a democratically elected PM since 2011.
No 54.5
10 sections counted
EDIT Out of 61,000 so don't get too excited!
That is 309 votes out of 46.7m electorate
Stick a fork in him.
No 165 votes
Talking of early days.
Orange is the PD.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Elezioni_Camera_2013_Comuni_Partiti.png
https://twitter.com/stephenkb/status/805535957722218496
So essentially is more trouble for Juncker, Tusk and all the rest of the eurocrats?
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/805538149157969924
But populism vs establishment is the current media frame, and everything has to be somehow squeezed into that.
Renzi was essentially appointed PM of Italy by Merkel.
The Liberal-European fight back narrative lasted less than 100 hours from Richmond Park till Italy.
If this was a 50-50 race.
SI
38,34%
61,66%
NO
865 1.391
Renzi's party is "normally" ahead there iirc.
http://elezioni.interno.it/referendum/scrutini/20161204/FI01000000000.htm
Just pick on the regions on the Italian map.
Brexit was a vote for the status quo - i.e. don't let Britain be subsumed by the EU. Keep it as a separate country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_general_election,_2013
It is a "DP" island in the wider region of 5 star so should at least be 50-50. And urban.
If Renzo isn't winning here it is bleak for him I think.
However if it was a 50-50 race it should have been 50-50.
NO has won.
The city of Florence, Renzi's only power base in the country (the only elected office he ever held, was mayor there) is only 52-48 YES.
Tuscany.
If he wasn't elected, why would he resign?
(Good evening, everyone)
His regular tv appearances were always the cause of much mirth on uk.railway & uk.transport.london (where a younger sunil was "sunil on the train")
I think Hofer's defeat spooked the market a little, nice to be able to get 1.44 !
The status quo was accepting the path we were on. Brexit was a vote to take a different path.
But I suspect this is an even stupider semantic argument on Brexit than the usual ones, so I'll not contest any retort.
Although they still underestimated the final victor.
But the anecdotal evidence and turnout were saying the same thing as the polls this time.
Apart from the German speaking Trentino Alto Adige and possibly Tuscany, he has lost everywhere.
It wouldn't have mattered what he proposed, people would have voted against him to get rid of him.
Yes may win Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and Trentino-Alto Adige, but that will be it.
So we await Renzi's expected resignation and then see what happens next - another PD PM, or a technocrat, or early elections?
Italy definitely one to keep an eye on now.
Links:
http://elezioni.interno.it/referendum/scrutini/20161204/FI01000000000.htm
https://www.firstonetv.eu/en/stream/it/31
http://www.freeintertv.com/view/id-1711
http://seekingalpha.com/article/4028041-italy-caught-rock-hard-spot
Wolmar lost Labour their deposit on Thursday
I have tried, and it seems that the site is under some form of attack.