I know it's a bit last minute before the election, but tell me, how viable are labour's plans to nationalise the utilities, railway, post office?
Is it possible to get them back without huge payouts to the current companies? And then what will stop them just being giant bloated public sector organisations? Didn't the Post office get sold off (badly!? because it was unprofitable?
Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman, in which case always be Batman.My boss told me "dress for the job you want, not the job you have"... now I'm sat in a disciplinary meeting dressed as Batman.
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Rail could be "nationalised" by simply not renewing the rail franchises when the expire at no cost.
Utilities and Post Office would cost a lot, most likely several 10s of billions of pounds.
I also really don't want the government getting their hands on BT's infrastructure. Having full control over the entire country's Internet infrastructure basically removes all roadblocks in terms of the removal of privacy. Privatising the PO and splitting the telecom infrastructure out was - totally accidentally - the best thing that could've happened from that perspective.
Even if Corbyn does win he probably won't get the parliament support to push through these changes, people seem to have forgotten how little support he had from other labour MP's, never mind the rest of parliament.
As far as rail is concerned, the various TOC's have literally hundreds of new trains on order (from a number of manufacturers at home and abroad), due for delivery between 2017 and 2020.
Page 56 of the Railway Magazine for May 2017 lists them all. For example, Scotrail have 46 3-car and 24 4-car units due for delivery this year and next, with an option for a further 10 3-car units if needed.
I couldn't see a state-owned operation committing to such an investment.
And British Leyland.
There is no roadblock.
Everything routed through BT is completely accessible to GCHQ. There are whole departments of BT dedicated to helping them in this endeavour.
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GCHQ cannot tap and monitor anyone at will..
they must have a warrant from a judge
https://fullfact.org/sites/fullfact.org/files/RoyalMail.png
The biggest slide in profits came after the disaster of the Horizon IT system. Labour fucked up with NHS IT: the Conservatives fucked up with Horizon.
https://fullfact.org/news/royal-mail-privatisation-whats-happening/
The pension issue was a major factor.
http://www.if.org.uk/2013/09/25/the-privatisation-of-royal-mail-what-about-the-pension-scheme/
They tap everything
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempora
Lawyers for GCHQ said it would be impossible to list the total number of people targeted by Tempora because "this would be an infinite list which we couldn't manage"
You are Diane Abbott, ICM £5.....
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
But actually, it's not about making things 'better' is it? It's about having a bigger public sector, with a captive audience who will vote Labour through thick and thin, because they'll be looked after, regardless of the strength or weakness of the real economy....