Current Affairs The Labour Party

[orchard]

Great bunch of lads:

 

[orchard]

I suppose that's what I was hinting at earlier. It may well be the case that whomever is in charge at the moment is useless, but what seems less clear is where the experts will come from to replace them. It's hard to imagine they're sitting twiddling their thumbs waiting by the phone.

How very neo-liberal (again). Unless they've all been sacked/pushed out/retired they'll have more than enough in-house expertise provided it's utilised properly, far more than the likes of McKinsey could ever bring to the table.

But Labour won't. They're with you, and against best practice. 'Cos capital.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

How very neo-liberal (again). Unless they've all been sacked/pushed out/retired they'll have more than enough in-house expertise provided it's utilised properly, far more than the likes of McKinsey could ever bring to the table.

But Labour won't. They're with you, and against best practice. 'Cos capital.

Again, it wasn't a leading question. I'm curious what it is about Labour owning the railways that will make them better. If there is enough in house expertise already but they're not being utilised, that suggests that the managerial expertise isn't so good, so where will the replacements come from?

 

[orchard]

Again, it wasn't a leading question. I'm curious what it is about Labour owning the railways that will make them better. If there is enough in house expertise already but they're not being utilised, that suggests that the managerial expertise isn't so good, so where will the replacements come from?

I don't know enough about it Bruce, that being said, I imagine that a fair bit of inefficiency stems from the way that the state has carved it up. There'll be loads of expertise there, in the wrong positions because of focus and culture, but they'll be there, they're not all drunken-drug-test-dodging strikers.
But specifically regarding 'I'm curious what it is about Labour owning the railways that will make them better' - they won't, they'll probably add to the issues. Do you really think that Rail ought to be THE ONE that the public want to be dealt with as a priority?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I don't know enough about it Bruce, that being said, I imagine that a fair bit of inefficiency stems from the way that the state has carved it up. There'll be loads of expertise there, in the wrong positions because of focus and culture, but they'll be there, they're not all drunken-drug-test-dodging strikers.
But specifically regarding 'I'm curious what it is about Labour owning the railways that will make them better' - they won't, they'll probably add to the issues. Do you really think that Rail ought to be THE ONE that the public want to be dealt with as a priority?

I'd be happy if there was a focus on actual governance stuff. It seems since Brexit there hasn't been any at all, with that, Covid, Ukraine, and now the stupid culture wars nonsense.

 

[tsubaki]

Again, it wasn't a leading question. I'm curious what it is about Labour owning the railways that will make them better. If there is enough in house expertise already but they're not being utilised, that suggests that the managerial expertise isn't so good, so where will the replacements come from?

TBF the structure of it now prevents the emergence of decent management, as the focus is only ever going to be on one aspect of the overall service and there will always be someone else to blame for poor performance.

Putting it all back together could cut out a lot (hundreds of millions) of waste, at least in terms of the costs around contracting, compliance, enforcement, dispute resolution and so on. It would also probably quite quickly, provided they established in house recruitment and training for railway staff (especially drivers), take a lot out of the upward pressure on wages too because staff would no longer be able to be poached by other firms. BR was a well managed railway, and the best of the privatized lines (Chiltern) was run for ages (and may still be) by ex-BR staff who have made it the best service in the country.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

TBF the structure of it now prevents the emergence of decent management, as the focus is only ever going to be on one aspect of the overall service and there will always be someone else to blame for poor performance.

Putting it all back together could cut out a lot (hundreds of millions) of waste, at least in terms of the costs around contracting, compliance, enforcement, dispute resolution and so on. It would also probably quite quickly, provided they established in house recruitment and training for railway staff (especially drivers), take a lot out of the upward pressure on wages too because staff would no longer be able to be poached by other firms. BR was a well managed railway, and the best of the privatized lines (Chiltern) was run for ages (and may still be) by ex-BR staff who have made it the best service in the country.

An interesting counterpoint to that suggestion...

Forget the nostalgia for British Rail – our trains are better than ever | Ian Birrell

Ian Birrell: Passengers may be grumbling about the planned fare increases, but on balance rail privatisation has been a huge success

www.theguardian.com

 

[tsubaki]

An interesting counterpoint to that suggestion...

Forget the nostalgia for British Rail – our trains are better than ever | Ian Birrell

Ian Birrell: Passengers may be grumbling about the planned fare increases, but on balance rail privatisation has been a huge success

www.theguardian.com

TBF it isn't so much of a counterpoint - for a start, as Birrell says, the amount of public money spent on the railway has soared since BR days when the network was chronically short of actual investment. That lack of investment did eventually result in the time (late 70s and throughout the 80s) when BR was genuinely well-run from top to bottom:

The fall and rise of Britain's railways - RailStaff

Listen to this article Part 6: Sectorisation This year sees the fiftieth anniversary of Richard Beeching’s ‘The Re-Shaping of British Railways’. Colin Garratt reports 2013 also sees the thirtieth anniversary of the Serpell Report. These two events mirrored the tempestuous undertones of railway...

www.railstaff.co.uk

FWIW I do not think it should be nationalized either - it just needs to be one overall entity owning and operating the network, owning and operating the trains and running the majority of services.

 

[davek]

Says it all...

Dan Poulter: Conservative MP and ex-minister defects to Labour

The doctor told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg he could no longer look NHS colleagues and patients in the eye and stay as a Conservative.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[mahermi1]

Says it all...for the Green party

Dan Poulter: Conservative MP and ex-minister defects to Labour

The doctor told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg he could no longer look NHS colleagues and patients in the eye and stay as a Conservative.

www.bbc.co.uk

I
Finished that for you Dave.

 

[davek]

I
Finished that for you Dave.

Eh?

'Labour' = an utter midden of a party.

Don't vote for them.

Vote for any organised socialist party candidate, independent socialist candidate or Greens. And if you cant do that then abstain.

 

[Goat]

Eh?

'Labour' = an utter midden of a party.

Don't vote for them.

Vote for any organised socialist party candidate, independent socialist candidate or Greens. And if you cant do that then abstain.

No thanks Dave.

 

[davek]

No thanks Dave.

Class traitor.

 

[Goat]

Class traitor.

Anything but the Tories.

 

[davek]

Anything but the Tories.

My sentiments entirely...ALL Tories.