Westminster Politics
- Thread starter altodevil
- Start date
I watched it for the plot.
Just days before COP26.... This policy is absurd and will push even more people to fly when they could take a train while taxing those who couldn't get to the UK by other means. I expect they think it will be a tax primarily on tourists and business people well off enough to pay the extra tax, but there's no reason to encourage more internal flights within the UK when trains should be a cheaper, more efficient alternative.He's such a great, down to earth, compassionate, dog loving man. Bless him and his budget.
The policy makes no sense, I can only assume money has changed hands or favours called in for donations made.
The guy is, like his leader, full of spin and bullsh1t.
Trying to pretend that he and his government are on the side of workers and the low paid.
If people cannot see through his spin, then I am truly sorry for them.
Well that's fecking terrifying.
London to Aberdeen flight time 1 and a half hours
London to Aberdeen train time 7 and a half hours
Bristol to aberdeen 1 and a half hours flight time
Bristol to aberdeen train time 9 hours
Time is money and all that so I don't think trains are going to effectively replace business trips etc on those routes even if the train is £1
I feel this post implies a level of importance to Aberdeen that it doesn't necessarily merit.
"Time is money" is the well known catchphrase for the millions of daily commuters from Southern England to Aberdeen. A solution is exactly what the country was crying out for...
There's your problem. Trains are hideously expensive in the UK, overcrowded and slow. And you can't just run more of them.
This also depends on which airport you are flying from. Some London airports require a 30-60 minute journey to get to and then you have the 30-60 mins getting through everything so by the time that's over your 1hr 30 min flight can end up being 3-4 hours in total compared to getting the train which is in the centre. I don't think there is too much advantage in getting a flight from London to Edinburgh for example over getting the train. Most trains have wifi on them for long journeys which are decent enough to work on depending on your job. Flights are still beating trains in terms of speed of course but there is room to work with making trains a good alternative if they wanted to make the effort.
Aberdeen is one of the few cities in the UK I've never been to.
Bordeaux - Paris TGV 2h 4m - Adult fare outside holiday periods €10 to €20 single, distance 584km. France trying to discourage all internal flights.
Can you imagine the hysteria from the right if Labour had announced that budget?
Quite so. And despite the many billions poured into the railways.
Is that because it's a left-wing budget?
To be fair it would be odd to say "The Tories' nightmare conversion to Brownism can only end in catastrophe" in those circumstances.
It needs more still. UK rail is the least heavily subsidised in Europe.
I dont really understand this budget at first glance. Loads of spending, tax cuts, but the overall borrowing is set to drop? Where will the money come from? They're treading a very fine line hoping GDP growth will cover it.
High speed rail in Italy is what killed Alitalia. It can be done, but the UK needs to stop pandering to every fringe group on the planet and make some big decisions.
There aren't tax cuts overall, although some of it is hidden by moving it around and the previously announced increase of NI plus freezing the income tax threshold means that taxes are increased pretty much across the board. Apparently the tax burden in the UK will be the highest it's been since the 1950's.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59076532
Maybe they're using an old Republican trick of budget forecasting: dynamic scoring. It includes predicted growth or increased spending behavior by consumers in its estimates to offset the cost of tax cuts. It's also complete garbage. It's what Republicans in the US use to claim that their tax cuts for the wealthy will pay for themselves with increased growth.
Plus a huge increase in corporation tax, from 19% to 25% in two years. It shows how spin works though, and we all fall for it at times, that's why it's done.
Bang on. But as we have just seen from the budget/spending review, instead of focusing on the biggest problem facing both this country and the rest of the world - man made climate change, they make particularly stupid decisions like reducing the cost of internal UK flights.
It just gives climate change deniers the excuses they are looking for.
Not to mention the high likelihood of 5% plus Council Tax increases next year. And you can bet that the Police Levy will be much higher than that. Last year it was about 10%. For many people, Council Tax is their biggest monthly cost. And terrible value by the way because there is no competition.
Quite agree about the rise, and who pays it. Not too sure I want competition as such in schools, fire, police, care and so on, I'd prefer that be measured by best practice. The problem with competition can be short-termism, next years profits, and no long-term planning or responsibility.
Yes. You are probably right about that. I guess it is because, apart from the refuse collection, we don't actually see where our hard earned cash goes. Yet another tax on top of the countless others.
I spent a couple of years at a council funded college in the IT department a few years ago. It had 5 people working in the department and virtually nothing to do apart from write SQL queries and basic maintenance. It was the most boring job I've ever had and I had to leave because turning up and doing nothing got boring after a while.
I kept in touch with a few people there and it turned out they employed 5 people because if they didn't the council budget for the department would get reduced and that was the only reason they were keeping the people on. A couple of years ago that got reduced to 2 people due to other cuts and apparently they still haven't got enough work for 2.
Central funding can be good, but it really needs a close eye and accountability, it can become funding for funding's sake quite easily.
Interesting isn't it. I knew someone working for the council street maintenance. He was young and pretty keen. But the job was so over manned and the rest of the guys spent most of the day reading the paper or on their phones. He said there were 3 in each van irrespective of the task. Like your friend, he got so bored that he left.
Angela Rayner: Man sentenced for threats to Labour deputy leader
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-59079392
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-59079392
Agreed.
People like this get whipped up into a frenzy of hatred by the media.
Why on earth would anyone want to eat seafood, especially shellfish, after seeing that?
She’s literally just his PR manager at this point. It’s been 5 years of working towards this and now she’s leaving she’s not even bothering to do her actual job. Especially now Dacre and Dorries are going to be the only ones holding her to account.