RANT CORNER

[Derek27]

I've reached S3 E4 of the IT Crowd, and the episode has been removed from Channel 4's catchup! I have to search YouTube for it.

Apparently it contained transgender jokes.

Seen the episode now. Can't really see what was so offensive about it that they need to pull it from the catch-up channel.

[Derek27]

I was gonna buy a bottle of ASDA brandy for £12.50, picked it up and realised it's in a plastic bottle!

Doesn't say much about the quality of the brandy. Who wants to pour brandy out of a plastic bottle?

[conduirez]

After paying billions to shareholders and digging themselves into debt, Thames Water are considering putting up customer bills up 40% to pay for it!

As long as Anglian Water don't, me and you are OK Derek.

I think it's a nationwide problem. All water companies need massive investment, the money has to come from somewhere and I doubt it will come from the shareholders, with calls for nationalisation growing.

Kemble can no longer service their debt.

The government now need to either force the sale of Thames Water or buy it back, the debacle can no longer go on. They cannot let Kemble investors, blackmail their way to a price increase for Thames Water customers. Lets hope the receivers move in soon.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68742551

The government just need to try and protect the British pension companies that are shareholders in Kemble.

[Derek27]

I'm actually interested in astronomy, but the eclipse is over now. Let's have some news. You can even tell us who the King is smiling and waving at, for a change!

[weemac]

I was gonna buy a bottle of ASDA brandy for £12.50, picked it up and realised it's in a plastic bottle!

Doesn't say much about the quality of the brandy. Who wants to pour brandy out of a plastic bottle?

Try Bardinet VSOP. It's a league above Asda's brandy for about £1 more.

[Derek27]

I was gonna buy a bottle of ASDA brandy for £12.50, picked it up and realised it's in a plastic bottle!

Doesn't say much about the quality of the brandy. Who wants to pour brandy out of a plastic bottle?

Try Bardinet VSOP. It's a league above Asda's brandy for about £1 more.

Thanks, I've put it on my shopping list.

[greenmark]

The notion that privatising nationalised industries is a good idea is proving more and more flawed. Rail and water are a disaster.
I guess pro-privatisers would suggest it would have been even worse if those industries had remained nationalised.

For me the big flaw is that the regulation around privatised industries is toothless. How can Thames be allowed to underinvest and run up massive debt AND continue to pay shareholder dividends? And it's not just Thames or just water companies the rail TOC's are the same.

Perhaps govt can run companies better now. When Bulb went bust within 2 weeks of them being put inot special administration my smart meter suddenly started working after being dead for years from 3 months after installation.

Maybe the solution is to privatise, renationalise, learn from the mistakes of privatisation and re-privatise with more stringent and accurate regulation. Rather than privatising to line shareholder's pockets and allowing govt to say "This isn't our problem anymore, talk to the individual companies".

[Derek27]

I've reached the end of my one month free Amazon Prime subscription so I cancelled it to stop my card from being charged.

Now I realise I could have been pausing it and only using it when I make a purchase.

[Derek27]

Amazon need to crack down on sellers that charge £15-150 for a pair of jeans, the £15 pair, probably in a size that doesn't fit humans.

[firlandsfarm]

Amazon need to crack down on sellers that charge £15-150 for a pair of jeans, the £15 pair, probably in a size that doesn't fit humans.

People should be free to pay £150 for a pair of jeans if they so wish.

[Archery1969]

The notion that privatising nationalised industries is a good idea is proving more and more flawed. Rail and water are a disaster.
I guess pro-privatisers would suggest it would have been even worse if those industries had remained nationalised.

For me the big flaw is that the regulation around privatised industries is toothless. How can Thames be allowed to underinvest and run up massive debt AND continue to pay shareholder dividends? And it's not just Thames or just water companies the rail TOC's are the same.

Perhaps govt can run companies better now. When Bulb went bust within 2 weeks of them being put inot special administration my smart meter suddenly started working after being dead for years from 3 months after installation.

Maybe the solution is to privatise, renationalise, learn from the mistakes of privatisation and re-privatise with more stringent and accurate regulation. Rather than privatising to line shareholder's pockets and allowing govt to say "This isn't our problem anymore, talk to the individual companies".

I agree but if you were to now nationalise the rail industry then those train drivers earning £64,000 would suddenly find themselves taking a massive pay cut and earning just about £30,000. It’s worth noting that the current average train driver salary in France is a mere £28,000.

[greenmark]

The notion that privatising nationalised industries is a good idea is proving more and more flawed. Rail and water are a disaster.
I guess pro-privatisers would suggest it would have been even worse if those industries had remained nationalised.

For me the big flaw is that the regulation around privatised industries is toothless. How can Thames be allowed to underinvest and run up massive debt AND continue to pay shareholder dividends? And it's not just Thames or just water companies the rail TOC's are the same.

Perhaps govt can run companies better now. When Bulb went bust within 2 weeks of them being put inot special administration my smart meter suddenly started working after being dead for years from 3 months after installation.

Maybe the solution is to privatise, renationalise, learn from the mistakes of privatisation and re-privatise with more stringent and accurate regulation. Rather than privatising to line shareholder's pockets and allowing govt to say "This isn't our problem anymore, talk to the individual companies".

I agree but if you were to now nationalise the rail industry then those train drivers earning £64,000 would suddenly find themselves taking a massive pay cut and earning just about £30,000. It’s worth noting that the current average train driver salary in France is a mere £28,000.

I wouldn't advocate slashing anyone's wages. That's unfair. It takes a long time to make a life and a salary is key to that.

[Archery1969]

The notion that privatising nationalised industries is a good idea is proving more and more flawed. Rail and water are a disaster.
I guess pro-privatisers would suggest it would have been even worse if those industries had remained nationalised.

For me the big flaw is that the regulation around privatised industries is toothless. How can Thames be allowed to underinvest and run up massive debt AND continue to pay shareholder dividends? And it's not just Thames or just water companies the rail TOC's are the same.

Perhaps govt can run companies better now. When Bulb went bust within 2 weeks of them being put inot special administration my smart meter suddenly started working after being dead for years from 3 months after installation.

Maybe the solution is to privatise, renationalise, learn from the mistakes of privatisation and re-privatise with more stringent and accurate regulation. Rather than privatising to line shareholder's pockets and allowing govt to say "This isn't our problem anymore, talk to the individual companies".

I agree but if you were to now nationalise the rail industry then those train drivers earning £64,000 would suddenly find themselves taking a massive pay cut and earning just about £30,000. It’s worth noting that the current average train driver salary in France is a mere £28,000.

I wouldn't advocate slashing anyone's wages. That's unfair. It takes a long time to make a life and a salary is key to that.

Well, if you nationalise it then effectively that’s what would happen to their wages. Those wages are part subsidised by the Government already by about 1/3rd. Government would have to pay billions taking them back via the tax payer and then argue, justify then paying them their current pay scales. If wouldn’t all add up. The rail industry has always been ticking time bomb ready to explode. Rail numbers are massively down has allot of people work from home and prefer that way of working yet rail salaries have increased well above inflation for decades. It’s not sustainable to then nationalise it without massive job and pay cuts.

The same would be true to now nationalise water, heating, electricity and telecoms.

Privatisation seemed a good idea 35 years ago but it will all come back to bite tax payers and the treasury in the backside.

[firlandsfarm]

The notion that privatising nationalised industries is a good idea is proving more and more flawed. Rail and water are a disaster.
I guess pro-privatisers would suggest it would have been even worse if those industries had remained nationalised.

For me the big flaw is that the regulation around privatised industries is toothless. How can Thames be allowed to underinvest and run up massive debt AND continue to pay shareholder dividends? And it's not just Thames or just water companies the rail TOC's are the same.

Perhaps govt can run companies better now. When Bulb went bust within 2 weeks of them being put inot special administration my smart meter suddenly started working after being dead for years from 3 months after installation.

Maybe the solution is to privatise, renationalise, learn from the mistakes of privatisation and re-privatise with more stringent and accurate regulation. Rather than privatising to line shareholder's pockets and allowing govt to say "This isn't our problem anymore, talk to the individual companies".

I agree but if you were to now nationalise the rail industry then those train drivers earning £64,000 would suddenly find themselves taking a massive pay cut and earning just about £30,000. It’s worth noting that the current average train driver salary in France is a mere £28,000.

I wouldn't advocate slashing anyone's wages. That's unfair. It takes a long time to make a life and a salary is key to that.

It's interesting that so called bosses who bleed privatised industries get shouted at while the likes of train drivers don't!

And don't blame the principle when it's the implementation that is at fault. Nationalisation is a diluted form of communism on a small level and we know how successful communism has been around the world! The problem with nationalised industries is there is no inducement to perform better. Maybe have a nationalised industry that is run as a privatised one with 'bonus' incentives for all employees based on a strictly regulated pool of money shared in direct proportion to salaries so that if the bosses double their salaries so do all the other employees. But the trouble with that is as a train driver your choice of employment is a train operator in the region you live or a train operator in the region you live or a train operator in the region you live. Whereas as a 'boss' you could be employed by any employer wanting a professional manager. So the competition to employ 'bosses' is much greater than that to employ train drivers so bosses can negotiate enhanced salaries more so than train drivers.

[greenmark]

I agree but if you were to now nationalise the rail industry then those train drivers earning £64,000 would suddenly find themselves taking a massive pay cut and earning just about £30,000. It’s worth noting that the current average train driver salary in France is a mere £28,000.

I wouldn't advocate slashing anyone's wages. That's unfair. It takes a long time to make a life and a salary is key to that.

It's interesting that so called bosses who bleed privatised industries get shouted at while the likes of train drivers don't!

And don't blame the principle when it's the implementation that is at fault. Nationalisation is a diluted form of communism on a small level and we know how successful communism has been around the world! The problem with nationalised industries is there is no inducement to perform better. Maybe have a nationalised industry that is run as a privatised one with 'bonus' incentives for all employees based on a strictly regulated pool of money shared in direct proportion to salaries so that if the bosses double their salaries so do all the other employees. But the trouble with that is as a train driver your choice of employment is a train operator in the region you live or a train operator in the region you live or a train operator in the region you live. Whereas as a 'boss' you could be employed by any employer wanting a professional manager. So the competition to employ 'bosses' is much greater than that to employ train drivers so bosses can negotiate enhanced salaries more so than train drivers.

£60k ain't a lot if you're 30 something with kids, mortgage etc. Drivers are at the sharp end when stuff goes wrong and have 1000's of people's lives in their hands every day. The shame of the dispute is how both sides appear to have run out of ideas and have become entrenched. It's the public that are taking the pain.
Interestingly on Monday I travelled on TransPennine Express and EMR who were both subject to overtime bans. Both services were bang on time to the minute.

I agree previous nationalisations have wiped out incentivisation. But both of us have recognised that, why after decades has govt/civil service not found a better implementation.
I'll now go big - essential industries like energy, water, health (probably a section of the housing market) can't be left to captialism to run. Capitalism yearns for cartels, monopolies, exploitation of captive demand. Capitalism is human nature unbridled. The notion of the free market and competition generating wealth that will trickle down is hogwash.