h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh I think you can make some personal comments without getting modertated (fingers crossed)

I mean, saying John Prescott can be a bit short tempered and occasionally has problem making sense, is, I hope OK, as I beleive he has said those things himself.

Calling IDS a follically challenged right winger must be OK as he is short of hair and is proud of his right wing credentials.

And quoting Paddy Ashdown when he called Tony Blair a "smarmy Git" is also OK as it is just reporting someone elses opinion expressed in the media

ChawkE

Oh and finally I managed to find the BBC refernce for the last point

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_1535000/1535016.stm

and to be fair Paddy said some people thought Blair was a "smarmy git"

ChawkE

I laughed when they elected Thatcher leader. I didn't laugh much afterwards. This is a deeply conservative (with a small 'c') country, and outside this website which seems to have a tendency to attract liberal (with a small 'l') types, some of the hard-right views of IDS and his barmy army have a resonance with the sort of Middle Englander who reads the Mail, as well as with many of the red top tabloid brigade (he said trying not to sound too much like an intellectual snob).

I think it's very scary.

Although I agree that there is a certain tendency towards conservatism, I don't think IDS represents that, being further to the right than many are willing to go.

My partner (who thinks I have dangerous socialist leanings) is a natural tory who votes labour as he believes they are the best conservative government we have ever had!

I hope you're right. Your partner certainly is.

What, I have dangerous socialist leanings?

No, Labour is the best Conservative government we've ever had. There's nothing wrong with socialist leanings, I have them myself.

New Labour just separated themselves from the tories *finally*.

Railtrack is no longer a profit-making organisation. Hooray! It was shameless of them to pay out huge dividends and then expect the country to bail them out again - I am glad that the government has finally had the balls to do something about it!

It is a shame that this piece of good news is almost entirely lost in amoungst the terrible news that the war has started.

I was amazed the gov actually did it when they knew it would get swamped with the other news, normally it is the unpopular news that gets pushed out at times like this.

Maybe they thought it wasn't going to be popular, or maybe there is some more very unpopular news they are sneaking out at the moment.

ChawkE

As far as I'm concerned, the best thing they can do is re-nationalise the railways. However, although a good idea, Labour don't want too much public discussion on it, as only 5 minutes ago they were saying they totally supported the privatisation of the railway whilst pouring millions of pounds into railtrack.

Take is from me, the timing of every announcement the government makes is carefully orchestrated, and this was intended to get lost amongst more important news.

Speaking as somebody who works for the railways, but not for Railtrack, can I just say - about bloody time. I also favoured renationalisation, but this would have meant compensating the shareholders - why should we? If you buy shares you are placing a bet - if you place a bet and lose it's tough luck. Now some of the big investment firms want to sue because they lost their bet. What happened to 'you can't buck the market'? That's what they are trying to do. Railtrack have gone comprehensively bust and if the government hadn't kept bailing them out they'd have been bankrupt months ago.

I think the timing had a lot to do with Railtrack going to the government and asking for more money on Friday. Byers said no - at that point Railtrack couldn't carry on.

I was interested in Steve Marshall's resignation statement - apparently he feels the government hasn't kept its promises and owes him. Good, now he knows how the passengers feel, doesn't he. And Railtrack are now threatening to sue the government. Do they think our heads have zips up the back?

I have a little (not much) sympathy for New Labour - John Major set up this appalling system in a hurry in the dying days of his government and did his best to make it a system that Labour couldn't easily unravel, and it disgusts me that he doesn't get his share of the blame - this was HIS baby. However, New Labour have dragged their feet disgracefully in even beginning to address the problems despite the promises made in opposition.

The real test will be how the government approach the engineering and building companies who carry out (or fail to carry out) track maintenance and renewal under contract to Railtrack - make no mistake, it was this splitting and fragmenting of responsibility that has been responsible for much of what has gone wrong. These are the same companies that the government is looking to have as partners in the crazy PPF scheme they are pushing against all advice on the tube. Maybe this might allow the government to reverse its policy. Don't hold your breath.

You are quite right about the shareholders.

In fact shareholders are essentially the owners of the company. In some cases this means THEY are responsible for the comany's debts.
So if they want to sue why not turn it completely around and tell them to pay up for the 1.6 billion debt of Railtrack?

Why all the cynicism about the timing above. I have seen fairly comprehensive coverage of this on the news despite the "war" and quite frankly why would they want to hide it? I can't imagine a more popular move.

Oh yes, the move is popular and got coverage, what hasn't got coverage is the oppostion to such a move - OK maybe not popular opposition.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1588000/1588153.stm

Did you see todays Independant? An email was alleged to have been sent out within an hour of the attack saying it would be an ideal time to release bad news!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin//radio4/today/listen/audiosearch.pl?ProgID=1002633193

Truly cynical - although I for one am not surprised

ChawkE

One of the releases that may have got lost is the criminal justice review which urges removal of the right to trial by jury.

Worse than that - they're now considering the possibility of ignoring juries who deliver a verdict that the 'powers that be' consider unacceptable. God help us!!

Well! I had a lot to say on this last time

I reckon Ken will be out of luck again...