[0762]

It is in the interests of democracy within these islands to release the Russia report following Johnson's GE win. We all know the document exists and grave concerns have been raised re external interference in the UK's democracy. That document has not been published for dubious reasons. It should be published now so that we can all see where things are. Surely if the UK wants to pretend it is a beacon of best practice to the world, credibility begins at home and that also means not crassly handing out tax payers money to people earning over £110,000 pa as recently suggested by officials of the Brexit Party/govt - that is a joke and an insult to swathes and swathes of poorer and vulnerable people within our population!!! The ruthless nature of this Brexit obsessed govt is epitomised in one shameless action within Johnson's Withdrawal Agreement Bill with one of the omissions covering the Dubs amendment which I recently read up on as I didn't know too much re the subject of the UK's involvement in assisting unaccompanied refugee children to find secure refuge with identified family members in the UK. So Johnson scrapped the Dubs Amendment that sought to enable such lone youngsters to come to a safe haven - NO SOONER HAD JOHNSON WON THE RECENT GENERAL ELECTION THAN HE RUTHLESSLY STRIPPED THE DUBS AMENDMENT (NAMED AFTER LORD ALF DUBS) FROM THE EU WAB. Apparently government ministers met with Lord Dubs, the initiator of the amendment, in an attempt to argue that it would weaken the government's negotiating hand in EU trade talks??? Frankly, as cynical political moves go, it doesn't get much more distasteful than this and speaks volumes about the politicians who are running the UK! As Dubs pointedly observed, it quite simply reveals a govt more than happy to "barter unaccompanied child refugees for something else", and he will fight to reinstate it in the House of Lords. However, it is hard to see past the sheer cynicism of Brexit-obsessed Tories on this issue. If the Tory govt's cynical scrapping of the amendment and the lies and harm that accompany it is what they are capable of in just a few weeks, what more harm will they inflict in the next few years?????

[hibeejim21]

Yup. Too many appalling lies have been exposed already. It's not hard to see what five more years of a Tory government with no limit will bring. They will see this as their opportunity to get everything they've ever wanted.

[hibeejim21]

Looks like HS2 is going to cost upwards of a 100 billion and finish at Birmingham.

[0762]

Remember that Brexit alone has already cost the country something in the region of £150B-£200B!! What a joke, what a farce!! And there is much more economic damage and social consequences to come!!

[spireitematt]

Looks like HS2 is going to cost upwards of a 100 billion and finish at Birmingham.

It's a waste of money. They should update the current tracks we have and reopen new lines and look at the lines which Beeching shut in the 60s. We need better new and improved trains and not the ancient rattlers. We need to bring back the railways into public ownership and not have European companies running our trains.

One of the reasons why European train travel is so cheap is because British taxpayers subsidise there ticket prices through the profits that companies like Keolis, Arriva and Abellio make from owning British franchises. Keolis is 70% owned by the French Government national rail service SNCF which own 35% of Govia which runs Thameslink, Southern, Southern Eastern and London Midland. Arriva run Chiltern, CrossCountry, Grand Central, Northern, Arriva Rail London and Arriva Trains Wales which is owned by Deutsche Bahn whose sole shareholder is the Federal Republic of Germany. Abellio is the international arm of the state owned by Dutch national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen.

It isn't just trains though, it's public utilities as well and it doesn't matter if we are in the EU or not as it will continue. The fault lies with the Tory party of the 80s/90s because they thought public ownership was bad but thought foreign ownership was good and now it's come to bite them on the arse as we see companies like Northern not being able to run trains on time and the trains which are being run are 40 years old with no heating, no air conditioning and lots of overcrowding but the only thing which seems to be changing is the ticket prices as they seem to increase year on year without any letting up.

[0762]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/bo...spartandhp

This is a good indicator of the problem with having a huge majority extreme govt in place at Westminster and allowing them to "ride roughshod" over democratic decisions, in this case the democratic rights of EU citizens and how these rights should be respected and managed properly when it comes to residential status etc! No healthy political opposition = dictatorship and "getting away with murder", an absolute disgrace!!

[hibeejim21]

Both stormont and Edinburgh have passed motions against the UK’s EU withdrawal (with the Senned expected to do the same)

I wonder how their voices will be heard in this union of 'equals'? I think we know.

[0762]

This is extreme populism "at work" and our self-determination is about the right to make the decisions about the kind of country we want to be, in the legislature that best understands our country and best represents us. Our self-determination is about political freedom from Westminster's interference. I noticed last week that the likes of Labour's Lisa Nandy doesn't believe in Scotland's independence but the poisonous populist comments attached to her were absolutely staggering and akin to someone who has not got a clue what the likes of the Scot National Party actually is and as for her populist view re the Catalonian position - totally ignorant of the facts and the history of oppression since 1 Oct 2017. She clearly holds an opinion that Westminster's interference is a good thing for Scotland and is clearly happy for Scotland to get what England votes for, like Brexit, like majority Tory rule. She's entitled to her opinion but I certainly disagree and will add that she is "way off the mark" - stupidity on stilts, coloured by a dose of ignorance but hey, she, and others of a similar ilk, are Unionists and they think they can say anything they like!! Nandy does populism and I reckon she won't recognise her stance as being that of the populist - that is exactly what it is!! I think one should just remove the word "nationalism", with all its connotations, and change it for self-determination!! Hence, in Lisa's case, "Can you be a morally good force against divisive self-determination" lol??? Time do some homework in future rather than behave like an absolute erse!!

[hibeejim21]

Looks like HS2 is going to cost upwards of a 100 billion and finish at Birmingham.

It's a waste of money. They should update the current tracks we have and reopen new lines and look at the lines which Beeching shut in the 60s. We need better new and improved trains and not the ancient rattlers. We need to bring back the railways into public ownership and not have European companies running our trains.

One of the reasons why European train travel is so cheap is because British taxpayers subsidise there ticket prices through the profits that companies like Keolis, Arriva and Abellio make from owning British franchises. Keolis is 70% owned by the French Government national rail service SNCF which own 35% of Govia which runs Thameslink, Southern, Southern Eastern and London Midland. Arriva run Chiltern, CrossCountry, Grand Central, Northern, Arriva Rail London and Arriva Trains Wales which is owned by Deutsche Bahn whose sole shareholder is the Federal Republic of Germany. Abellio is the international arm of the state owned by Dutch national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen.

It isn't just trains though, it's public utilities as well and it doesn't matter if we are in the EU or not as it will continue. The fault lies with the Tory party of the 80s/90s because they thought public ownership was bad but thought foreign ownership was good and now it's come to bite them on the arse as we see companies like Northern not being able to run trains on time and the trains which are being run are 40 years old with no heating, no air conditioning and lots of overcrowding but the only thing which seems to be changing is the ticket prices as they seem to increase year on year without any letting up.

I thought the point of HS2 was to facilitate wealthy Londoners and southerners expanding their buy to let property portfolios into the Midlands ? In fact I'm pretty sure its a major factor. You cant accuse the tories of not looking after their own.

But you are right about the joke that is the franchising schemes in the UK rail industry. The tories rail against state ownership, unless it's a foreign state owning our trains where they can sell them off and make a killing.....meanwhile the service goes down the shitter.

Even worse than rail is water being privatised down south - that is an absolute outrage in this day and age.

[hibeejim21]

What is the actual point in the House of Lords ? nearly xxxx 800 of them, its bad enough they're unelected but what is the point of them sitting there at all if the Commons can just ignore their amendments, send the bill through again and the HOL will then apparently back down and vote it through regardless now because 'convention' ?