So how much does a Train driver earn then?

Perhaps they should go and work in a hospital or a school for 6 months and they would very soon want to get back in their train

 

A quick internet search brought up this article that seems to answer some of the questions in the thread.

https://inews.co.uk/news/train-stri...g-reasons-explained-will-more-strikes-1695427

 

What normally happens , we do this dance agree to a mutual beneficial compromise agree a to be left alone for 3 years, then go through it all again in 3 years time,

The underground were striking about our pension and terms(framework agreement)

Network rail we're striking over pay,

As I said in a few posts back, generally there are a few items on the list which get grouped in to one "item" so you vote for one item which included other items,

To achieve a strike all members have to be balloted, and you have to achieve more than 50% yes votes, any less the strike is not allowed to happen that is the law or government rules can't remember which,

Everyone deserves fair pay, if you can fight for it then fight, its unfortunate that there are some people who can't , but that's not the fault of those who can



I'm getting on a plane now to Turkey, I will catch up with this later, enjoy

 

Probably, and why not? The Tory's will do anything they can to damage the labour party and the committee structure of the labour party makes it very difficult to shoot from the hip so they constantly miss opportunities.
But as I suggested earlier this all out war between opposing parties is at the heart of everyone's troubles and the wasteful and expensive way the country lurches from one extreme to the other.
I don't think £15/hour is excessive. The basic minimum wage is £9.50 and it's well known that you can't live on that. Most people earning that will be on some kind of supplemental income derived from your tax. Waddya want, companies to pay proper wages or tax payers to underwrite profitable companies wages?

It's sort of different for government employees because the money comes from tax one way or another, but it does set a precedent for everyone else's earnings when it's so easy to trot out "but nurses/firemen etc only get...". Yeah they do, but in the case of private company employees, the supplemental income that's propping up those low wages from taxation = company profits.

Therefore yes, nurses, firemen, teachers - if they go on strike and achieve better wages, the knock-on effect should be that private companies also have to pay better wages and less of your taxation will prop up those company profits.

Now Mike will chip in that those companies are often owned by pension companies so those profits pay your pension, but TBH I would doubt that most people achieve a pension that doesn't need supplemental income from taxation anyway so again, the richest win, the poorest always loose.

As for runaway wage inflation? er, inflation is running away already. Perhaps you don't approve of people already low propped up wages trying to catch up? Perhaps everyone should just suck it up and be content to be even poorer. Fine for those with disposable income, but what about those who haven't? No room to tighten the belt.

I get the cost of running a business meaning your bottom line can be totally disappointing, maybe you're right, give it up... but... for me - I worked for myself for about 25 years and no way could I have gone back to having a boss/fixed hours/fixed income. I'd rather be skint and have a life.

 

I see your medication is working Steve. That’s nicely put!

 

Thankfully the electorate saw to that.

 

The government are trying to force through new working practices. They have no desire to negotiate and just want the public outrage to do the job for them.
Just like when they forced the miners out now it's the railways.
As for Abbott if you think she's a voice left in the Labour party your mistaken.

 

someone might want to take her aside and let her down gently, cos she’s doing a bloody good job of popping up on my tv with regularity. I don’t think any of the hard left ever truly lose their voice in the Labour Party, they just get drowned by more moderate centre left realists for a bit. Does anyone seriously think that when Labour get in next that all of Corbyns supporters and Momentum will have gone away? Of course they won’t, the trick will be for Starmer to keep a lid on them so they don’t mire his administration in party squabbling. Pretty much the same way the tories were dogged by the European question for years. Now what’s really gonna get interesting is if Labour don’t get a majority and can’t form a coalition with the Lib Dems and have to turn to Janet Krankie to prop them up. Will Starmer have the minerals to promise her another referendum? Break up the Union in his first term of office. Interesting times ahead. Maybe the Lib Dem deal breaker will be another crack at Proportional representation or even god forbid a straight vote count system like brexit where every single persons vote counted equally. Now there’s a thought what if there were no safe seats ever?

 

Starmer, ever the barrister is keeping his powder dry.
Why risk going hard at Boris (Not borris) now when he's the best chance Labour has of getting into power.
Just like Labour has hard left Conservatives have the hard right it has always been. It's just hard left get more bad press than hard right.

 

Because she can be relied on to either say something outrageous or drop a clanger - TV gold and a gift to the Tory press. Her constituents love her and she actually was at one time a breath of fresh air in the way she stood up for herself and her constituents and played the Westminster game as a more or less lone black woman in a very much white male world. her time has gone but she can't let go and her irrelevance is now simply embarrassing for everyone, but she'll keep being voted in because her constituents like the way she irritates everyone.

 

Isn’t he in danger of keeping his powder dry too long and appearing weak or without ideas? At some point he must surely deal the fatal blow. Because left to the tories, they will happily knife each other in the back in the blink of an eye then pop out for a bite to eat. Johnson could be a distant memory by the time the next election rolls around. What if the new Tory leader/MP is actually effective. Signs off loads of investment, agrees to above inflation wage rises in the public sector. Starmer might end up regretting not lighting that powder a little sooner.

isn’t politics in this country fun. It’s certainly never dull.

 

Her constituents have every right to vote her in, if they want her then no one has the right to deny them their democratic right. However by openly defying Starmer she undermines his authority not only in the eyes of the public, but also rallies other factions of the party to openly defy him as well. She needs putting back in her box if Starmer truly wants to make the Labour Party electable again.

 

The labour party eh? A democracy inside a democracy. She has as much right as Starmer to attempt to steer the labour party. She and her ilk do not want Starmer's Labour. What should she do? For the record I agree, she should shut up and help them win, then if she really must, try and steer policy.

 

The trouble for them is that their version of the Labour Party has proved to be unelectable. They are political dinosaurs, the world has moved on and the last election lead by the hard left faction of their party proved that. Evolve or die. This is the best chance of re-election for the Labour Party in a generation. I can say with absolute certainty that I will not vote for the conservatives again whilst Johnson is the leader, I’m disgusted with Partygate. I said the same about Blair over Iraq and true to my word I never voted for him again. My wife goes even further and says she won’t vote conservative again regardless of the leader. We can’t be the only ones.

 

Honestly, I think the cons think long term and are doing all they can to rape and pillage while laughing in our faces because they do not want to be the party in power over the next term which is going to be ... difficult. Then they can be back to blaming labour again for the problems they're lining up ready and come back after the next term for more swinging cuts to public services, pay and conditions. They'll get away with it because after repeating their lie that labour can't manage the economy 10 million times... people think it's true.

 

The trouble is that, as somebody once said, Labour love policies, whilst the Tories love power and will do anything, say anything just to stay in power. So whilst Labour fight their battles publicly pre election, the Tories manage to spin a unified picture pre election only to self destruct with their internal factions after....

Proportional representation, or should it be called fair voting, would allow more voices to be heard, but would at least help bust the myth that the big parties are unified entities. Strong governments are not, imo, formed by the first past the post system we currently have. We all know compromise is a part of any group decision, but we seem to thinking is a bad concept when it comes to representing our country.

After all democracy is meant to be about an informed electorate choosing people to represent their wishes and the best interests of the country....now who can tell me how this is going at the moment?

 

Actually, no it's not, that's just what we wish democracy meant. What we have is a parliamentary democracy which is totally different i.e. the democracy is inside parliament only, it's not for us.

 

That’s an interesting way to look at it. I’ve often wondered what would happen if on Election Day no one turned up. Literally no one voted. Can you imagine the look on the MPs faces as literally every one of them lost their job on the same day. I wonder what redundancy package they have?

 

What really needs answering is, why did so many Tory MP's still think bozo is the best leader of the country.
We, shock horror, have a Tory MP that thought just that.
Does she really think anyone will vote for her now?

 

What you’ve gotta ask yourself is does she actually want to be voted in next time?

I’m not sure many of them believe he was the best leader, just that they hadn’t had time to align themselves with anyone else to feather their own nests. Can’t be seen to back the losing horse old boy.

I genuinely don’t know the answer to this, do they get some sort of pay off if they aren’t re-elected? Seeing as the threat of redundancy hangs over them every five years.