I know its the Mirror but what a shit headline ‘Europe mericilessly mocks UK gov’t’ no it is a british union mocking the UK gov’t
This is relevant to my recent visit to Germany, and seeing trains with Arriva on their side, ultimately owned by Deutsche Bahn (‘DB’), and being reminded that the Arriva UK Trains and buses are owned by a non-UK company.
Just imagine if profits from UK travel went back into UK infrastructure and cheaper, better travel…
Starting to feel more and more like the North Korea of Europe. Only a matter of time before we’re sending rockets into the English Channel at migrants and cursing the French.
We will blame anyone but ourselves lol.
The tories’ nationalisation programme is proceeding well. The slight criticism I would raise is that it could be better if it were the UK government buying up franchises.
Yep. As they should. It is a national disgrace to have it this way
I’m in France right now for the next week, and it always amazes me whenever I come here, just how easy it is to travel everywhere. It’s cheap, it’s simple. Why can they manage it and the UK can’t? It does not have to be this way. But why is nobody fixing it? I just don’t get it. One of many things that ought to be seen as a serious problem and political priority, and yet we all just seem to accept it as ‘just the way things are’. It’s like the whole country is suffering from a kind of Stockholm syndrome.
That’s a really misleading headline.
It should be along the lines of – British trade union makes an advert featuring Europeans mocking British Railways.
Seriously though, how does it not matter to the headline that the people in the video are actors paid to read from a script?
If it were on the other foot I’d feel bad for common people, not laugh about it. I guess though we voted for this.
And yet passenger growth has been higher here.
Don’t worry we also mock ourselves.
It made me laugh out loud, it’s lovely to see folks finally waking up to the fact that our country has been in a 50 year decline since neoliberalism decided to sell off everything of value to the lowest bidder.
Rail privatisation has been a scam since day one – one they’re still running today.
Water privatisation led to our rivers now being mostly human shit, privatisation of power led to the current situation where we all owe the deposit on a house to the energy companies for having the lights on, privatisation of Royal Mail has led to its staff going on semi-permanent strike, a reduction in services, all whilst coasting on a reputation of being nationalised (because no one paid attention to it being sold off).
Neoliberalism in action is what’s got us to this sorry point.
And neoliberal Tories and Starmer are going to do nothing to change those facts – they see all of this as a net positive.
It’s the tories, ideology beats actual data every time.
Overground and DLR aren’t owned by TfL?
The main problem isn’t nationalisation of the UK rail network but rather the lack of subsidies for rail travel provided by the UK government.
The current top comment praises the Germany rail system however that is getting worse currently and still gets a 17 B EUR subsidy compared to the UK’s 4.4 B EUR subsidy.
Nationalisation would help the UK but central funding is the main issue.
This is self-inflicted by the dicks and twats in charge over the past 40yrs. Transport should never have been sold to international companies. Gas, electricity and water/sewage treatment too. Absolutely ridiculous. Even if private, they are national requirements thus there should have been required by law that the business bidding to be based and created on uk shores.
Oh yes but Venezuela, Cuba, the USSR, Daily Mail, savy Brits, common sense blah blah blah know what’s what.
Keep voting Tory and waving your flags!
Edit – sorry forgot to add the 1970s and Arthur Scargill’s mercedes.
And Jeremy Corbyn plus mocking Ed Miliband eating a bacon sandwich is perfectly okay and not extreme antisemitism (we know this because the BBC and all of the newspapers did it so it’s fine like bombing UN schools because Hamas kids are launching airstrikes from them).
Wait till people find out who the National Grid is owned by
Saw this first hand in Spain years ago, 120 mile return train journey on one of their ultra modern 125 type trains, so quiet, very fast and air-conditioned just €4.
I was so surprised I had to ask if it was a mistake, but no, that was the price.
Meanwhile I did a similar journey from London to Birmingham a week after and it was £85.
As usual we are being taken for mugs, no wonder the foreign owners don’t want to pay higher wages.
Nationalise it and give those companies nothing from the proceeds. No share buy out just take it all back. Same with gas and electric. Same with water.
This is hilarious, I’d love to see anyone who is against nationalised railways/utilities etc defend privatisation.
As always, we are the laughing stock of Europe.
Not very nice lol but what did people expect when they privatised rail? It takes a lot of capacity and expenses to operate so there’s definitely a large chance another country’s operator is best positioned to enter the market.
Oh fuck it I’ll be DVd into oblivion for saying it but here goes anyway. (and I’m a remainer).
EU competition law allowed this to happen by requiring all EU companies to be allowed to tender for contracts.
Rules like this contributed to the anti EU vote and the British jobs for British people sentiment that drove Brexit.
As a fair chunk of the market has been taken by European contractors it is going to take time for UK contractors to be able to form who are “competent” to be trusted with major franchises and not have it taken away from them (as is regularly happening)
This has nothing to do with privatisation but is a legacy Brexit issue.
Cost of railways is a joke in this country compared to what it is in the EU. Profits from our railways is a drop in the ocean compared to EU state subsidy, if you really think that €9 rail journeys are because of profits going out of our country then you really need to think about how you think.
While I feel this is very important as the commenters are pointing out that EU countries have better (by far) rail, but in Italy for example I would say that it’s even worse than in the UK. Although for entirely different reasons.
And I’d like to add my voice to the choir of why the fuck can France and Germany have convenient and efficient public transport but we can’t? We can’t let the French be better than us in anything >:(
Except it’s a load of tripe.
Yes, the Dutch rail service may have received £3 million from greater Anglia. But then, they lost £3.5 million on ScotRail. Still, I’m not sure it makes a huge difference considering the 2 billion or so Euros the Dutch government puts into their rail service. I’m sure that 0.15% increase really covers some major infrastructure.
The article goes into some detail about how this is supported by the taxpayer. As though this is somehow unique for a rail system.
Maybe rail *should* be nationalised, but the result wouldn’t be as huge as people suggest. An effective 2-3% increase in fare revenue just wouldn’t make a lot of difference.
Our rail service is an overpriced shower of shit! Rail should be the first thought for cheap reliable transport and it fails on both of those accounts. It’s expensive, it’s almost always cheaper to drive. The fare structure is convoluted and inconsistent, you pay different prices for a trip depending on how you purchase your tickets. It makes my blood boil
28 comments
So Tory voters *are* helpful.
I know its the Mirror but what a shit headline ‘Europe mericilessly mocks UK gov’t’ no it is a british union mocking the UK gov’t
This is relevant to my recent visit to Germany, and seeing trains with Arriva on their side, ultimately owned by Deutsche Bahn (‘DB’), and being reminded that the Arriva UK Trains and buses are owned by a non-UK company.
Just imagine if profits from UK travel went back into UK infrastructure and cheaper, better travel…
Starting to feel more and more like the North Korea of Europe. Only a matter of time before we’re sending rockets into the English Channel at migrants and cursing the French.
We will blame anyone but ourselves lol.
The tories’ nationalisation programme is proceeding well. The slight criticism I would raise is that it could be better if it were the UK government buying up franchises.
Yep. As they should. It is a national disgrace to have it this way
I’m in France right now for the next week, and it always amazes me whenever I come here, just how easy it is to travel everywhere. It’s cheap, it’s simple. Why can they manage it and the UK can’t? It does not have to be this way. But why is nobody fixing it? I just don’t get it. One of many things that ought to be seen as a serious problem and political priority, and yet we all just seem to accept it as ‘just the way things are’. It’s like the whole country is suffering from a kind of Stockholm syndrome.
That’s a really misleading headline.
It should be along the lines of – British trade union makes an advert featuring Europeans mocking British Railways.
Seriously though, how does it not matter to the headline that the people in the video are actors paid to read from a script?
Here’s a [YouTube Link to the video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvagsSOlAy4) if you don’t feel like waiting for the Mirror’s horrible video system to load.
If it were on the other foot I’d feel bad for common people, not laugh about it. I guess though we voted for this.
And yet passenger growth has been higher here.
Don’t worry we also mock ourselves.
It made me laugh out loud, it’s lovely to see folks finally waking up to the fact that our country has been in a 50 year decline since neoliberalism decided to sell off everything of value to the lowest bidder.
Rail privatisation has been a scam since day one – one they’re still running today.
Water privatisation led to our rivers now being mostly human shit, privatisation of power led to the current situation where we all owe the deposit on a house to the energy companies for having the lights on, privatisation of Royal Mail has led to its staff going on semi-permanent strike, a reduction in services, all whilst coasting on a reputation of being nationalised (because no one paid attention to it being sold off).
Neoliberalism in action is what’s got us to this sorry point.
And neoliberal Tories and Starmer are going to do nothing to change those facts – they see all of this as a net positive.
It’s the tories, ideology beats actual data every time.
Overground and DLR aren’t owned by TfL?
The main problem isn’t nationalisation of the UK rail network but rather the lack of subsidies for rail travel provided by the UK government.
The current top comment praises the Germany rail system however that is getting worse currently and still gets a 17 B EUR subsidy compared to the UK’s 4.4 B EUR subsidy.
Nationalisation would help the UK but central funding is the main issue.
This is self-inflicted by the dicks and twats in charge over the past 40yrs. Transport should never have been sold to international companies. Gas, electricity and water/sewage treatment too. Absolutely ridiculous. Even if private, they are national requirements thus there should have been required by law that the business bidding to be based and created on uk shores.
Oh yes but Venezuela, Cuba, the USSR, Daily Mail, savy Brits, common sense blah blah blah know what’s what.
Keep voting Tory and waving your flags!
Edit – sorry forgot to add the 1970s and Arthur Scargill’s mercedes.
And Jeremy Corbyn plus mocking Ed Miliband eating a bacon sandwich is perfectly okay and not extreme antisemitism (we know this because the BBC and all of the newspapers did it so it’s fine like bombing UN schools because Hamas kids are launching airstrikes from them).
Wait till people find out who the National Grid is owned by
Saw this first hand in Spain years ago, 120 mile return train journey on one of their ultra modern 125 type trains, so quiet, very fast and air-conditioned just €4.
I was so surprised I had to ask if it was a mistake, but no, that was the price.
Meanwhile I did a similar journey from London to Birmingham a week after and it was £85.
As usual we are being taken for mugs, no wonder the foreign owners don’t want to pay higher wages.
Nationalise it and give those companies nothing from the proceeds. No share buy out just take it all back. Same with gas and electric. Same with water.
This is hilarious, I’d love to see anyone who is against nationalised railways/utilities etc defend privatisation.
As always, we are the laughing stock of Europe.
Not very nice lol but what did people expect when they privatised rail? It takes a lot of capacity and expenses to operate so there’s definitely a large chance another country’s operator is best positioned to enter the market.
Oh fuck it I’ll be DVd into oblivion for saying it but here goes anyway. (and I’m a remainer).
EU competition law allowed this to happen by requiring all EU companies to be allowed to tender for contracts.
Rules like this contributed to the anti EU vote and the British jobs for British people sentiment that drove Brexit.
As a fair chunk of the market has been taken by European contractors it is going to take time for UK contractors to be able to form who are “competent” to be trusted with major franchises and not have it taken away from them (as is regularly happening)
This has nothing to do with privatisation but is a legacy Brexit issue.
Cost of railways is a joke in this country compared to what it is in the EU. Profits from our railways is a drop in the ocean compared to EU state subsidy, if you really think that €9 rail journeys are because of profits going out of our country then you really need to think about how you think.
While I feel this is very important as the commenters are pointing out that EU countries have better (by far) rail, but in Italy for example I would say that it’s even worse than in the UK. Although for entirely different reasons.
And I’d like to add my voice to the choir of why the fuck can France and Germany have convenient and efficient public transport but we can’t? We can’t let the French be better than us in anything >:(
Except it’s a load of tripe.
Yes, the Dutch rail service may have received £3 million from greater Anglia. But then, they lost £3.5 million on ScotRail. Still, I’m not sure it makes a huge difference considering the 2 billion or so Euros the Dutch government puts into their rail service. I’m sure that 0.15% increase really covers some major infrastructure.
The article goes into some detail about how this is supported by the taxpayer. As though this is somehow unique for a rail system.
Maybe rail *should* be nationalised, but the result wouldn’t be as huge as people suggest. An effective 2-3% increase in fare revenue just wouldn’t make a lot of difference.
Our rail service is an overpriced shower of shit! Rail should be the first thought for cheap reliable transport and it fails on both of those accounts. It’s expensive, it’s almost always cheaper to drive. The fare structure is convoluted and inconsistent, you pay different prices for a trip depending on how you purchase your tickets. It makes my blood boil
This is your democracy on Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch, #notEvenOnce