Cameron wants to privatise roads (again)
Discussion
simonpeter said:
Motorists pay 46 billion a year in road tax, fuel duty and VAT. Only 9 billion are spent on the road network. About time we stopped being used as a treasury cash cow!
If thats accurate then its shocking. If this road privatisation goes ahead that income will be going straight into the pockets of fat cats there won't be any increase in investment because nobody will be able to enforce it. Take our Electricity and Gas prices nobody can force the price and associated profits down its basically a monopoly the same will happen on the roads. We wouldn't need private road providers or tolls if the money so eagerly snatched by governments was just as enthusiastically used on the transport infrastructure of the nation instead of practically anything else but that .
Wouldn't it be nice if every motorist in the uk , from scooter riders to hgv drivers and all in between just said, "Sod it we've had enough of being every governments Cash Cow" and just stopped driving for one week, the country would grind to a halt, the governments coffers would drain very quickly and maybe, just maybe , those in power would get the message. I won't be holding my breath though as it would be impossible to get agreement with every motorist in the land, but it would be nice wouldn't it.
Wouldn't it be nice if every motorist in the uk , from scooter riders to hgv drivers and all in between just said, "Sod it we've had enough of being every governments Cash Cow" and just stopped driving for one week, the country would grind to a halt, the governments coffers would drain very quickly and maybe, just maybe , those in power would get the message. I won't be holding my breath though as it would be impossible to get agreement with every motorist in the land, but it would be nice wouldn't it.
Dixie68 said:
Wammer said:
So are you not believing what i have just said then. Proove me wrong
I suspect you haven't read many of the threads on PH - we aren't exactly Labour supporters here so calm down 
Why should we proove (sic) you wrong? I don't want to prove you wrong, but in your intemperate rant you have only dealt with one facet of the overall issues facing the country.
Anyway you are obviously on message, report back when you've got your next BBM from Millbank.
Wammer said:
I have just read this forum and it makes me really angry most of you seem to have forgotton that the labour party under the non elected Gordon Brown decided to spend all our money and left the Conservatives with a mamouth debt. If you look back at History that is what happens in this country. The Labour party get in power increase spending and Build a debt and they get voted out and the conservatives come in to sort out the debt and stops spending and starts gettig our debt under control. The next election comes round and for some unknown reason we vote in the f
king labour party again who guess what increases spending and our debt builds. This has been going on for over 50 years so now we have a huge debt.
This country is fked due to the strikes we had in the seventy's and unions getting involved forcing the prices up and destroying our industry's especially the car industry. We used to be a global power in manufacturing but now we are not. The one thing we are good at is banking but oh look we have fked that up as well by not letting them get there job done.
The main reason we are in this mess is greed. I have have never had a credit card and i never will do. I have never had a loan or been in debt.
I bet a load of you have been in debt or have debts and are the problem. If you can't afford stuff then its tuff just save an wait. You are the reason we are in this mess.
I voted for Cameroon as he was the sensible option. I think he is doing a good job handling this difficult situation. he would be doing a much better job if he didn't have to have Clegg and the liberals by his side objecting to everything.
Times are tough and they are going to be for the next couple of years so live with it and stop complaining.
Hmm, I read it differentlyking labour party again who guess what increases spending and our debt builds. This has been going on for over 50 years so now we have a huge debt. This country is f
ked due to the strikes we had in the seventy's and unions getting involved forcing the prices up and destroying our industry's especially the car industry. We used to be a global power in manufacturing but now we are not. The one thing we are good at is banking but oh look we have fked that up as well by not letting them get there job done. The main reason we are in this mess is greed. I have have never had a credit card and i never will do. I have never had a loan or been in debt.
I bet a load of you have been in debt or have debts and are the problem. If you can't afford stuff then its tuff just save an wait. You are the reason we are in this mess.
I voted for Cameroon as he was the sensible option. I think he is doing a good job handling this difficult situation. he would be doing a much better job if he didn't have to have Clegg and the liberals by his side objecting to everything.
Times are tough and they are going to be for the next couple of years so live with it and stop complaining.
As far as I remember we were pulling out of a global recession ahead of most of the rest of the world, including America until the Con/Dem's showed up and put us back into a economic slowdown thanks to cut backs, instead of investing. The result, the deficit is MORE now than when it was when they took over. They cut too fast, too deep and have put us in a worse position than before.
And as I remember it, the economy wasn't all that good looking back over the 1983-1997 reign of the Tories. They had a very brief boom before bankrupting the country, that was after they sold all of the publicly owned companies. And what did they do with that money? Invest it? Nope, they used it for tax breaks for the top earners.
The strikes of the 1970's were over 30 years ago, there has been plenty of time to lick the wounds clean and heal since then. The car industry only recently has gone down the drain in this country.
I do agree, this is greed. Fat cat bosses wanting more and more and Cameron wants to bend over backwards to give them as much as possible before he's shown the door.
cooldude27uk said:
I wouldnt worry about have toll roads all over britain as the only ones driving on them will be the tories, as normal earners wont be able to afford the cost of fuel.....
And life was so much better with Gordon Brown at the helm? There was less tax on fuel was there? Don't make me laugh! 
The Hitman said:
Are you fking serious? Southern Water lost 35 Billion litres of water in leaks last year, they are trying to get a drought order to refill the Bewl Reservoir, which has a total capacity of 31 Billion litres. If they are spending that amount of money, they aren't spending it well.
You make it sound like finding and dealing with leaks on victorian infrastructure is easy.king serious? Southern Water lost 35 Billion litres of water in leaks last year, they are trying to get a drought order to refill the Bewl Reservoir, which has a total capacity of 31 Billion litres. If they are spending that amount of money, they aren't spending it well.As for the privatised roads, I cant decide whether it would be good or bad. Most likely bad, but in an ideal world it would be the best solution
RichB said:
cooldude27uk said:
I wouldnt worry about have toll roads all over britain as the only ones driving on them will be the tories, as normal earners wont be able to afford the cost of fuel.....
And life was so much better with Gordon Brown at the helm? There was less tax on fuel was there? Don't make me laugh! , doesn't mean the Tories are allowed to be as bad or worse (I say that because they've proved they aren't any better).Also, I'm pretty sure that everyone would be pissed off at this no-matter who put it forward.
The Hitman said:
... pulling out of a global recession ... They had a very brief boom before bankrupting the country ... They cut too fast, too deep and have put us in a worse position than before ... The car industry only recently has gone down the drain in this country
What planet do you live on?
Steameh said:
The Hitman said:
Are you fking serious? Southern Water lost 35 Billion litres of water in leaks last year, they are trying to get a drought order to refill the Bewl Reservoir, which has a total capacity of 31 Billion litres. If they are spending that amount of money, they aren't spending it well.
You make it sound like finding and dealing with leaks on victorian infrastructure is easy.king serious? Southern Water lost 35 Billion litres of water in leaks last year, they are trying to get a drought order to refill the Bewl Reservoir, which has a total capacity of 31 Billion litres. If they are spending that amount of money, they aren't spending it well.The Hitman said:
RichB said:
cooldude27uk said:
I wouldnt worry about have toll roads all over britain as the only ones driving on them will be the tories, as normal earners wont be able to afford the cost of fuel.....
And life was so much better with Gordon Brown at the helm? There was less tax on fuel was there? Don't make me laugh! , doesn't mean the Tories are allowed to be as bad or worse (I say that because they've proved they aren't any better).Also, I'm pretty sure that everyone would be pissed off at this no-matter who put it forward.
Trommel said:
The Hitman said:
... pulling out of a global recession ... They had a very brief boom before bankrupting the country ... They cut too fast, too deep and have put us in a worse position than before ... The car industry only recently has gone down the drain in this country
What planet do you live on?
The Hitman said:
Do I? I dont think so, in fact I didn't say it was easy. But it's their job to fix, whether its easy or not and they haven't. This isn't an issue thats just sprung up recently, this has been ongoing for years.
Your comments implied it was easy. They do fix it, they lose money by not fixing them, but there is only so much they can do with the limited funds they have. Example being UU didn't meet their targets and got a 8 million pound fine.
As for you saying they havent, Southern Water met their leakage targets last year imposed by the regulator iirc, so it would suggest they have been doing it.
Being in a customer facing role in the computer industry I've had a job which requires travelling the country for all my working life. Over the last 10 years or so I've taken a view that I either leave earlier, do a WebEx/conf-call, don't arrange meetings for 9am or travel by train. The business world is slowly changing and simply building more roads is not necessarily the answer. Repairing the ones we already have is more important.
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