Centrica (British Gas) posting record profits of £1.34B for the first half of this year. Double last year.
Shell has posted over £16B profits so far this year. Double last year.
Profiteering on a grand scale on the back of a pandemic and a war. And having the audacity to use them as an excuse.
Yet, according to Liz Truss, train drivers are the bad guys.
Centrica (British Gas) posting record profits of £1.34B for the first half of this year. Double last year.
Shell has posted over £16B profits so far this year. Double last year.
Profiteering on a grand scale on the back of a pandemic and a war. And having the audacity to use them as an excuse.
Yet, according to Liz Truss, train drivers are the bad guys.
Why can't it be both? Throw the posties in there as well for good measure.
Energy companies are scandalous though.
Centrica (British Gas) posting record profits of £1.34B for the first half of this year. Double last year.
Shell has posted over £16B profits so far this year. Double last year.
Profiteering on a grand scale on the back of a pandemic and a war. And having the audacity to use them as an excuse.
Yet, according to Liz Truss, train drivers are the bad guys.
Why can't it be both? Throw the posties in there as well for good measure.
Energy companies are scandalous though.
To be fair, I'd say there's a world of difference between a set of employees attempting to get a near inflation-matching rise as opposed to a conglomerate fleecing it's customers and employees under the pretence of war profiteering.
@gpo1971 There is obviously a big difference & energy companies want shooting. They haven't done anything differently, or are selling any (Much) more energy so why are their profits shooting up? Forget a windfall tax, just charge what you should to normal folk you robbing shower of s****.
But people wanting a big pay rise for an already well (Over) paid job(s) doesn't make them the good guys either.
It's obviously not all down to the staff, but these people are all paid for by the people who live in this country and pay taxes, as the railways are funded by the government in all but name!
If you want a day return to London it costs nearly £400. Even a short trip anywhere isn't cheap. The trains are old, often late and cost a fortune & is one of the worst value for money services you get in this country, closely followed by the post who are also considering striking!
Old Mick on his 6 figure salary and massive pension will grind everyone down though. He gets paid more than most of the Tory politicians that people love to hate!
I think they should obviously talk about some parts (If T&C's or other things are getting changed), but allegedly they've been offered more than 5% which was called a slap in the face or words to that effect, which isn't great.
The other thing is I would wager that the cost of union entry for the railway is higher than almost every other one (Nearly £500 a year) and someone needs to be seen to earn their high wages.
The services are crap because shareholders are prioritised over consumers. That goes for rail, utilities, any of the privatised sectors.
I get the train twice a week. It's old, uncomfortable, often late, expensive, you name it. But what's the incentive for investment? Profits are up, shareholders are receiving their dividends and regular share price rises, consumers often have no alternative. Up until recently Northern Rail (or whatever they're called) were Italian owned. Do a load of Italian management and shareholders really give a monkey's about the service I get in Widnes? Not whilst the dividends are rolling in they don't.
5% is a slap in the face when real-world inflation is pushing 18% and corporate greed is out of control. As a public sector worker, I get paid about £5k more than I did in 2008. I got 1.75% this year which, in effect, is a pay cut of about 8-10%. I imagine we will be out on strike soon.
And adding to the above, I see Truss has today declared that she wants to introduce regional pay for public sector workers, in other words, pay cuts for Northerners. This from the party who've been hoodwinking large parts of the North into voting for them under the banner of "levelling up", which most rational people knew was never on the agenda.
And today was the turn of good old BP to announce record profits, £7bn profits between April and June. Nice. On the same day our energy bills are predicted to hit £3600 a year from January.
So I'm glad these inequalities are being called out and that people are on the bandwagon. No doubt there's lots of 'working class Tories' sitting around thinking "oh well this is just how things work" but luckily there's a groundswell of people starting to ask for change.
I see Truss has already abandoned that 'policy', hours after coming up with it. At least today has further emphasised for us
- Levelling up is a nonsense and they have absolutely no intention of addressing the North/South divide, they're lying for votes
- They'll say absolutely anything to win people over. Then completely u-turn when faced with a backlash and pretend they were misquoted/misconstrued
- They have zero empathy with people who are doing it tough, zero, they don't care
- They have no idea WTF they're doing. Absolutely none
- Rees-Mogg is the biggest helmet that ever walked on the planet
How in the wide world of sports can anyone back this lot???
Hosepipe bans today!
This is what happens when profits go to shareholders rather than to infrastructure investment. Given the amount of water wastage that all water boards are carrying, it comes down to consumers to plug the leak (see what I did there) by being denied the service. It rains in this country about 150-200 days, why don't we improve reservoirs, build new ones??
Privatisation has been the death knell for infrastructure investment across the board.
You can't turn one way or the other in this country at the moment without hitting a crisis. And this Govt have been sitting on their hands for 12 years.
Sunak and levelling up 🤣
At least the d*ckheads in the NE who voted for the Tories can be rest assured they were duped.
Liars.
They're taking your money for themselves and their mates. If you're happy with that, fine. Keep voting for them.
Has Bojo declared yet as to whether he's backing the guy whose wife's finances have been publicly questioned, or the former Remainer Lib Dem, who's now a Brexit Blue, for the keys to Number 10?
Unfortunately, whoever the Tory members plump for, they're gonna be in situ for a couple of years (at least) coz they won't dare to go to the Country where results of recent by-elections could be replicated nationwide!
As I asked before..........................
Why should England tremble?
Spelly.
We all know Sunak has no chance. When you look at the demographic of who is voting for our next PM, it's effectively 160k Jeremy Clarksons. So, Truss will poll 80%+.
Johnson would win if he was in it. That's how out of touch they are.
We don't need a new Tory PM. We don't even need Keir Starmer (Diet Tory).
We need a new way of working that includes
- Free Uni tuition fees
- Fast-tracked free medical qualifications
- A higher living wage
- Re-privatisation of utilities and public transport
- No more tax loopholes
- Tax hikes for millionaires and billionaires
- A slicker overseas working visa qualification programme
- A UK owned green energy programme
- The return of council houses
It's not really that radical. We used to have all of this and it worked well. Most of it was in Labour's 2019 manifesto which was fully costed yet for some reason called out by the Mail, Express and S*n. Wonder why?
How can any rational person look at the state of our country and say that they aren't good ideas?
We don't need a new Tory PM. We don't even need Keir Starmer (Diet Tory).
We need a new way of working that includes
- Free Uni tuition fees
- Fast-tracked free medical qualifications
- A higher living wage
- Re-privatisation of utilities and public transport
- No more tax loopholes
- Tax hikes for millionaires and billionaires
- A slicker overseas working visa qualification programme
- A UK owned green energy programme
- The return of council houses
It's not really that radical. We used to have all of this and it worked well. Most of it was in Labour's 2019 manifesto which was fully costed yet for some reason called out by the Mail, Express and S*n. Wonder why?
Agree with some of this.
Uni fees - Not sure. There are so many people going now that this doesn't seem sustainable. The main problem was started by Blair when he wanted 50% of people to go. They should work out how many places are given based on no. needed and this would be more realistic. The SLC isn't fit for purpose as it costs more to run than it gets back. There should be a uni tax. When you sign up to go you sign up to pay X% for the rest of your life whether you're on minimum wage or a millionaire.
Fast tracked qualifications? Not sure what this means. If it means cutting some red tape then never a bad thing, otherwise proper training/learning needed surely?
Higher living wage - Then the price of everything goes up. Not sure this actually helps many. I would say lowering other costs would be more beneficial
Re-Nationalising them you mean?
Loopholes - Not sure how this is allowed, but absolutely. I would say it needs a global effort though or people go to the lowest common denominator. See famous movie/sports/music stars as an example.
Tax hikes - This is linked to the above, as in theory higher earners pay 45%. What rate do you think they should pay, and how would this affect people's want to create big company's if they were losing 2/3's or more of their income.
Slicker overseas visa - For people coming to work here? If so then yes, but we shouldn't need to. We should be able to train enough people in the first place.
Green Energy - Don't know enough to comment.
Council houses - Is this for houses in disrepair, owned by numerous housing associations (Which would cost a fortune to buy) or building loads of new 1's (Or all of the above)?
Also what are your thoughts on people living in houses with spare rooms? There is a big waiting list, but loads of places with unused space yet uproar when people where asked to pay for these or move. People called it the bedroom tax, rather than a partial solution to a housing problem. Think it needs most of the above not just 1 part.
We probably had most of them in the past, but partly for some of the reasons above it wouldn't work well now.
Just my 2 penneth
@torn-sock-1 fair comments, it's all about debate.
What's obvious is that things can't stay the same as they are now. We're lurching from crisis to crisis and the common denominator is lack of investment and funding.
Is it me or what?
You've got water companies unloading pure sh*te onto our beaches. At the same time, they're providing zero benefit to our systems or waterways. They're presiding over systemic leaks and appalling service. They're funnelling public money to millionaires, most of whom don't live in this country or contribute to it's upkeep. And your bill is going up.
I mean, regardless of who you vote for, this isn't a good idea. But, it seems that people are comfortable with it. Madness.
We all know why it happens, the Tory dodgy envelope brigade reap the rewards. I just wonder why people accept it.