General Election 2017: Labour Manifesto Draft Leaked

[naomi24]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39877439

Your thoughts?

[mikey4444]

Dougie....if I thought it would help, I would do as well, although I doubt if they would still fit ....I am not the boy that was !

[Garaman]

A shame that isn't all you grew out of, Mikey.

[woofgang]

I've got a handbag with Che on........

[mikey4444]

Garaman....resorting to personal comments ? Well, its the Tory Way I suppose......attack the messenger, rather than debate the issue !

[naomi24]

Mikey, //Well, its the Tory Way I suppose......attack the messenger//

Oh the irony!

[mushroom25]

let's look at the labour manifesto pledge on the railways; to take the operation of trains into public ownership and freeze fares. and once the trains are in the hands of de-facto government departments, then what? what exactly are labour intending for the railways, other than putting a red rose on the logo of every operating department?

are they going to make good on every previous political promise to withdraw the 30 year old "pacer" trains? well no they can't because in pledging to freeze fares, any cash for investment will slowly but surely dry up and it will suddenly be found that despite being non universally accessible, will be made to soldier on until 2030 (London Underground are already suffering under a similar policy introduced by the mayor - with no replacement on the horizon for the stock on the bakerloo line, the oldest rolling stock in daily public service in the uk).

[mikey4444]

Mush....apart from yet more public subsidy, where would the money come from for these improvements ?

[mushroom25]

.....and what do labour have in mind for rail freight? freight trains are not franchised, they are operated by "open access" operators who expect to run their trains profitably; they cannot be brought into public ownership without nationalization legislation. however the economics of freight trains are (at best) marginal, witness 400+ recent redundancies from the biggest operator and more to follow. do labour have an environmental case for retaining rail freight? the only advantage rail holds is bulk volume; if there's a will to retain it then a shedload of cash needs to be spent to provide more network capacity. the alternative would be to allow 80T trucks on British roads and a programme of road building to accommodate them, the likes of which have not been seen since the 1960s. would labour countenance that?

[mikey4444]

Mush....you are asking very detailed questions....do you know what the Tory policies are in these areas ?

[mushroom25]

the tories have yet to publish their manifesto so nobody knows. labour have released theirs and is (so far as I can judge) just a series of soundbites loosely strung together. some of the soundbites may well appeal as headline ideas but they hardly represent detailed policy - without that detail how can we know what will work, and what won't? the tories may well produce a similarly empty document, we can only wait and see.