Tweak

@Tweak@feddit.uk

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨South Western first rail firm renationalised by Labour⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The thing is there are multiple companies/sectors involved here, and this isn’t addressing the worst of them (yet, if ever).

  First you have the railway lines themselves. These are run by Network Rail, which is already a part of the Department for Transport. This part covers a significant expense, but it’s needed and run fairly lean.

  Then you have the train companies. These are the ones running the trains, they are typically private businesses. They lease rail stock (trains and carriages) and sell tickets, while paying Network Rail for the use of the lines. These are the customer facing businesses, and South Western Rail is one of them and the one nationalised in this story. In spite of having high ticket prices and revenue, they have low profits due to high costs.

  Lastly you have the rail stock companies. These are the real villains, frankly, much moreso than train companies. They set leasing prices for trains, and in turn cause the train companies to run at paper thin margins. They aren’t customer facing, so the public eye isn’t upon them and they get away with a lot. They have established long term contracts, so simply nationalising a train company won’t end this deal.

  However, nationalising train companies does mean that the government (either the DfT or the new Great British Railways) will be negotiating with rail stock companies. In theory, the government are a bigger entity, so have a better negotiating position, and also they should be more motivated to bring the costs down. Private rail companies make more money overall with paper thin margins on high prices, not only because a small percentage of a bigger number can be bigger, but because having a small margin puts them in a better negotiating position with local government (“You have to give us a good deal, we can’t afford to operate otherwise, and you need us”).

  So nationalising train companies might lead to lower prices in future, through fairer leasing rates on rail stock. However this won’t start to happen until these contracts are renewed.

  Really, a much heavier hand is needed from the government, one that focuses specifically on the rail stock leasing sector.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Telegraph has deleted this sob story ⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Not that odd, if anything I thought it was strange that someone would give their name and their family’s image to a paper, particularly on a subject as contentious as this.

  “Al Moy” may also be a pseudonym. I wonder if “Al Moy” even exists.

  Also, while the Torygraph have pulled the article on their site, it’s still up on yahoo: …yahoo.com/…/earn-345k-soaring-private-school-090…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Telegraph has deleted this sob story ⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  “It seems as though families like us are paying more and more, and being squeezed on everything from our salaries to our outgoings. I know each party has its flaws, but I think the Conservatives are at least a bit more transparent,” he says.

  More like the Conservatives didn’t target those with lots of money, those who can make reasonable adjustments, instead focusing on those who already have very little.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How I discovered my partner was an undercover police officer sent to spy on me⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They were required to apologise also, although sincerity cannot be ensured.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How I discovered my partner was an undercover police officer sent to spy on me⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  He should have been charged. The fact that none of the legal avenues have involved him is obscene.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lucy Letby should be released immediately⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The issue here is people are trying to apply scientific reasoning in a legal setting. The two are not the same. There is a legal process for bringing in scientific reasoning - you can’t just hash it out in court like you would in an academic paper.

  I say the case needed a statistician. Incredibly, the prosecution deliberately decided to avoid using one to assess questions like “How unusual is this shift pattern for a random nurse?” or “How likely was it that said nurse was personally drawn to caring for the sickest infants? How were shifts assigned?”

  Yes, it might have been better for Lucy if there was a statistician. However, it’s not the prosecution’s job to prove her innocence, it’s her’s and her solicitor’s. If there needed to be a statistical analysis and sworn statement from an expert, it would be on the defendant to arrange that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lucy Letby should be released immediately⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  By definition, she was found guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Michael Gove gets lifetime seat in UK’s House of Lords⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  No mention of how he was always a massive Russophile, and how Dominic Cummings started out on the UK politics scene as his advisor after living in Russia.

  This cunt was a key part in getting the UK out of Europe at the behest of Russia.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I was a British tourist trying to leave America. Then I was detained, shackled and sent to an immigration detention centre⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There is some reason to arrest her. She had already been in the country for 3 weeks doing who knows what, so now that they suspect she was doing something wrong it’s worthwhile to investigate.

  There’s even some justification for making the detention a miserable process, so as to deter others. It’s very shitty, and I don’t agree with it, but there is at least a rationality about it.

  The real kicker is the length of the detention. This isn’t in the interests of America, this is only in the interests of the private prisons padding their bill to the American taxpayer. The whole process is shitty, but this last part proves that they are only serving their own interests.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I was a British tourist trying to leave America. Then I was detained, shackled and sent to an immigration detention centre⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes that’s my point. There’s a bit more of a process from the Canadian land border than at an airport. At an airport, you’d just be turned around and paying for a flight. At the land border - particularly the border between two countries that don’t want you - it’s going to take a bit longer because the logistics are more complicated. Also, there might be some kind of investigation, as she has already been staying in the country for several weeks at this point.

  However we should be talking about like 3-4 days at most (if that), not 3 weeks.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I was a British tourist trying to leave America. Then I was detained, shackled and sent to an immigration detention centre⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  While I agree the time in detention was excessive, this wasn’t at an airport, it was at the Canadian land border. So it’s understandable that she wouldn’t immediately get on a plane back home - she’d likely have to be taken to a central facility and then transferred to an airport. But yeah, that shouldn’t take 3 weeks.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I was a British tourist trying to leave America. Then I was detained, shackled and sent to an immigration detention centre⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  She narced on herself to Canada, then America overheard.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I was a British tourist trying to leave America. Then I was detained, shackled and sent to an immigration detention centre⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Exactly. Canada refused her entry first, then when America learned why they detained her.

  She should have been deported and put on the next flight at her expense, not detained for nearly 3 weeks, but she definitely fucked up and took the piss with her visa.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is the UK shut down during easter?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah you get reduced hours with a number of things, particularly buses. Shops have more incentive to stay open, though.

  Classic examples being Good Friday running like a regular Saturday, Saturday running like a regular Sunday but Easter Sunday is as normal because everything is already sparse enough.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Russia ready to wage cyber war on UK, minister to say⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, this article is saying they’re ready to do something they’re already doing.

  The one thing I would say on top of your comment, however, is that North Korea have generally been less interested in attacking other state actors and more interested in monetary crimes, like when they stole millions in crypto. China and Russia generally don’t devolve into that kind of “petty” crime; not sure about Iran though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unidentified drones spotted over three US airbases in Britain, USAF confirms⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Lol was thinking it might not have been a good idea to move back to East Anglia, but hey ho…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨KFC drops pledge to stop using ‘Frankenchickens’ in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I would lean towards there being chickens available, but KFC doesn’t want to pay for them. They want one supplier to provide all of it, rather than a bunch of smaller suppliers.

  But you’re absolutely right, this is the kind of question the author of this article should have asked.