The poor thinking through of consequences is very much a weakness of the Starmer administration. But being willing to adapt in the face of evidence is also the sign of a good leader (which is not me saying Starmer’s u-turns are good). Thatcher became a rubbish and damaging leader because she equated adherence to her plans as a key strength, rather than waking up to things that had become harmful dogma. We would not have the mess of the water companies and the railways if Thatcher had been brave enough to admit that privatisation is not always the right decision. We would not have CEO’s earning 300x that of their workers if Thatcher had not been determined to kill the unions at all costs. There is a misplaced myth around Thatcher that her legacy of failures should have killed off. Having said that, she did bring us the single market, so not all bad.
Let’s talk about the weakness and risks of Reform another time.
it was beeching that messed up the railways by closing down most branchlines not
Thatcher.
Dr. Richard Beeching closed railways primarily to make British Railways (BR) commercially viable by cutting massive financial losses, focusing investment on core routes, and rationalizing an uneconomic network heavily competing with road transport in the 1960s. His 1963 “Reshaping of British Railways” report identified vast portions of the network, particularly rural lines, as underused and loss-making, aiming to concentrate resources where they were most effective.
He was so wrong. look at all the steam railways making a profit such as the Bluebell Railway or the Rromney hythe and dymchurch as two examples
A few tourist steam train routes run by volunteer enthusiasts is not indicative of a nationwide commercially run, profit making concept. As you highlight, the Beeching cuts were inevitable - maybe his cutting went too far. But it did leave an extensive network.
Like all European rail networks it was heavily funded by the state. This actually makes sense as it allows for greater mobility of the workforce and goods without clogging roads.
However BR lacked investment in infrastructure and stock. Thatcher’s one idea, privatisation to inject private capital, worked with telecomms but failed completely with water and rail. The inherent monopoly supply in both means there is a need to create a complex model. In the case of railways that means multiple service providers, single network provider and multiple rolling stock providers. All with costly directors and shareholders to stuff with money. How was this ever meant to be more efficient than a single state run system? The UK has some of the most expensive and least reliable rail services in the world. That is caused by a poorly worked out privatisation - demanded by Thatcher. Her fault.
Realspeed is right Lincs, enthusiast railways aside, the cutting of branch line unprofitable routes was not the answer. In fact, Beeching went the wrong way and should have put money into the railways and we wouldn’t have the total chaos we see now on our overused and pothole filled roads, not to mention the extra pollution caused by tens of thousands of trucks which rumble along end to end along our motorways through the week.
I do agree with you Lincs about a state funded railway, a country should be in charge of it’s own transport system, not some foreign freeloader. Also, the construction of engines and rolling stock should be done in the UK providing jobs. Doncaster was a leading manufacturer of trains and carriages, if you didn’t work for International Harvesters, ICI or Pilkington Bros, you worked for the Plant works producing such trains as The Flying Scotsman or Mallard.
The debate on branch line closures will go on and on. By all accounts the analysis Beeching had done was poor in terms of rigour and most likely done to give justification for decisions already made. But some lines were ridiculously under used with no good reason to keep paying the costs of maintenance and upkeep for their operation.
I’m surprised that you seem to be saying trains are no longer built in the UK. They are - successfully. In Derby Alstom has a large plant making trains for Elizabeth line and HS2. The Siemens plant in (wait for it) Yorkshire also makes trains. At the less glamorous end companies like LUR make gearboxes, bogies, axles and wheels in Trafford and Doncaster (wait, is that in Yorkshire?). And Davis makes freight wagons in Mansfield.
Tenure OF Government 5yrs !!
During The past 10yrs.
Normality. Would be 2 Governments.
What have we experienced ?
4 Seasoned Conservatives. Total Tenure 7yrs.
By any yardstick. Destruction Of the Conservatives. And a shamble of Leadership.
Followed, Thus far. 1+ yr Of Labour. Leadership. Starmer.
Inheriting Toxic Issues. Accumulated since 2008.
He lays no claim to being a seasoned Politician. Internally or specifically Externally
What he has shown. Tenacity & Transparency. [Liked or inevitability Disliked]
Recognising that Reform [The word. Not the Party]. Better expressed, by him., The word. “Change”. Cabinet & Advisors. As may be necessary. to achieve. Respect Support and Pursuance.
Which with a weak, almost Bankrupt, inherited economy. Has to be tasked By Priority. Which itself contested from within.
To Change leadership, yet again, within 5yrs.
Expect at Least. Stagnation for circa 10+ yrs.
At Worst. Akin to a. Banana Republic. sic.
I seem to remember that the labour party bankrupted the UK the last time they were in power. “The bank vaults are empty” comes to mind This time no backbone re illegal immigrants.
What you remember is the false information churned out by the tory press to build justification for the disastrous austerity policy. In fact national debt was something like 60% of GDP back at that point - and the average monthly borrowing was roughly where it was pre-Covid. That is up until the financial crash of 2008, which like the pandemic obliged significant government spend. Equally when you look at government spending under the tories during their austerity years it is not significantly lower than during labour years. Its just that they made the less well off even less well off.
GDP almost doubled under labour from 1997 to 2008. Whereas under the tories from 2010 to 2022 is only went up by about 35%. How would you describe that economic record?
The tory newspapers have been very good at promoting a false claim that the UK economy is unsafe under a government that is not tory. But facts indicate otherwise.
I remember Gordon Brown selling a large portion of our gold reserves at a low price.
The Last Labour Gov Was 20yrs ago. 2007
The Pivotal Global Crash 2008.
With Conservative Gov & 5yrs Coalition. Until 2024.
Embracing the embarrassing Chaos. Of. 5 Conservative PM’s in 14yrs. The tenure, absolute norm. Max 3 PM’s.
Faulting Labour. Becomes Clickbait.
Taking Up. And Purposely endeavouring to Stem and Improve such accumulated Toxicity.
Takes a very Capable and Determined. Even handed. Slowly Slowly Catchee/Solving Monkey/Person.
The Electorate calls for Reform/Change.
But without Recognising. That Any Changes. Can Hurt /Has to be Tolerated. During it’s formative interim…
What do we want >> Stability Patience and Productivity.
And I remember the tory catastrophe that was the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and how they handled the pressure on sterling. I suspect that we can play labour error and tory error tit for tat for a long time.
Why does there need to be a war before a useless government realise they aren’t doing what they were voted in to do?
Do I gather from that that you believe the UK should become involved in the recent conflict?
I don’t .
I was astonished and disappointed by Trump’s comments about the UK today. He and his team looked very jaded today. Why should we be involved in this conflict and what the heck has north sea oil to do with him?
Today Trump said, “London is a very different place, with a terrible Mayor. You have a terrible Mayor there, some terrible people.” What’s he talking about? He need to get a grip. He’s running out of people to insult.
You can only wring a sponge so many times till it runs dry 
Trump is absolutely correct about North Sea oil and the energy situation here in the UK.
He is also correct about London, I used to love coming to London as a courier back in the day, but for fear of being banned, I’ll just say that it’s the last place in Europe I would ever visit or bring my family to visit.
Just because you don’t like the person who said it, lets not pull the wool over our eyes and protest.
We should accept the criticism and do something about it.
Starmer has actually done the right thing in refusing to get involved in my opinion.
Why are you getting upset about Trumps speech anyway? We should stop playing on the world stage and sort out problems nearer to home.
OGF my understanding is that north sea oil is too expensive to extract vs importing from countries who can do this cheaper. I think we should invest in extraction but such a project would take years as per HS2 and likely end up mothballed after sinking billions.
The main thing we should be doing is building nuclear infrastructure, although people then say that can be bombed to great effect. Perhaps they should build underground.
In any case it’s all very expensive and it’s something previous governments have conveniently ignored despite knowing that most of the nuclear sites will have to be decommissioned as at the end of their useful life.
The biggest con is AI which requires vast amounts of energy and will take all our jobs. What a wasted effort. I understand that just one simulated AI animation costs x litres of water etc to produce.
Just to add yes he is right about London and he isn’t the only one saying it. It’s becoming a lawless place of constant roadworks, building sites of ugly tower blocks that nobody wants to live in and rife with crime and dumped rubbish. A huge increase in population in the last 2-3 years and crumbling infrastructure.
Ed Miliband has made sure that the decision to open up the oil drilling platforms in the North Sea can never be reversed by other parties by decommissioning all the platforms and making it too expensive to start all over again.
I agree about AI and believe the genie is well and truly out of the bottle, and apart from it’s huge power and water requirements where energy prices will escalate so much that energy will need to be rationed.
Between land covered by solar panels and new houses there won’t be enough room for people or cars and all food will be shipped in from abroad, probably by the EU.
The EU’s siege of the British Isles will finally be successful.
I can see the AI bubble bursting and functionality being removed from any “fun” activities in future. I simply cannot see the justification for the resource hungry rollout.
I suspect that in the future there will be a gradual social media ban and restricted communication online. There will be zero anonymity. Of course with cameras everywhere and listening devices people won’t be able to gather in person to discuss any political dissent. Orwell just had the incorrect year.