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From The Socialist newspaper, 5 February 2020
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Fat cats on the line
Northern Rail train, photo El Pollock/CC, photo El Pollock/CC (Click to enlarge)
Sometimes the combination of greed and incompetence makes capitalism look bad. Northern Rail - branded the worst rail operator in the country (that will be a surprise to those who use Southern Rail!) paid out £83 million in shareholder dividends between 2013-14 and 2017-2018.
If your train is late there's probably a fat cat on the line. It's time they were kicked out of public transport as even the mild-mannered TUC has observed.
Transport minister Grant Shapps has indicated that Northern will be taken into public ownership.
Grant Shapps is an ideological Conservative, sworn to oppose nationalisation. As a Tory he loves three-word slogans. How about "I was wrong"?
Derek McMillan, East Grinstead
Services please
For ten years I've been campaigning for socialism in Southampton. And for eight or nine of those years we've said to the right-wing Labour council "use the reserves and borrowing facilities to halt the cuts. Use this stop-gap to launch a campaign to fight to get the money back from the government."
And now, having been obliterated by Tory cuts and doing nothing, that same Labour council is borrowing £200 million - but to speculate on the property market!
How about some council houses? Reinstating youth services? Restoring council-run elderly care?...
Josh Asker, Southampton
Boris out!
The article in the Socialist - 'Why Johnson's juggernaut is set to jackknife', by Robin Clapp - is the best news this year, and given the support from the Institute of Fiscal Studies, it is most likely to come true.
Clearly those who voted Boris into power, through force of circumstances, need to have the same Boris address them.
If all that Robin writes about comes to pass, there can only be one outcome - a mass move to socialist values.
I say to Boris, bring it on! - and work for your own eviction from power.
Adrian B Rimington, Chesterfield
A day in the life
In the last two weeks I have had to help two friends facing disciplinaries at work on spurious grounds. One got off with a warning, the other was incredulously let go.
Last night I had to move a homeless person's tent out of my workplace's sheltered fire exit or risk serious disciplinary action for not securing my store.
Job uncertainty has been driven home in the last month as more shops announce cuts in working hours, closures and redundancies.
Meanwhile, the Tories have already scrapped their supposed 'end of austerity'; Trump gets away with outright corruption and assassination; Australia smoulders; France and Iran erupt in mass movements, and China battles a new viral outbreak.
Is there anyone, outside of the arms trade, a bank or corporate boardroom, who still believes in capitalism?
A shopworker, Plymouth
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In The Socialist 5 February 2020:
News
6.5 million working poor: Fight to end low pay
Labour leadership contest and public ownership
Coronavirus exposes capitalism's weaknesses in healthcare and economy
Record dissatisfaction with democracy: capitalism's dead end
Refuges turn away 64% of women - set no-cuts budgets now!
Grenfell watch: Unions challenge 'mockery of justice'
Rail
Nationalise the railways: For an integrated public transport system
Expensive, overcrowded and unreliable: Renationalise the railways!
Cancel the franchise, not our trains
Will the North get investment and transport infrastructure?
What we think
'Post-Brexit' era of crisis ahead
Workplace news
Huge victory for Bromley library workers after 241 days on indefinite strike!
14 more days of university strikes over pensions, pay and conditions
500 BBC journalists' jobs under threat
Newham council tax workers' pay victory
No to academisation of east London schools!
Ealing tax office workers strike against closure
NHS
Outrageous waiting times will put lives at risk
NHS: Save stroke beds in Coventry and Warwickshire
International
Syria: Assad regime consolidates power after brutal counterrevolution
Israel/Palestine: Trump 'peace plan' promises further conflict
Campaigns
Socialist Party calls anti-austerity protest on Budget Day
Sadiq Khan "out-Tories" himself to defend tech firms' tax bonanza
Reading Labour council: Stop privatising our leisure services
The rich fund the Tories and Blairites, so help fund the working-class fightback
Support the working-class press in 2020
Defend and fight for warm, safe housing for Samira and everyone
Alternative Burns Night success
Readers' opinion
Liverpool council: "No more cuts" - Is Joe Anderson serious?
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