Brexit

Out of context: Reply #721

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  • Nairn0

    Whereas reading this: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/a… makes me wonder whether we'd really want to rush into that.

    Thee countries against are all being [rightfully] protectionist in their own quarters and if there's one thing that Brexit does allow, it's playing the same self-interested game as everyone else does - namely NOT having to open up national projects to international lowest bidders.

    Why on Earth SHOULD our national High Speed Rail network be built by foreign companies?

    Which is it? Support local industry, or sell out even more so? Remember - of all the European countries, the UK is one o fthe largest to outsource national spending.

    Nairn 0Permalink
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    • (in relation to last post on previous page)Nairn
    • Remember the 80s? Remember when Britain was actually ahead of the curve globally - literally and figuratively - in terms of high speed rail?Nairn
    • the true horror of our rail system is that huge chunks of it are owned by our European neighbours, who wait for it, subsidise their own highly effectivefadein11
    • nationalised rail system by running ours. You couldn't really make it up if you tried.fadein11
    • Yup, and our energy sector's run by EU companies which are, wait for it, illegally propped up by their respective states.Nairn
    • And our airports are owned by a Spanish construction company propped up (illegally) by EU development fund to Spain, n turn (illegally) doled out to ferrovial.Nairn
    • "You couldn't really make it up if you tried."Nairn
    • Basically, the British taxpayer has subsidised the takeover of its privatised infrastructure by foreign conglomerations subsidised by their countries.Nairn
    • The EUmperor has no clothes.
      One day, perhaps, we'll recognise this i the UK too and treat the situation as cynically as our brethren across the channel      Nairn
    • ..except, sadly, from the outside.

      without EU subsidy.      Nairn
    • All the while we're sneered at by a Luxembourgian who's main claim is engineering Amazon's gutting of local business and taxation. Yaay!Nairn
    • toot toot!
      http://www.smithsdai…      Nairn
    • sorry? I think you missed my point.fadein11
    • I find it hilarious that our privatised rail network is run by nationalised Europen neighbours, pumping huge rewards into their systems.fadein11
    • I didn't miss your point at all, I was further iterating its ridiculousness with other examples.Nairn
    • well we brits do like to "play up and play the game", what what!hans_glib
    • we mustn't stoop to the depths of johnny foreigner now, must we?hans_glib
    • If only the concept of 'too big to fail' stretched further than banks in the UK's version of the 'Anglo-Saxon' capitalist model.Nairn
    • Yep, it is utterly absurd.
      Ha hans, not at all. It's the irony of our entire (mainly private) infrastructure being run by nationalised bodies abroad.      fadein11
    • It just highlights the nonsense of Brexit even more intensely, as in we made our bed now lie in it.fadein11
    • ...Or, we can now renegotiate contracts without being legally obliged to include [subsidised/ nationalised] EU competitors.Nairn
    • possibly and this is the big question, imagine we end up better off? It's going to take better leadership to achieve that if possible.fadein11
    • As irritated as I am by Brexit, there is the opportunity to tear up the status quo and re-write our own future.
      We won't, of course.      Nairn
    • and there's the rubfadein11
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