Hovercraft would be nice way to travel. I'll suggest it to my local MP.

B.G.; ignoring whether we call any excess money a surplus or profit, surely it is better for the country as a whole that that money is re-invested to improve the rail network rather than lining shareholders pocket.



I always have and always will believe that essential services and infrastructure are too important to the country to be left to market forces. Too many companies operate with the short term goal of improving profits for their shareholders rather than having a long term plan.

Especially when you consider the total dog's breakfast of a mess that was made of rail privatisation. Instead of having one organisation to procure, administer and manage the rail network, infrastructure and rolling stock, we ended up with one company managing the track & infrastructure and a number of other companies managing the rolling stock and services.



We then ended up with the company managing the infrastructure being forcibly wound up and taken back into public ownership because the private company was so spectacularly inept at managing said infrastructure and the business itself. At least two train operating franchises have been handed back to the public sector and of those that are left, many have relied on government to procure new rolling stock and then lease them at preferential rates. If that's how private enterprise works then my cock's a kipper.

Would you consider the provision of food to be an essential service?

Oh I agree with you but services like the railways as a whole don't make money so this surplus that goes to investment doesn't happen and what you get is either underinvestment of the state paying an even bigger share.

The state is already subsidising the rail companies to a bigger extent than it ever did when the system was nationalised.



Wrt the post on food being an essential service. Every state should ensure it has a policy to provide enough food for its population. You could argue that we already make sure people are fed by the provision of free school meals for kids and the welfare state providing benefits for adults so that they can purchase food.

No because it is not a service. Unlike things like the buses, railways or power generation.



It also isn't a monopoly enterprise requiring a regulator to ensure the public isn't ripped off. There is nothing wrong with private industry providing us with goods such as food where the market naturally provides for competition. Wherever you see a regulator involved you can guarantee the market doesn't actually exist to do this.

Well, 80% of the UK's grocery retail trade is in the hands of the major supermarkets (those with a minimum of 8% of the nation's total retail trade each). Thirty years ago, that figure was 20%.



In some towns, the only options are a big box Tesco, a smaller Tesco and a Tesco express.



There are reasons that words and phrases such as 'Tesco town' and 'Tescopoly' have entered the lexicon.

Could well be. I know there's a cut off time for when you can claim any refund, which is slightly more than that. As I found out when Southern Railways were late arriving from Brighton to London by less than said cut-off (with no announcements or apologies), which meant I missed my booked Virgin train to Preston. Virgin re-charged me the full £75 to get home and Southern's response to my complaint might as well have said "tough sh*t."

We have the greatest food distribution and supply system.....entirely beyond the comprehension of previous populations.

Have a think about worldwide cases where the state has tried to manage food production distribution and supply.

Food distribution and supply isn't a service? Food is a product, distribution and supply are services.







So you don't believe there is competition in the provision of transport service? For all journeys, there is only one single method of transport open to you?

For many people either the bus or the train is the only option of getting to work. So regardless of quality of service or, to a large extent, price, many people have no option but to use that bus service or that train service. Unless there were 3/4 buses from competing companies waiting at the bus stop then the passenger is forced into a monopoly system.

There is an element of competition in that those companies have to win the franchise to provide that service, but that kind of situation is not where the private sector flourishes and I believe that the state/council/region could run these services just as well for a lower cost without the need for costly franchise applications, changeover of franchise costs, and no need for profits to be made or dividends to be paid.