Brexit and rail transport

[caravanman]

It has been reported that Boris, etc, were taken by surprise at having to do the deed themselves, by Cameron's resignation, hence all the sudden "no rush" speeches...

Anyway, back to trains...

Ed.

 

[MARC Rider]

At present it looks like Boris, Farage and Gove are standing around like deer in headlight, and the Labor folks are as usual confused running around lik a chicken with its head cut off. I don't think the Exiters expected Cameron to drop the entire mess in their laps and depart. I think they expected Cameron to invoke Article 50 on Friday and then be able to blame the entire mess on him. Cameron basically caught them flat footed since it is all their baby now, effectively. Surprisingly neither the Exit supporters nor the government had done any contingency planning covering this contingency.

But at the end of the day the effect on trains service is minimal to non-existent except that a vacation in Europe for the Brits is going to cost a tenth or so more, which might reduce traffic towards Europe a little. OTOH conversely for folks on the continent to visit Europe will be cheaper, but then who wants to go to England for a vacation anyway?

Hey, in 1985 I took a vacation to Britain. I'd be open to doing it again. For a Yank, its kind of like visiting an alternate reality version of home - sort of familiar and they speak English, but the English is a wee bit different, the cops are dressed differently, and traffic is in the wrong side of the road.

Even back then, though, it seemed like immigrants were taking over the service jobs, though they were mostly South Asians and West Indians. It seemed all of the folks examining tickets at the train stations were south Asians. I suppose it's all automated gates now.

Well, you set up an empire, what else do you expect? We Yanks conquered half of Mexico in the 1840s, and all of a sudden we wonder why so many Mexicans live here? It's funny, though this was starting to happen during the Thatcher era, and I didn't read too many complaints about it then.

 

[caravanman]

Well, Boris has said he no longer wants to be a Leader, wonder if he will pop up again in 2020 for those elections...

The U.K. welcomed immigration in the years after WW2, folk were invited to come, as mentioned, from the West Indies and India, etc.

Sadly, people are treated as commodities, and once the job vacancies dry up, immigrants are suddenly seen as problematic, "surplus to requirements".

Whether it is ok for us fortunate folk to just say "no entry" to the less fortunate is a matter of opinion, I would say it is not.

As the son of a poor Irish immigrant myself, I don't feel too responsible for "the British Empire"

Ed.

 

[Bob Dylan]

We're all Immigrants! Even the so called Native Americans ( used to be Indians cause Columbus thought he discovered India! ) came here from somewhere else!

Our country has a long history of Immigrant bashing going back to the Alien and Sedition Act that our Founding Fathers shamefuly put into Law!

 

[jis]

But at the end of the day the effect on trains service is minimal to non-existent except that a vacation in Europe for the Brits is going to cost a tenth or so more, which might reduce traffic towards Europe a little. OTOH conversely for folks on the continent to visit Europe will be cheaper, but then who wants to go to England for a vacation anyway?

Hey, in 1985 I took a vacation to Britain. I'd be open to doing it again. For a Yank, its kind of like visiting an alternate reality version of home - sort of familiar and they speak English, but the English is a wee bit different, the cops are dressed differently, and traffic is in the wrong side of the road.

Don't get me wrong. I go on short vacation to Scotland and Milton Keynes almost every year. But that is primarily driven by family and the desire to ride an amazingly good rail service.

 

[jis]

BTW all this is becoming truly stranger than fiction and kind of funny maybe ....

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/so-much-for-taking-back-control-its-clear-now-there-was-no-plan-and-boris-johnson-has-unleashed-a7111416.html

 

[Chaz]

The Guardian has an editorial today about UK (& EU) politicians after Brexit.

It compares a key 'leave' leader Michael Gove to someone " loitering at the end of a rainy railway platform, spotting trains' lol.

". Gove is the sort of nerdish, know-it-all clever dick one once might have expected to see loitering at the end of a rainy railway platform, spotting trains. He has Britain’s number, or so he says. But what use is knowledge without wisdom, judgment and fidelity? Gove claims to stand for change. What he actually stands for is bad old political opportunism. Like Johnson, he is not the leader Britain needs."

http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/68340-brexit-and-rail-transport/?hl=brexit