I think Article 50 will probably be triggered, but dragged out. Britain loses little from waiting this out until it's negotiating position improves.The EU is scared that other countries may wobble on their decision to stay and wants this done quickly. After listening to Theresa May and Boris Johnson exclude the idea of a general election I think it is becoming increasingly unlikely that there will be a reversal on th…
I disagree. I think the fact that Boris hasn't stood in the leadership race is rather telling: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36672591 Any PM that invokes Article 50 will likely get a very poor post-brexit agreement with the EU. That will no doubt result in 'the city' acting accordingly. Also after Article 50 has been invoked, we'll likely lose our presidency of the EU in 2017, and it's likely the discussions…
I don't have an ideological opposition to privately provided services (so long as they're free at the point of delivery, available to all regardless of ability to pay), but my experiences of NHS services delivered by private companies has been fucking awful, with a doctor clearly unfit to practice and a bunch of zero-hour contract minimum wage health care assistants topping up their wages by selling pirate DVDs. Looking at the clear abuses committed by companies like G4S it's terrifying that they're in charge of some forensic units.
And people don't understand just how badly the NHS has had its budgets cut.
> - Lapse the train operator contracts and run them as BR once did.
What we have now (one company owning all the tracks, and leasing out contracts for regions to run on those tracks) is a baffling mix of piss-poor competition (which doesn't work (look at how few people change suppliers for phones or broadband or utilities)) and central control.
> - Re-nationalise our infrastructure (electricity, water and gas)
This sounds controversial until you see how abusive some of them have been. They've created fake debt recovery agencies to scare vulnerable people into prioritising a debt that isn't actually a priority (it's more important that people pay their rent!). Some of them have got weird corporate structure purely to avoid tax or scrutiny. And competition just doesn't work - Electricity and Gas suppliers have a range of baffling plans that make it impossible to actually compare what your bill will be.
> - Stop defunding Local Councils, and allow them to build houses (rather than have housing organisations do it)
There's a bunch of stuff around public health and social care that really desperately need funding. That small amount of funding would save a lot of money for the NHS in a few years. This kind of "spend to save" thing is impossible to drive through because You need to spend the money now to see the saving in five, ten, twenty years.