Scottish Independence White Paper - Railways

[tbtc]

are they more misinformed than some Scottish people thinking one former female Prime Minister had a hatred for them?

Maggie loved the Scots.

She seemed baffled why people who were generally fairly frugal and fairly patriotic, had strong family ties and a fairly traditional (conservative with a small "c") outlook seemed to hate the Tories so much.

A lot of Scots are pretty conservative, but would never consider being "Tory".

But I digress...

 

[WatcherZero]

Probably method in the short term would be to give them a proportional share of Network Rail stock and have them agree their own settlements with Network Rail for works in Scotland. Disentangling the infrastructure and maintenence assets from those in England and Wales would take years.

 

[oldman]

Maggie loved the Scots.

She seemed baffled why people who were generally fairly frugal and fairly patriotic, had strong family ties and a fairly traditional (conservative with a small "c") outlook seemed to hate the Tories so much.

I suspect Maggie loved an idealised version of the Scots but actually knew nothing about us.

1 With the rise in national feeling from the 1960s the forelock-tugging rural vote switched from the posh English-accented lairds to the Liberals e.g David Steel and later also to the nats. This continued under Thatcher.

2 The industrial working class in Scotland reacted in the same way as elsewhere in the UK to her policies and apparent indifference to their social consequences. Car-building, steel-making, deep-mining and a lot more all ended on Thatcher's watch.

 

[krus_aragon]

Scotland isnt a significant part of the UK probably 8 to 9% of GDP, the London economy is currently growing at over 3%. Loss of Scotland is unlikely to change peoples perceptions about the EU

But GDP doesn't vote, people do. If there's a greater proportion of eurosceptics living in England than in Scotland, then removing Scotland from a (potential) EU membership referendum will make a 'get out' result more likely.

 

[Nym]

Scotland isnt a significant part of the UK probably 8 to 9% of GDP, the London economy is currently growing at over 3%. Loss of Scotland is unlikely to change peoples perceptions about the EU

Does it seem right to compare the Total GDP of a whole 'country' with the GDP Growth of a City?

 

[anme]

If Scotland becomes independent, and continues to franchise out (or similar) rail contracts, then the remaining British government can set up a body to bid for them, in the same way that SNCF, DB, NS, etc and partners have successfully bid for contracts in the UK. We could call this body "British Rail".

 

[PermitToTravel]

I'd be much less surprised if that happened in the opposite direction

 

[anme]

I'd be much less surprised if that happened in the opposite direction

Indeed - that would be interesting!

 

[thenorthern]

SNP are quite left wing I wouldn't be surprised if they nationalised the railways and ran all services under the Scotrail brand including freight.

I never get peoples obsession with nationalisation in my opinion private operators in the UK work better than a state one would but that's a different story.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

If you ask me the English should take back all their trains if Scotland is so insistent on leaving. Doing that should be able to sort out most lines in England and Wales, of course I believe independence could open a massive can of worms on the economy of Scotland, metaphorically though!

The VT, EC, TP and XC franchises are UK property in which Scotland has a legitimate share - including crew, maintenance, web sites, marketing etc etc.
They would have to be divided between the two states, or (more likely) an agreement would be reached on their shared operation much like now.
The trains themselves are owned by private ROSCOs which can operate where they like in the EU.
The same is true of the franchise owners, and the freight companies.
On top of which no private contracts will be broken, so if EC is franchised before the formal split for say 10 years, it would stay like that until renewal.

 

[St Rollox]

Why are the English so ratty and childish about the independence question?

Most English people i know couldn't care less.

 

[VauxhallandI]

Most English people i know couldn't care less.

Even that statement has an air about it