#UK taxpayers

[jerseydeanne]

"Prince Harry's legal battle with the Home Office over police protection in Britain has already cost UK taxpayers almost £300,000, it emerged last night."

[news-buzz]

Martin Lewis explains how Brits can reclaim cash through the use of Reward Assist | Private Finance | Finance Information Buzz

Martin Lewis has revealed why he believes Brits must be opting into Reward Assist when making donations to charity. The MoneySavingExpert founder, who recurrently seems on TV giving his high recommendations on how you can make the perfect use of their money, posted a video on X explaining why British taxpayers ought to say “sure indeedy” to Reward Assist after making a donation. Reward Assist is…

[agentfascinateur]

UK's institutionalized pro-Israel lobbying:

Polak stepped down as head of CFI to take his place in the UK parliament’s unelected upper house as a Conservative peer in 2015. However, he remains the lobby group’s honorary president and registered director and is still considered to be one of the most important pro-Israel voices in Westminster.

#double dipping

#uk taxpayers

[thoughtlessarse]

And it's still cheaper than sending them to Rwanda.

[rosignoelle]

westminster abbey currently has the highest concentration of tax-dodgers in the world ❤️

[aj-lenoire]

the coronation: approximately £100 million

one (1) guillotine: idk exactly how much but i can guarantee it’s less than £100million

[sbrown82]

But, Meghan and Harry are the “grifters”??? 🤔🥴

[zee-man-chatter]

Easy decision VS. tough decision...

Always lots of money for Ukraine(arms industry), but a lot of foot stomping and heavy thought goes before giving money to taxpayers and veterans. It's sickening.

[vryivs]

I always forget that monarchists exist and then I see someone with the username duchessofmyheartforever or williamisababe posting about how it's mean to giggle at an ultrarich economic leech experiencing just a fraction of struggle and inconvenience (because lets be honest, he probably wont kick the bucket—his doctors are paid to keep his corpse animated long after it ceases to be humane)

[eaglesnick]

Private Sector Good, Public Sector Bad?

The reigning ideological economic theory within the Conservative Party is, and has been ever since Margaret Thatcher came to power, that “markets know best”

This was made abundantly clear when Kwasi Kwateng, the Chancellor of Liz Truss’s short-lived government, dismissed anything resembling a “planned economy”. Rather, growth and economic success depended on:

“…the power of our treasured free-market economy to leverage private capital and unleash Britain’s unique entrepreneurial spirit to grow new industries." (The Conversation: 13/04/22)

The key words here are “to leverage private capital”. What this means in ordinary speech is to encourage private investors to participate financially in “projects that benefit the economy, society or the environment”.  This has resulted in private investors running (and in many cases, owning) most of our public utilities and services. But rather than “benefit the economy, society and environment" these private investors have devastated it.

Over the next few blogs I intend to look at various British/English public utilities and services and to see how they have fared under the private sector.  First up are the railways.

Britain’s railways are organised within a mishmash of private and public ownership, and has been described as “broken" and no longer fit for purpose.

“The UK's train network is not only one of the worst in Europe, it is also one of the most expensive.” (euronews: 20/05/21

This is no surprise given its complex and chaotic structure.   The railway tracks and rail network are owned and operated by Network Rail, which is a “non-departmental public body of the Department for Transport, (DFT) with no shareholders"

 Non-departmental public bodies are a strange entity. They are national or regional bodies that work independently of government, are not staffed by civil servants, and yet are still accountable to government ministers. It is the Secretary of State for Transport who sets the strategic direction of the railways, allocating funding, and it is the secretary of state  who has to approve major investments in the railway system.

The companies that operate the trains are privately owned and are either awarded franchises from the DFT, or they are “open access” operators that provide passenger services on a particular route or network, but with no exclusive rights enjoyed by franchise holders.

To complicate matters further, the actual trains, passenger carriages and railway wagons, known collectively as “rolling stock”, are owned by the rolling stock leasing companies” (ROSCOs) who lease out their stock to the privately owned rail operating companies.

Freight train operators are totally separate from passenger trains, have no contracts with government but do need permission from Network Rail to run their services.

For year 2022/23 the railways received £11.9bn of government funding and Network Rail has secured £27.5 bn of government funding over the next five years. In short, we the taxpayer invest heavily in our rail network which the private passenger, rolling stock and freight companies use to make a profit.

A 2019 report by the TUC found that:

“Rail firms have paid over £1bn to shareholders in the last 6 years.” (TUC: 02/01/2019)

In 2022 Avanti West Coast received a taxpayer subsidy of £343m, despite having the worst punctuality record amongst train operators and paying out £12m to its shareholders. Avanti West Coast is owned by First Group, who also own Great Western Railway and South Western Railway. Great Western paid out the largest dividend in 2021/22, £33m, while South Western paid out  £13m. 

More recently:

“UK rail operator Govia awards $79m in dividends amid UK rail dissatisfaction.” (Railway Technology: 08/01/24)

Govia is largely foreign owned, the three largest shareholder companies being Australian, Spanish and French. In 2022 it was fined £23m “over financial irregularities" having failed to return £25m in taxpayer funding. Why on earth any government would want to go on subsidising such a company is beyond understanding, especially as the Transport Minister at the time said the company had:

“…committed an appalling breach of trust...behaviour was simply unacceptable and this penalty sends a clear message that the government, and taxpayers, will not stand for it." (BBC News: 17/03/22)

Clearly the minister (Grant Shapps) didn’t mean what he said as Govia is still operating trains two years later and still courting controversy

Turning to the train-leasing companies, we find:

“Profits of UK’s private train-leasing firms treble in a year. More than £400m paid in dividends in 2022-23 while rest of railway faced cuts and salary freezes.” (Guardian: 18/02/24)

These companies saw their profit margins rise to 41%, a profit that we as taxpayers and passengers pay for. It is estimated that "taxpayers are now effectively paying the £3.1bn spent last year on leasing trains.” To actually run a passenger rail service yet not own a single locomotive or passenger carriage is bazaar to say the very least.

Finding overall profit figures for freight train operators is a little more difficult but Colas Rail UK’s revenue in 2022 was £15,529m, up 17% on the previous year, an operating profit of £460m.

 Overall, taxpayer subsidies to the rail industry run at £6bn per year. However, these massive subsidies have not led to lower fares, an end to over-crowed trains, or an efficient service. According to TaxPayers Alliance 02/01/23) "rail subsidies cost taxpayers £1300 each by March 2023.” Meanwhile the private companies that operate the highly fragmented and disjointed system continue to reap profits and pay out dividends.

Maybe this would not be so bad if the British taxpayer subsidised dividend payouts went to British owned companies, but this is far from the case:

“According to the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union, 70% of Britain’s railways are now under foreign ownership to some degree.” (CityA.M.: 11/01/17)

The figure of 70% foreign ownership is disputed, not least because some companies have gone bust since 2017, with five lines now being effectively run by the government as “operators of last resort.”  As the 1993 Railways Act forbids the UK state from running the railways these lines are likely to be franchised out to private firms in the future.

“…many foreign state-owned enterprises of the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy and Hong Kong now run rail franchises in the UK." (The Standard: 11/05/23)

While other countries have no philosophical problem with running railways for the benefit of their citizens, and clearly have no qualms about investing state money in foreign ventures, the Conservative Party is ideologically opposed to state intervention in running UK public services and is vehemently opposed to setting up a UK sovereign wealth fund.

In summary, successive Tory governments have continued to pay taxpayers money into the coffers of private enterprise regardless of how efficient, honest or effective these firms are at providing an essential public service. Clearly, where the railways are concerned, they are not run to “benefit the economy, society and environment" but for the benefit and interests of private investors, in the mistaken Tory belief that private enterprise is always better than public stewardship despite evidence to the contrary.  

[terminally-spooked]

If you can vote in the UK, hate the tories, haven't voted yet and don't know who to vote for

May I humbly direct you to this site for advice on who you can tactically vote for to ensure we finally get rid of the bastards after 14 years of pain and austerity

[thoughtlessarse]

Thames Water, the UK’s largest water company, is teetering on the brink of financial collapse, raising the prospect of a taxpayer-funded bailout. The company, which serves 16 million customers, is struggling to secure crucial investment to repair its ageing infrastructure and deal with its mounting debt. There have now been reports that the Government is considering bailing out Thames Water as a last resort, which could see water bills rise by hundreds of pounds a year.

continue reading

So, they now expect taxpayers around the country to bail out a water company that only serves one part of the country, the richest part. The rest of the country, which has still not recovered economically from the pandemic, is essentially paying money to the only region on mainland UK that recovered and then some. (Northern Ireland also recovered, thanks in large part to continuing trade with the EU.)

What's the difference between Sunak taking “Levelling Up” meant for poorer regions to benefit his south-east constituency and Starmer taking cash from poorer regions to prop up a failing water company, again in the south-east? Both widen inequality. It's more austerity which opens the door for the far-right.

[fantastic-mr-corvid]

king charles has been announced to have cancer and all i can think about is the money that would have to go to the funeral and coronation. it makes me feel sick, the cost of doing the whole fucking rigamarole again.

[melrosing]

my sister and I once got into a physical fight over food in a hotel room when we were both preteens. We swore to our parents we’d push the other off the balcony but then by nighttime we were sharing a bed playing on our Nintendo wearing matching PJ’s. We also used to bite each other when kids. But speaking of siblings what’s your opinions on prince harry and William. Not a royalist all I know is harry from invutus games and William does a lot of work with homeless people so I was interested on your thoughts. I do like Meghan and Kate though.

lmao I love this has become a confessional booth for past sisterly disputes ❤️ Sansa and Arya fighting over the Trident incident, meanwhile me n my sis going with the same fire over a stolen bagel

on the royals…. ngl I am born and raised anti-royalist lol, I’m going to my parents for the coronation weekend and they’ve promised we’ll be leaving the house to go walk in the wilderness so we don’t have to hear a damn thing about Charlie’s hat ceremony. I have huge sympathy for what Meghan went through at the hand of that family and this absolute nightmare country and I wish she and her children all the best, but the institution itself I would like to disintegrate x

[vicshush]

[ID: A photo of a large postbox (looking similar to a red, municipal garbage canister [ty @poniatowskaja for the clarification]) on a sidewalk. The top has four beefeater royal guard dolls on top of a wide purple fabric with gold crowns covering a shallow dome. A bunting of triangles in red, white, and blue with gold crowns hangs around the brim of the shallow dome lid of the bin. Article tags, headline, summary, the author's byline, and the opening to the article are below: "King Charles coronation [subject tag]. Welsh town canceled coronation party after no one donates to costs. Caldicot group had planned to hold street celebration but crowdfunder 'failed to raise any money whatsoever'. Steven Morris [author]. Friday, 5 May, 2023. It had been billed as "the party of the year", but a Welsh market town has been forced to cancel its coronation celebration after failing to raise any money to cover costs." / end ID]

Lmao

[aeolianblues]

honestly geolocking is so fucked up. What do you mean I can’t access streams when I’m not in the country. I still pay taxes here. Why does a streaming service get preference over the fact that I’m a taxpayer