[News] Rail fares in England and Wales to increase by up to 5.9% in March

[clapham_gull]

Yeah when I was about to study in England (which didn't happen) this spring we had a bloke coming from England to "prepare us for life in England" who talked a lot about the differences and stuff, and the first thing he mentioned was that we might take the level of public transport/infrastructure for granted in Sweden but that we'd find a different reality in England.

We love to complain but London (in terms of connections) is second to none, albeit creaking because of its Victorian past.

Outside of London ? Not so great.

Try getting a rural bus that connects with a station.

You also have to blame society here I'm afraid. Many people are addicted to their cars even in London. I know people in rural Sussex who would rather drive up to London and spend a couple of hours trying to park than get the train and tube.

 

[zefarelly]

Last century for more but not all. There are plenty of jobs that can't be done remotely.

I agree, I wasn't implying it was a good thing. I've had to commute and work daily the last 3 years.

There is no way my employers would have A employed me and B kept me, had I been reliant on public transport.

Fortunately I now have less than a mile to do. Local is the way forward, we are afterall living in the 20's.

 

[chickens]

From what I understand Amazon UK operate as a contractor to Amazon EU so that they fulfill the orders on behalf of the EU branch and operate at a "loss" so they don't have to pay any taxes.

Absolutely, they’re structured precisely in order to minimise tax liability, and have the legal and accountancy resources to aggressively contest any potential action/enquiry against them.

Because they’ve deliberately structured themselves across different tax jurisdictions, while tax authorities are national, it is also difficult for tax authorities to act against them as they can play different tax authorities off against each other.

If they were a smaller organisation they wouldn’t have such a disproportionate effect on the public purse, but Amazon are absolutely unparalleled in terms of product range and delivery logistics. They are now used for almost every type of physical product, and due to their scale and aggressive tax avoidance they are almost impossible to compete against.

Amazon’s dominance shuts down small independent businesses, and significantly reduces the nation’s tax take, starving public services. From a consumer perspective, they’re unparalleled, I absolutely understand why they’re so popular, but unless we wean ourselves off them, we’re feeding the parasite that is draining us.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Just fly if you have to go anywhere in the North. Quicker and easier

It used to be the other way round, but it’s pointless to even plan now.

 

[The Fits]

I recently bought a car for longer distance travel after not having one for 15 years. It's now cheaper for me to pay the monthly cost, plus tax and insurance, petrol etc and only use it a handful of times than to use the train. I didn't want to do that.

 

[beorhthelm]

Amazon’s dominance shuts down small independent businesses, and significantly reduces the nation’s tax take, starving public services. From a consumer perspective, they’re unparalleled, I absolutely understand why they’re so popular, but unless we wean ourselves off them, we’re feeding the parasite that is draining us.

they are a market place with most goods sold buy a third party. buy trainers from Nike, jeans from Levi, TV from Samsung, so on. or some shopfront for an independent shop, so they increase their reach from their town to the country or abroad. other than the stuff from China i dont find prices much cheaper than highstreet, main draw for me is the delivery. along the way they collect VAT and the sellers will pay taxes too.

 

[mikeyjh]

Absolutely, they’re structured precisely in order to minimise tax liability, and have the legal and accountancy resources to aggressively contest any potential action/enquiry against them.

Because they’ve deliberately structured themselves across different tax jurisdictions, while tax authorities are national, it is also difficult for tax authorities to act against them as they can play different tax authorities off against each other.

If they were a smaller organisation they wouldn’t have such a disproportionate effect on the public purse, but Amazon are absolutely unparalleled in terms of product range and delivery logistics. They are now used for almost every type of physical product, and due to their scale and aggressive tax avoidance they are almost impossible to compete against.

Amazon’s dominance shuts down small independent businesses, and significantly reduces the nation’s tax take, starving public services. From a consumer perspective, they’re unparalleled, I absolutely understand why they’re so popular, but unless we wean ourselves off them, we’re feeding the parasite that is draining us.

Quite - Every £1 in profit that goes to Amazon EU has left the country, gone, untaxed on its way out. That's a £1 that if spent locally would remain local and be taxed...

 

[chickens]

they are a market place with most goods sold buy a third party. buy trainers from Nike, jeans from Levi, TV from Samsung, so on. or some shopfront for an independent shop, so they increase their reach from their town to the country or abroad. other than the stuff from China i dont find prices much cheaper than highstreet, main draw for me is the delivery. along the way they collect VAT and the sellers will pay taxes too.

I’m not entirely in agreement with you for a number of reasons, but fear we’re derailing the thread. Will set up a separate one, but may be after Xmas.