Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could it happen here...??
 

I am quite sure that Friedrichstraße was the only East Berlin S-Bahn
station where one could buy S-Bahn tickets towards West Berlin in DM.
And only in the "non-socialist currency" area, i.e. the area which acted
as an exchange station for intra West Berlin traffic.

I saw them on the machine at Kopenick.

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could it happen here...??
 

"Lüko Willms" wrote in message

Am 04.01.2012 00:05, schrieb ian batten:
Much of that is down to changes in the technology; e.g.
international
telephone calls are not cheaper due to a change in ownership.
Actually, international telephone calls are a prime example of
something that really_is_ cheaper when state monopoly telecos are
broken up or otherwise lose their monopoly.

Why then do international phone companies like Vodafone, T-Mobile or
Orange charge huge amounts for calls from one of their national
networks to another of their national networks?

Why had the European Commission to intervene against the market
forces to drive down the roaming charges and charges for international
calls?

(I had found out, to my surprise, that an SMS from Paris to Germany
did cost me less than an SMS from Germany to Germany! Thanks to the
intervention of the European Commission ordering lower international
tariffs).

Yes, that's a good example of how capitalist markets do need to be
regulated. The EU commission has done an excellent job of bringing down
the outrageous roaming costs.

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On Jan 4, 11:26*am, "Recliner" wrote:

So, yes, it was enforced
competition, and not just technology that have made phone calls much
cheaper in the UK than they would have been had BT retained its
monopoly. For one thing, if it still had its monopoly, it would have
been slower to invest in those new technologies.

It's never explained by enthusiasts for monopoly why a monopoly
supplier would pass on savings from new technology to their
customers. GPO/PTO/BT's prices didn't drop because of new technology
(indeed, the introduction of System X was at a time of unparalleled
high prices), they dropped because Mercury were allowed into the
market. And the saga of System X, which will one day one hopes be
written up, is like the VC10: beautiful engineering, but driven much
too closely by one customer.

ian

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On Jan 4, 11:27*am, ian batten wrote:
On Jan 4, 11:19*am, Lüko Willms wrote:

* *You have to discuss this issue not with me. I only point to what Herr
Schnell is always writing. Take issue with him, not me. I make no claims
about the situation of the Berlin railway workers, Herr Schnell does.
And I report what he says. So discuss the issue with Herr Schnell and
not with me.

I'm starting to remember why it's a waste of time arguing with
tankies. *Their basic premise --- that the Sovbloc 1945--1989 was a
workers' paradise --- is so obviously deranged that they can't be seen
to say so in terms, and indeed start calling people "liars" (while
demanding apologies when called on it) when it's pointed out that
their arguments lead, inevitably, to that position. *But because they
believe it in their heart of hearts they get all upset when counter-
examples are quoted. *Which is why under all the bluster, they can't
provide simple answers to to simple questions like "Were workers in the DDR
in 1980 happy with their lot, and if so why did it req...

....uire a fence with guards to stop them fleeing?" If they say "yes,
they were happy" they get laughed at (and the fence and guards remain
unexplained), if they say "no, they were not" then they have cognitive
dissonance over their chosen economic system. It's the same reason
why they bluster and start calling people liars when asked about
Stalin's purges; most CP members refused to believe the Secret Speech
had actually happened.

Fortunately, with friends like Luko, the hard left don't need enemies,
and their long-term electoral annihilation is an amusing side-show in
the dreary decline of the ever-splitting, ever-fighting groupuscles of
the former CP.

Let's see if he can reply without calling anyone a liar. No, I didn't
think so.

ian

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

Am 04.01.2012 12:26, schrieb Recliner:
Both domestic and international calls from the UK are now more or less
free, but only if you use carriers other than BT. If those companies
were not allowed to function, the price drops would not have happened.

I think you are distorting the facts:

In reality, if BT was not forced to operate as a profit oriented
commercial company, maintaining its position as the the British telecoms
operator, it would have lowered the prices according to the
technological advances. Deutsche Bundespost did in its times.

But once the incumbent is a profit oriented commercial company, as BT
is or Deutsche Telekom (T-something), it does maintain high prices for
those who are not so keen to switch to a different telecoms company
every other month. They call this windfall profits.

Some for Deutsche Telekom in Germany ... But it is even worse for
their unregulated competitors: none of those allows to save by using
call-by-call with cheaper switchers, so that one is stuck with higher
prices for international calls and calls to mobile phones than what a
customer Deutsche Telekom can have.


L.W.

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could it happen here...??
 

On Wed, 04 Jan 2012 11:01:14 +0100, Lüko
wrote:
That is what makes a distinction, not the shareholder.

No. Both do.

In terms of holding, a company can be private (of which
government-owned or nationalised is one type) or public.

What a company's motivation is, while usually primarily profit, can
vary hugely based on shareholders' wishes.

Neil

--
Neil Williams, Milton Keynes, UK

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

Am 04.01.2012 12:17, schrieb Recliner:
No, that was again this Mr. Recliner (or who ever) who claimed that
once there is only one owner of a company, that turns this company
into a monopoly which is to be fought.

I know that English is not your native tongue, so perhaps you're
confused by the English language terms "ownership" and "monopoly". The
ownership of a company has nothing to do with whether it's a monopoly.

Correct. But YOU wrote that a single owner turns a company into a
monopoly:

Am 03.01.2012 14:33, schrieb Recliner:
If a company is dominated by one single shareholder, and
that shareholder has other interests, then you have a potential
conflict of interest. It's why monopolies are restricted
in the EU and other free capitalist countries.

I welcome you retraction of that nonsense, but you should not deny
that you wrote it.

By the way, I like your humor in the phrase of "free capitalist
countries", and the similar

In strongly socialist countries,

You made my day! I need something to laugh at midday...

Now please will you answer my question about workers' rights in north
and south Korea?

No, that is off-topic here.



Cheers,
L.W.

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

Am 04.01.2012 12:19, schrieb Recliner:
Do you also care about the color of the skin of the shareholdes,
their religion, their sexual orientation, their preferred sports?

The religious views of a shareholder in one UK-based transport group
attracted some public interest in the not too distant past.

Tell me more. I don't anything about this.
I suggest you read up on Sir Brian Souter.

Sure, but not about his religious beliefs, which is something I do
normally not care about, being a private affair.

Did Mr. Souter try to forces his beliefs on his workers, or what?
That would be an inappropriate incursion into the private matters of
those workers.


Cheers,
L.W.

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could it happen here...??
 

"Lüko Willms" wrote in message

Am 04.01.2012 12:26, schrieb Recliner:
Both domestic and international calls from the UK are now more or
less free, but only if you use carriers other than BT. If those
companies were not allowed to function, the price drops would not
have happened.

I think you are distorting the facts:

In reality, if BT was not forced to operate as a profit oriented
commercial company, maintaining its position as the the British
telecoms operator, it would have lowered the prices according to the
technological advances. Deutsche Bundespost did in its times.

When it was state-owned, BT and its predecessors performed much less
well in terms of pricing and efficiency than they did after
privatisation and the introduction of competition. The same is true of
BA.

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

Am 04.01.2012 12:27, schrieb ian batten:

continuing lies and slanders

On Jan 4, 11:19 am, Lüko wrote:


You have to discuss this issue not with me. I only point to what Herr
Schnell is always writing. Take issue with him, not me. I make no claims
about the situation of the Berlin railway workers, Herr Schnell does.
And I report what he says. So discuss the issue with Herr Schnell and
not with me.

and indeed start calling people "liars"

Of course I do state the simply fact that you are a habitual liar and
slanderer. That is your permanent way of operation.

Note the fact that Herr Schnell never denied my description of his
view that the Berlin railway workers need to be brought under the whip,
and that their "last socialistic company" needs to be smashed.

Discuss Herr Schnells views, but stop slandering me.


Deeply disgusted
L.W.

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Am 04.01.2012 12:28, schrieb Paul Rigg:

I am quite sure that Friedrichstraße was the only East Berlin S-Bahn
station where one could buy S-Bahn tickets towards West Berlin in DM.
And only in the "non-socialist currency" area, i.e. the area which acted
as an exchange station for intra West Berlin traffic.

I saw them on the machine at Kopenick.

Before November 1989? I'm astonished.


Cheers,
L.W.

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could it happen here...??
 

In message , at 12:14:27 on
Wed, 4 Jan 2012, Lüko Willms remarked:
Most of the fall in costs has been due to competition, and facilitated
by new technology. Where there's no competition, the new technology is
still expensive.

Nonsense.

I refer the Hon Gent to remarks made about international roaming charges
(as just one example).
--
Roland Perry

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could it happen here...??
 

"Lüko Willms" wrote in message

Am 04.01.2012 12:17, schrieb Recliner:
No, that was again this Mr. Recliner (or who ever) who claimed
that
once there is only one owner of a company, that turns this company
into a monopoly which is to be fought.

I know that English is not your native tongue, so perhaps you're
confused by the English language terms "ownership" and "monopoly".
The ownership of a company has nothing to do with whether it's a
monopoly.

Correct. But YOU wrote that a single owner turns a company into a
monopoly:

Am 03.01.2012 14:33, schrieb Recliner:
If a company is dominated by one single shareholder, and
that shareholder has other interests, then you have a potential
conflict of interest. It's why monopolies are restricted
in the EU and other free capitalist countries.

I welcome you retraction of that nonsense, but you should not deny
that you wrote it.


There's nothing to retract or deny, and please don't keep insulting me
when I'm trying hard to be polite to you. As certain other posters in
this newsgroup should have realised by now, habitual rudeness diminishes
the people who deliver the insults, *not* the people they insult. Again,
I'll give your lack of English knowledge the benefit of the doubt, but I
invite you again to take account of the words "and [if] that shareholder
has other interests, then you have a potential conflict of interest".

To explain that in simpler words, if one shareholder gets effective
boardroom control of a company by having more than (say) 40% of the
shares, then a potential monopoly would exist *if* that same shareholder
also controls other companies in the same industry; it would be
unimportant if the shareholder has no significant interests in competing
companies.

If those companies collectively controlled more than, say, 40% of the
market, then they would be able to set prices, etc, all under the
control of the monopoly shareholder. As I keep trying to explain
politely to you, the level of shareholding in a single company doesn't
tell you anything about whether it's a monopoly. It's the presence or
absence of effective competition that matters. So it's fine if small
businesses in a competitive market are owned by a single family, and
no-one but you would suggest that they had a monopoly.

So the fact that DB has a single shareholder doesn't make it a monopoly;
the lack of strong competition in Germany means it has a German
monopoly. Its UK subsidiaries also have a single shareholder, in the
form of the German government, but they don't have a monopoly here. Is
that clear now?

Now please will you answer my question about workers rights in the two
Koreas?

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 04/01/2012 09:57, Comrade Willms wrote:
Am 03.01.2012 18:56, schrieb Graham Nye:

Why would Recliner want to deny writing that?

I don't care for the motives, only for the facts: he did deny it.

It's an entirely reasonable thing to have written in its context,
which was discussion of a state-owned railway company.

I have the opposite opinion thinking that it is absolutely
ridiculous. As you might have noted.

I note that you've asserted your view that having a state government take
over 100% of the ownership of a company doesn't change the nature of that
company. I've further noted you wriggling out of all attempts to engage
you in substantive discussion of that view.

It is you who has sought to move the goal posts by introducing discussion
of one-person owned businesses,

No, ...

Yes, in message-id
dated Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:42:23 +0100

...presumably so you can wriggle out of
answering Recliner's question to you: "Do you think workers' rights are
better protected in North than in South Korea?"

Did he write that? I don't know,

Yes he did. You should know that because he wrote that in the message
you replied to with the message-id already given above. More evasion
from you.

... but this is obviously far off topic
from the issues we are discussing.

It's OK then for you to give your thoughts on German state ownership in two
UK newsgroups but all of a sudden it becomes off-topic? Questions becoming
too awkward for you?

Or do you have a problem with the
Thought Police working for the Ministry of Truth, so that you have to
prove to be a good fink denouncing all possible thought crimes?

The Thought Police are obviously close to your mind, as you've mentioned
them twice this morning.

I note you have again evaded answering the question posed to you.
So, third time lucky, do you think workers' rights are better protected
in North than in South Korea?


--
Graham Nye
news(a)thenyes.org.uk

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On 04/01/2012 10:01, Lüko Willms wrote:
Under capitalist rule, you will find that most state owned
enterprises are actually operated with the objective to make profit.

I haven't found that. In the UK under Conservative governments (1979-97)
state owned enterprises were sold back into private ownership to make a
profit, not retained and operated by the state.

--
Graham Nye
news(a)thenyes.org.uk

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 04/01/2012 10:02, Lüko Willms wrote:
Am 03.01.2012 22:42, schrieb Arthur Figgis:
Do you also care about the color of the skin of the shareholdes, their
religion, their sexual orientation, their preferred sports?

The religious views of a shareholder in one UK-based transport group
attracted some public interest in the not too distant past.

Tell me more. I don't anything about this.



I thought it was his views on others' sexual orientation that attracted
the interest. However those views may well have been influenced by his
religious affiliations.


--
Graeme Wall
This account not read, substitute trains for rail.
Railway Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 04/01/2012 10:24, Lüko Willms wrote:
Am 03.01.2012 19:44, schrieb Wolfgang Schwanke:
Lüko wrote in
:

But it was not the Allied occupation forces which demanded that the
GDR close the Wall completly, but the West German and West Berlin
authorities.

I don't think they did anything like that.

Sure they did. Your memory is obviously ruled by your fear of the
Thought Police...

[snip more marxist fantasies]

Is your indoctrination so deeply ingrained in your grey cells?

Or do you just fear the Thought Police that they might put you in Room 101?


Lüko, you are aware that 1984 was fiction?

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read, substitute trains for rail.
Railway Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 04/01/2012 11:52, Lüko Willms wrote:
In reality, if BT was not forced to operate as a profit oriented
commercial company, maintaining its position as the the British telecoms
operator, it would have lowered the prices according to the
technological advances. Deutsche Bundespost did in its times.

In reality it didn't, quite the contrary.

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read, substitute trains for rail.
Railway Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could it happen here...??
 

Before November 1989? I'm astonished.

Definitely. It was about August 1989. No sign of wall coming down at all.
They had DDR 40 in lights on a property in Alexanderplatz. Hard to believe
now that it never got much further!
Went up the funkturm as well- quite a good meal in the telecafe for £5. At
that time of course the West Berlin S Bahn was being operated by the BVB
(BVG) in West Berlin, at least those parts of it which were open.

The S Bahn trains on the Stadtbahn changed crew at Lehrter Stadtbahnhof, a
DR driver noticeably taking over from the BVB one for the short run into
Friedrichstrasse,

I don't think any such change occurred on the North Sud bahn at the time,

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could it happen here...??
 

On Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:25:48 +0100 [UTC], Lüko Willms wrote:
Am 04.01.2012 11:20, schrieb ian batten:
On Jan 4, 9:50 am, Lüko wrote:
Am 03.01.2012 18:57, schrieb ian batten:

As Lenin already said: it is very difficult to find a honest opponent
in the debate.
He also said "Hang (hang without fail, so the people see) no fewer
than one hundred known kulaks, rich men, bloodsuckers."

When and where?

11 August 1918. For the full text of the telegram, see http://goo.gl/XOzhq
or http://goo.gl/lTyYP. The full text is, if anything, worse.

Give correct URLs, please.

Those URLs work. Why demand full URLs rather than use the working
short versions provided?
It only makes you appear to be unwilling to accept that anything you
disagree with could possibly be true.


"It is necessary — secretly and urgently to prepare the terror. And on
Tuesday we will decide whether it will be through SNK or otherwise."

30 August 1918. See The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the
West (1999) Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, p. 34.

Secondary source. Do you not have something more reliable?

As above. Despite your protests (snipped), you're still only making
yourself look unwilling to accept that anything you disagree with
could possibly be true.
--
Ross

Speaking for me, myself and I. Nobody else
- unless I make it clear that I am...

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could it happen here...??
 

On Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:52:51 +0100 [UTC], Lüko Willms wrote:

[...]
In reality, if BT was not forced to operate as a profit oriented
commercial company, maintaining its position as the the British telecoms
operator, it would have lowered the prices according to the
technological advances.

Believe me, Lüko, it did nothing of the sort.
--
Ross

Speaking for me, myself and I. Nobody else
- unless I make it clear that I am...

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could it happen here...??
 

On Wed, 04 Jan 2012 11:02:28 +0100 [UTC], Lüko Willms wrote:
Am 03.01.2012 22:39, schrieb Ross:

isn't it ridiculous to claim that the nature of a company stops being
a "real commercial company" when the composition of her shareholders
changes?
That's not an answer to the question, Lüko, and you know it.

Why do you resort to making personal attacks on people with whom you
disagree?

What do you tell somebody who claims, stamping his feet in the
ground, that the earth is flat and that the sun rotates around the earth?

Since there is nobody here making such claims, Lüko, that question is
neither rhetorical nor of any value.

I note that you refuse to either explain or justify your behaviour
whilst demanding that everyone who disagrees with you justifies
theirs. That says a lot about you; none of it flattering.
--
Ross

Speaking for me, myself and I. Nobody else
- unless I make it clear that I am...

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could it happen here...??
 

[chomp]

Rhetorical question: Why is it that any statement with which you
disagree is a "lie" and anybody who makes such a statement is a
"habitual liar"?

Don't bother answering. We all know you'll just squirm and post some
self-justifying codswallop which makes no sense whatsoever.
--
Ross

Speaking for me, myself and I. Nobody else
- unless I make it clear that I am...

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could it???happen here...??
 

On Jan 2, 12:34*am, Hans-Joachim Zierke
wrote:

http://www.grammer.com/fileadmin/use.../images/produk...

Actually, having seen that PDF on a larger screen, that's a lower-
backed version of the "tombstone" seats used on First Great Western I
was referring to. They are so called because of the shape of the
(very high) seat back.

http://www.grammer.com/fileadmin/use...tenblatt_D.pdf

Neil

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could it happen here...??
 

On Wed, 4 Jan 2012 12:12:40 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 12:14:27 on
Wed, 4 Jan 2012, Lüko Willms remarked:
Most of the fall in costs has been due to competition, and facilitated
by new technology. Where there's no competition, the new technology is
still expensive.

Nonsense.

I refer the Hon Gent to remarks made about international roaming charges
(as just one example).

The word "cartel" very likely features. Voodoofone's lawyers about to
mention "reputation" are referred to current matters involving the tax
man.

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could it happen here...??
 

On Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:35:07 +0000, Graeme Wall
wrote:

On 04/01/2012 11:52, Lüko Willms wrote:
In reality, if BT was not forced to operate as a profit oriented
commercial company, maintaining its position as the the British telecoms
operator, it would have lowered the prices according to the
technological advances. Deutsche Bundespost did in its times.

In reality it didn't, quite the contrary.

Some of BT's improvements have involved offloading many non-core
activities; once the line reaches your building you are very much on
your own now. Mercury was also mentioned but unlike BT they had
nothing in the way of a universal service obligation and served a very
small market. WRT cheapo international call providers, their quality
often displays how they achieve the low prices; at least with BT all
the callers' sentences tended to arrive intact.

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 04/01/2012 10:02, Lüko Willms wrote:
Am 03.01.2012 22:42, schrieb Arthur Figgis:
Do you also care about the color of the skin of the shareholdes, their
religion, their sexual orientation, their preferred sports?

The religious views of a shareholder in one UK-based transport group
attracted some public interest in the not too distant past.

Tell me more. I don't anything about this.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/602714.stm

Obviously this doesn't directly affect the train and bus services (he
isn't going to get the conditions of carriage amended to adopt the same
rules as the University of Woolamaloo), but the views are widely
associated with him.

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 04/01/2012 10:11, Lüko Willms wrote:
A follow up to my previous reply to

Am 03.01.2012 14:34, schrieb Recliner:

Who appoints the directors and senior managers in DB, and sets the
objectives, etc? Presuming it's the government, it's the government
that controls the company.

Up to 1993, both Deutsche Bundesbahn and Deutsche Reichsbahn were
actually _administrations,_ part of the state apparatus. Important posts
were civil servants, even the engineers.

Which is a difference between Germany and Britain - we just go by who
owns it (to the extent the issue ever arises, do Germans consider
pre-privatisation (IYSWIM!) British Rail to have been private?)


--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 04/01/2012 10:05, Lüko Willms wrote:
Am 03.01.2012 22:47, schrieb Arthur Figgis:
Tell me more about your ideas how trading shares at the stock exchange
changes the nature of a company, switching it from "real commercial" to
the opposite.

If 100% of the shares are owned by the state, how does trading happen?

Normally by selling and buying. How else?

Mostly on the stock exchange, which is made for that. Maybe also
bypassing the stock exchange, but then mostly in big chunks.

Who is actually doing the buying? Is the state trading shares to and
from itself in some kind of zero-sum game?


--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 2012-01-04, Arthur Figgis wrote:
On 04/01/2012 10:02, L?ko Willms wrote:
Am 03.01.2012 22:42, schrieb Arthur Figgis:
Do you also care about the color of the skin of the shareholdes, their
religion, their sexual orientation, their preferred sports?

The religious views of a shareholder in one UK-based transport group
attracted some public interest in the not too distant past.

Tell me more. I don't anything about this.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/602714.stm

Obviously this doesn't directly affect the train and bus services (he
isn't going to get the conditions of carriage amended to adopt the same
rules as the University of Woolamaloo), but the views are widely
associated with him.


Wooloomooloo.

E

--
ms fnd in a lbry

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 03/01/12 13:15, Lüko Willms wrote:

But people like you do not want to be bothered by facts. So you start
deviating from the topic, lying and slandering and insulting.

So when you accuse anyone who disagrees with you of being nostalgic for
empire[1], supporting Hitler and so on, in what sense is that sticking
to the facts? In what sense is that not deviating, lying, libelling[2]
and insulting?

You see, Lüko, calling each other "fascist" at the drop of a hat is SOP
in hard left circles, but it's just childish to the rest of us. You
might as well call you opponents big stinky poo bottoms for all the
credibility it gets you.

Ian

[1] Except the Soviet Empire, of course, which it seems needs no apology
[2] Written defamation, including usenet posting, is libel, not slander.

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 04/01/12 18:04, Ross wrote:
It only makes you appear to be unwilling to accept that anything you
disagree with could possibly be true.

And still Lüko declines to state his position on the Holocaust.

Ian

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 03/01/12 13:14, Lüko Willms wrote:
Am 03.01.2012 10:47, schrieb The Real Doctor:
Says the man who has repeatedly claimed that I am a Hitler apologist.

if you were German, you would be.

Nonsense.

you show again that you are a shamless liar and slanderer.

That would carry a little more weight if the previous part of your
posting had not been both a lie and defamatory.

Ian

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 03/01/12 13:15, Lüko Willms wrote:
Am 03.01.2012 01:46, schrieb The Real Doctor:
That is why I am equally happy to condemn British imperialism in India,
French imperialism in Indo-china, Soviet imperialism in central Europe
and Spanish/Argentinian imperialism in the South Atlantic.

tongue in cheek.

Sincerely.

What about the Holocaust, Lüko? Did it happen? Did it matter?

Ian

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 04/01/12 10:28, Lüko Willms wrote:
There are not price drops any more, even though the competition got
stiffer, because there is no more such a leap in technology.

I renewed my domestic phone contract[1] last year. As part of the deal,
I could get unlimited calls to other countries in the EU for three
pounds per month. That's a heck of a drop.

Ian

[1] With a cooperative.

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 04/01/12 10:02, Lüko Willms wrote:
What do you tell somebody who claims, stamping his feet in the ground,
that the earth is flat and that the sun rotates around the earth?

How can the sun rotate around the earth if the earth is flat?

Ian

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 04/01/12 12:00, Lüko Willms wrote:
Sure, but not about his religious beliefs, which is something I do
normally not care about, being a private affair.

He funds anti-gay campaigns in Scotland.

Ian

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 04/01/2012 09:53, Lüko Willms wrote:
Am 03.01.2012 22:32, schrieb Arthur Figgis:
DB had "working" narrow-gauge steam in the former east until the lines
were sold off in the mid-2000s - perhaps a bit of a grey area how "real"
it was, but they were regular timetabled services with were normal
passengers as well as anoraks.

There are still some (narrow gauge) lines with regular steam traction,
but those lines are not owned by DB.

Mostly tourist lines, like the one on the Brocken, or at the Baltic sea
cost.

The one on the outskirts of Dresden was less touristy when I did it at
the tail end of DB days (2003, I think).


--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 04/01/2012 10:28, Lüko Willms wrote:
Am 03.01.2012 23:25, schrieb Charles Ellson:
Anyway, phone services in
the UK are far, far better and far, far cheaper than when the Post
Office had a monopoly.

Much of that is down to changes in the technology; e.g. international
telephone calls are not cheaper due to a change in ownership.

I dare say that _all_ of the price drops was due to a change in
technology (computerization of switches, optical fibers, better channel
division).

= attacks on the jobs of the girls who plug the connections in to put
calls through.


--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

Complete (almost) Shutdown of Berlin Train System - could ithappen here...??
 

On 03/01/12 13:26, Lüko Willms wrote:

At last, you admit that you do not have a clue about what we are talking
about

I rarely have any idea what you are talking about, that's true.

I do not judge about what people _should_ or should not be happy with.
YOU do, as does Herr Schnell.

I just pointed out the fact that Herr Schnell is upset about the Berlin
railway workers still enjoying labor standards which they had acquired
during GDR times.

And there you go, judging what people should or should not be happy with.

Ian