Wednesday 23 February 2011

Arise Comrades! Communism has returned?

If you check Wikipedia you will find it will tell you that the Communist Party of Great Britain disbanded in 1991. Textbooks may imply that Communism is long gone and with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and China now widely regarded as a capitalist nation you would be forgiven for thinking that Communism is dead never mind the concept  it exists in the UK.

However your wrong, despite officially disbanding in 1991 the Communist Party of Great Britain merely changed its name and after several mergers it appears to have re-emerged. Here is the website of CP (communist party): http://www.communist-party.org.uk/  
Formed of trade unionists put off by New Labour and other Socialist supporters that have been neglected by mainstream politics, as well as long-standing communist supporters. Its not really a surprise to see a return to strength for the Communist movement, considering the growing uneven distribution of income, rising unemployment and political disillusion (voting figures can tell you this). The movement also states in its party slogan 'for peace' tapping into the growing 'anti-imperialism movement' (that being imperialism of the USA, that evil capitalist over lord). There’s also no better catalyst than Conservative Government with a regressive austerity plan at a time of stagnating growth and rising inflation. 
Youth Employment is still rising and its clear to see the consequences of this, all you have to do is look at a few boarders south to find millions of revolting Arabs bringing down corrupt 'capitalist' kings. The students protests showed British students are willing flare up their own small-scale revolt and when attending an open day at Manchester University I saw plenty of Marx propaganda. 
I would say main stream politicians are really not taking seriously the threats these movements pose and the media is quick to pick on plenty of far right examples (BNP EDL etc), in times of economic desperation and political disillusion people turn extreme.  


Communism, a mad theory created by a bunch of destabilizing radicals or the answer?



Monday 7 February 2011

BUS WARS: Chapter 4: Price Wars

A price war is a phonomium that occurs in an oligopolistic market. In oligpopistic markets only a few firms dominate the market and according to game theory this leads to businesses to battle directly with one other. Unlike in a free market were firms struggle to influence the market each other (price taker), in a oligpoplistic market each firm has a direct impact on one another, if one business lowers its prices it can attract people to them and thus cut the revenue of their rivals.
A bus war is a brutal for of price war. In terms of the example above if one bus company lowers its prices to go from the city center to a village and another bus company that runs the same route does not then bus users are likely to switch from one bus service to another. A bus war is far more amplified than a price war as the businesses are pinned to a certain route pitched directly against each other.

In the mid 2000s Stagecoach's quest to increase its market share organically rather than taking over firms it created deadly bus wars across the country one such brutal war of economics was in the city of Preston. Preston was targeted by Stagecoach and the creation of Preston Citi was the 'army' they committed. Preston Citi was a re-branding to take Preston Buses advantage in identity with the city it would also give Preston Citi more freedom to compete with Preston Bus. In key areas across Preston, Preston Citi bus were launched in direct competition with Preston Bus. Preston Bus responded like wise.
Soon Preston Bus and Preston Citi Bus were running simultaneous in direct competition, both lowering their prices against each other. Preston Bus lowering its prices to force out Preston Citi and Preston Citi lowering its prices to drive out Preston Bus.
One of the critical battle grounds was Ashton, were bus tickets into Preston Centre were as low as 40p at one point, a stark contrasts to other routes were Preston Citi was charging well over £1.
It was not just price competition, Preston Citi also launched loyalty schemes such as day riders and mega riders which proved successful in capturing control of the market.
Price competition for Preston Bus was not stustationable, making losses per customers and looking market share they were in deep trouble. While Preston bus struggled, Preston Citi could make losses and be sustained by profits across the Stagecoach empire. Preston bus was making a anual turnover of around £11 million but compared to Stagecoaches £1.2 Billion. Preston Bus was owned by its employees with no where to go for funding or help. Preston bus was soon facing yearly loses and it Stagecoach now moved in for the kill...

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Pol-Eco-UK Facebook Page

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