Second high speed rail link from London to various parts of Northern England. Instigated by previous (Labour) government, who later admitted that they had basically pulled the thing from their bum as a Keynsian reflationary boondoggle with zero economic justification for the investment.
Inexplicably, the current government, rather than using the fiasco as an excuse to jump up and down and laugh at Labour's contemptible attitude towards the public purse, have decided to treat the whole affair as if it were a deadly serious well-thought-through major public works investment, and are defending it with rottweiler-like tenacity as if it were their very own dearly beloved pet project.
Baffling.
Anyway, I guess it will get built successfully in the end, as these things tend to ... although it's main use will probably be to hasten the journey of refugees from the economic wastelands of the North to the only place in the UK with actual jobs on offer. I.e. London. (Where they will all sleep at night is beyond me, however -- as the usual NIMBYs are doing a great job of preventing the development of what we actually need -- large volumes of high density housing for London-based workers).
A fine summary although I'd argue that what the Government needs to do is encourage growth outside of London (it's really not that bad up here and I was born and raised in London). This is a small country we should be able to distribute ourselves a little better.
It's not that I'm against H2 because I don't think we need good infrastructure links between the North and South, it's just that I don't see that reducing an already 2 hour Manchester to London commute by 30 minutes is worth the money (already estimated at around £20 billion). I'd like to see a counter proposal describing what you could with that kind of money invested in the current network. My concern is that if H2 goes ahead, we will see each Government that comes to power pointing to it as the solution to all rail problems and taking little interest in the rest of the network.
Inexplicably, the current government, rather than using the fiasco as an excuse to jump up and down and laugh at Labour's contemptible attitude towards the public purse, have decided to treat the whole affair as if it were a deadly serious well-thought-through major public works investment, and are defending it with rottweiler-like tenacity as if it were their very own dearly beloved pet project.
Baffling.
Anyway, I guess it will get built successfully in the end, as these things tend to ... although it's main use will probably be to hasten the journey of refugees from the economic wastelands of the North to the only place in the UK with actual jobs on offer. I.e. London. (Where they will all sleep at night is beyond me, however -- as the usual NIMBYs are doing a great job of preventing the development of what we actually need -- large volumes of high density housing for London-based workers).