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As Boris couldn't get his Garden Bridge built when he was MoL, he was sure as dammit going to make sure this White Elephant happened. I wonder how many Tory donors stand to get richer off the back of it[emoji848]

Just think of how many useful provincial light railways and other public transport/cycle initiatives that could've been built to ease congestion on regular commuter routes for the same cost.

Utterly shameful and destructive vanity project....ticks all the boxes for Bojo!

When did HS2 start? 2009.
Remind me who was in charge and started the snowball rolling down the hill........ :)
 
When did HS2 start? 2009.
Remind me who was in charge and started the snowball rolling down the hill........ :)
Was it as much of a White Elephant as it clearly is now in 2009 and did the government who have been in power in various guises for the last 11 years have ample opportunity at various stages to kill it off?[emoji2955]
 
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Was it as much of a White Elephant as it clearly is now in 2009 and did the government who have been in power in various guises for the last 11 years have ample opportunity at various stages to kill it off?[emoji2955]
On the subject of HS2 -and East -West railway, - both are well under construction simultaneously just over the border in SW Bucks... Ive a few friends who live out that way (close to the small village (gorgeous)George Baldock lived), due to both railway constructors requirements , (plus several local house build construction also in the vicinity) , their village has been in effect isolated on a number of occasions, due to 'urgently' neccessary road closures. It seems there is no co-ordination between both railway construction companies with each other, nor with the various house build constructors, while Bucks county council allow them to do exactly what the want (and demand) in the way of shutting roads, and nevermind the council tax paying residents- in between countless road closures, when the roads are open, construction vehicles railway & housing , thunder through small villages at over double the speed limit, causing serious damage to road surfaces, residents properties and belongings ( private vehicles etc) and have caused no end of near miss traffic accidents too .... HS2 constructors have uprooted and demolished many ancient woodlands, NOT on their plans, which cannot be replanted as ancient woodlands, nor provide homes for the forcibly evicted local wildlife...... but its all ALL in the name of progress. And to cut 5 mins off the time of a train journey from Birmingham to London. So we should all be grateful. Apparently
 
Was it as much of a White Elephant as it clearly is now in 2009 and did the government who have been in power in various guises for the last 11 years have ample opportunity at various stages to kill it off?[emoji2955]

Thing is infrastructure takes planning, development, land purchase. legal stuff etc etc etc.

Eventually it reaches a tipping point of no return.

It`s rather unlikely that anyone foresaw tens of thousands being able to WFH or remotely least of all try it... until they had too.

Had it been cancelled after lets say 30% of the cost had been spent and Boris had said "Things have changed so we`ve cancelled it, sadly we spunked £30 billion in the process" folk wouldn`t be happy.

Fudged either way.......... should never have started shagging the ugly munter wearing beer goggles but at what point do you sober up and pull out? :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
 
Thing is infrastructure takes planning, development, land purchase. legal stuff etc etc etc.

Eventually it reaches a tipping point of no return.

It`s rather unlikely that anyone foresaw tens of thousands being able to WFH or remotely least of all try it... until they had too.

Had it been cancelled after lets say 30% of the cost had been spent and Boris had said "Things have changed so we`ve cancelled it, sadly we spunked £30 billion in the process" folk wouldn`t be happy.

Fudged either way.......... should never have started shagging the ugly munter wearing beer goggles but at what point do you sober up and pull out? :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
So how much has already been actually spent then? And, to be fair, while people would decry stopping now and 'spunking' £X billion, I'm sure more would take that than doubling/ trebling/ quadrupling that number to complete something that is of little benefit/use to the vast majority of the nation.

Also, it seemed pretty clear to me, and I presume others, that given the 15-20 year period it was going to take to complete the whole thing that technology was always going to have found a way to make the railway, and the main justification of enabling quicker business journeys to connect the north and south, both thoroughly obselete, covid or not.
 
So how much has already been actually spent then? And, to be fair, while people would decry stopping now and 'spunking' £X billion, I'm sure more would take that than doubling/ trebling/ quadrupling that number to complete something that is of little benefit/use to the vast majority of the nation.

Also, it seemed pretty clear to me, and I presume others, that given the 15-20 year period it was going to take to complete the whole thing that technology was always going to have found a way to make the railway, and the main justification of enabling quicker business journeys to connect the north and south, both thoroughly obselete, covid or not.
I think there will still be a need to make business journeys, probably more so if more people are working remotely. People will still meet face to face. The time to stop it would have been a year ago , but Johnson gave the go ahead - hopefully not just as a very expensive job creation scheme. What I don’t understand is that people always say how great the high speed trains in France and Japan are, but don’t want the same here.
 
On the subject of HS2 -and East -West railway, - both are well under construction simultaneously just over the border in SW Bucks... Ive a few friends who live out that way (close to the small village (gorgeous)George Baldock lived), due to both railway constructors requirements , (plus several local house build construction also in the vicinity) , their village has been in effect isolated on a number of occasions, due to 'urgently' neccessary road closures. It seems there is no co-ordination between both railway construction companies with each other, nor with the various house build constructors, while Bucks county council allow them to do exactly what the want (and demand) in the way of shutting roads, and nevermind the council tax paying residents- in between countless road closures, when the roads are open, construction vehicles railway & housing , thunder through small villages at over double the speed limit, causing serious damage to road surfaces, residents properties and belongings ( private vehicles etc) and have caused no end of near miss traffic accidents too .... HS2 constructors have uprooted and demolished many ancient woodlands, NOT on their plans, which cannot be replanted as ancient woodlands, nor provide homes for the forcibly evicted local wildlife...... but its all ALL in the name of progress. And to cut 5 mins off the time of a train journey from Birmingham to London. So we should all be grateful. Apparently
Good summary, I live in that village you describe. And the work so far is just the prep work for when the real action begins! Also evident is countless numbers of HS2/EWR employees loafing around with seemingly not much to do. Don’t even mention all the non-socially distanced workers from all over the country descending on our little village Co-op......😱😱
 
I think there will still be a need to make business journeys, probably more so if more people are working remotely. People will still meet face to face. The time to stop it would have been a year ago , but Johnson gave the go ahead - hopefully not just as a very expensive job creation scheme. What I don’t understand is that people always say how great the high speed trains in France and Japan are, but don’t want the same here.

They want that stuff, but not in there back yards obviously, go and ruin someone else’s view.
Loads of companies will have the workers go back, once they realise how much dossing about all you lazy office workers have done at home.
 
Good summary, I live in that village you describe. And the work so far is just the prep work for when the real action begins! Also evident is countless numbers of HS2/EWR employees loafing around with seemingly not much to do. Don’t even mention all the non-socially distanced workers from all over the country descending on our little village Co-op......😱😱
I hear the floor surface in said village co-op (corner shop) often resembles a railway construction site, with absolute steeples of clay (d)on there, deposited constantly during daylight hours by non socially distanced construction workers size 12 boots :sneaky: :oops:
 
Thing is infrastructure takes planning, development, land purchase. legal stuff etc etc etc.

Eventually it reaches a tipping point of no return.

It`s rather unlikely that anyone foresaw tens of thousands being able to WFH or remotely least of all try it... until they had too.

Had it been cancelled after lets say 30% of the cost had been spent and Boris had said "Things have changed so we`ve cancelled it, sadly we spunked £30 billion in the process" folk wouldn`t be happy.

Fudged either way.......... should never have started shagging the ugly munter wearing beer goggles but at what point do you sober up and pull out? :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
I very much doubt that 30% of the final costs has already been spent and anyway a lot of the spend at this stage will have been on the acquisition of land and buildings that can be sold on.
 
I very much doubt that 30% of the final costs has already been spent and anyway a lot of the spend at this stage will have been on the acquisition of land and buildings that can be sold on.
It’s interesting that this project has been through several governments and has been unpopular with the public but has been continued when it would have been easy to cancel it.
 
Nice to see Councils getting resources cut, a 1% pay rise for Nurses etc but a further £15bn will be spent on the failing test and trace system so a lot of Tory Donors will continue to feed at the trough:

 
NASA sent Perseverance probe to Mars, landed it and are gathering data for £2bn. If SERCO had been involved it would probably be gathering data in Sutton, at 40 times the cost.

The budget is an unspeakable failure to address the problems COVID has exposed in social and health realms.
 
NASA sent Perseverance probe to Mars, landed it and are gathering data for £2bn. If SERCO had been involved it would probably be gathering data in Sutton, at 40 times the cost.

The budget is an unspeakable failure to address the problems COVID has exposed in social and health realms.
Irrelevant. So long as the Chumocracy gets richer, that is ALL that matters.

The rest of us mere mortals can....eat cake, I guess
 
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Yet still the turkeys are voting for xmas. On the bright side, I suppose it saves Boris having to start a war to get re-elected :)
Wash your mouth out Cannell! How dare you call or imply that the electorate are stupid. Doing so loses you referenda, don't you know.

Never ever tell them they are stupid and that they don't know what they are voting for again!!!

Just know it to be a fact for large swathes, don't say anything about it and just carry on lying to them and deceiving them. Spit out any old jngoistic "Britain uber alles" nonsense and you'll have them eating out of the palm of your hand;)
 
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