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Why Do We Tolerate These Morons?

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ToraToraTora | 09:28 Wed 27th Jan 2021 | News
114 Answers
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55796445
Just start pumping concrete in, they come out. We always seem to pussy foot about when the solution is simple and obvious.
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They should chuck some of those birds from Greenham Common down the tunnels. They'd frighten anyone off. shudder
10:28 Wed 27th Jan 2021
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trevorthepug, still waiting for the "compelling arguments".

//Are we talking about the keyboard fascists on Answerbank? At least these people are actually taking some action for what they believe in rather than lazy couch potato nay-saying dullards//

Speak for yourself, Trevor.... there have been a lot of protests around here.
TTT, I have already heard of it... believe it or not, I don't need to see other people's opinions to tell me what I think.
I'm surprised you don't find it anti-British, yourself? It's part of the European network, it isn't even designed for our benefit.


//...but then again you did think that Brexit was the mostest brilliantisist idear evvah didnya.//

No I didn't, actually. I believed it was a far better idea than remaining in a political bloc that did not serve the UK's best interests, for that was the choice voters were faced with. I can think of much better ideas, one of which was the European Economic Community but alas that was sacrificed on the altar of "Ever Closer Union" and finally buried in 1992.

Still, judging by the EU's vaccine fiasco I'm quite happy with my support for Brexit so far. The vaccination rollout is a topic I'm pleased to say, so far at least, it seems I was totally wrong about when I suggested the UK would descend into a similar farce. Seems the EU has been too busy arguing about the price of beetroot to get its order with Pfizer in on time. However, we digress.
How's the lightbulb situation, NJ?
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pixie: "TTT, I have already heard of it... believe it or not, I don't need to see other people's opinions to tell me what I think." - perhaps but you said you'd not read the thread and then spouted a common uninformed view.
"I'm surprised you don't find it anti-British, yourself? It's part of the European network, it isn't even designed for our benefit. " - What a ridiculous assessment!
It's not an "assessment". It's why all the lines begin with E... because it's for Europe. I work with someone whose sons work for it. They had to stop briefly after the referendum... while we worked out if we had already got in too far. Which we had, so it continues. It's part of a big European network.
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pixie: what begins with E?
Anyway, it certainly would be in Europe's interests to have better links in all the countries of Europe, it still is, we are still in Europe. Anyone in the UK that wants to use it can. However the primary function is to increase capacity going to the north and in the north.
TTT, yes we are still part of Europe, but destroying our country seems a little too far.... for a railway line.
At some point, we have to wonder when we are going too far, and not just steamroller on. What about the future? Technology is unbelievably more effective now.... but we still need to physically destroy things?
It's all very short-sighted. It's irreversible.
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pixie: Have you read about why it's needed? Not just the yaa boo, rich people yada yada, speed, yada yada, stuff, I mean the real reasons, explained very well here:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hs2-logistics-financial-benefit-controversy-a8937936.html
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trevorthepug, still waiting for the "compelling arguments"
I have, TTT, and read yours as far as adblocker allows.... but there is nothing compelling, or that justifies this amount of destruction.
Underground, a bridge, ferries.... in this day and age, is this really the ultimate solution?
Nigel Farage is against HS2.
^ So am I.
//How's the lightbulb situation, NJ?//

Tickety-boo, thanks for asking, Zacs. As I think I mentioned within one of the Brexit filibusters (which seem to have taken place a lifetime and a half ago), I reluctantly decided to make a phased switchover to LED bulbs as far as possible. I simply couldn’t be doing with the hassle of trying to source proper lightbulbs and I found an online provider that does all the colours in all of the sizes (I have no less that 23 bulb types in my modest house). So as my stock of proper light bulbs runs out I simply order the LED equivalents. I don’t like them, but needs must. As I was reading your post an ad for this supplier popped up:

https://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/

Not my supplier, but whose watching me?

//It's part of a big European network.//

And what’s wrong with that? I should have thought the tree huggers would have been more than pleased if people travelling to Europe chose to go by train instead of by air. I know they’d prefer they didn’t travel at all or at least if they had to then either walk or cycle, but that’s not always practical. The trains would be powered by “sustainable” energy (like burning wood), natch. I’d be delighted to be able to travel by one train from London to, say, Lisbon, Rome or Athens. Getting more freight onto the rails (properly, not by loading lorries on to trains) would have enormous benefits for cross channel transport and it would mean militant French fishermen blockading Calais would be wasting their time.

//but there is nothing compelling, or that justifies this amount of destruction.//

Yes there is. It is the movement of people and goods.
^^^I’d be delighted to be able to travel by one train from London to, say, Lisbon, Rome or Athens.

And I forgot to add that there's no reason why people from elsewhere in the country should not be able to do likewise. HS2 will help them do that.
If this resistance to change had been around 150 years ago we'd never of got round to building the London Undeground or last century we'd still be debating whether to build the Severn Bridge or M1/M25 or Channel tunnel (ok maybe a bad example for some!) or the major airports
It isn't simply a matter of cost, it is a matter of prestige. The only high-speed train the UK has is the short stretch of Eurostar.

Italy has the fastest train in the EU, the AGV Italo which has an operational speed of 360kmph and broke a record speed of 574.8kmph, The Germans have there tilting ICE trains, the French their TGVs & the Spanish their Talgo 350s.

Don't be shy Britain, go for it, make it good & make it fast!

I understand the rationale behind HS2 - I just think it is fundamentally flawed.

The premise is that by opening up an additional capacity rail network to the north of England, we will open up the 'Northern Powerhouse' which is the kind of fatuous label that could only have been dreamed up by a suit who has never ventured north of Watford in his life.

It flies entirely in the face of cultural differences between north and south, which remain stubbornly in place despite the metrosexual southern elite pretending that they don't.

Basically, it's like this. People in the north have a deep and abiding dislike and distrust of southerners whom they regard as soft, self-centered and out of touch with anything not inside the M25.

People in the south have a deep and abiding dislike and distrust of northerners whom they regard as simple, uncultured, insular, and out of touch with anything south of Coleshill.

That is a fundamental divide that is not going to altered by building a rail line between the two.

London businesses will never venture outside the capital, and northern businesses will never venture into the capital - the two don't mix, and that shows no sign of changing.

If there is any shift at all, it will be entirely from north to south, rather than the ludicrous pipe dream that making Manchester quicker to get to suddenly makes them alluring to born-and-bred Home Counties types.

I always have, and will again quote my prime face example - Richard And Judy.

Where did it start? Liverpool.

Where did it end - London.

Why?

Because you can't get celebrities and London-based guests to schlep up the M1/M6 to appear on a morning TV show, and it was forced to relocate or simply stop getting guests to appear.

What about the BBC, and it's 'fabulous Media City' located in fabulous chic trendy Manchester?

Three parts of its staff flatly refused to locate!!

Why?

Well mainly because it's not in Manchester at all, it's in Salford which is the city next door - a small point when anything 'northern' looks like anything else, but it failed to sell the idea to anyone with the clout to refuse to move.

As I say, the notion of HS2 opening the 'Northern Powerhouse' is a pointless myth, and a devastatingly destructive money-hoovering white elephant of a myth as well.
Bobbin //If this resistance to change...//

I have no natural resistance to change, I think the world is about 500 years behind what we know, it can't change fast enough for me.... but I also prefer it to go forwards, rather than backwards.

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