Tuesday, January 10, 2012

High speed rail

The infrastructure of the South East and East Anglia in particular was pretty much abandoned by the last government for lack of voter potential. However, VAST sums were lavished on traditional Labour supporting areas in the North, Wales, Midlands and of course Scotland - where Broon and his Caledonian cabal hung out.

And now CMD is planning to blow £30bn+ (that we don't have) on trains to get the occupants of North Britain down south even faster? We can only assume that this will be using entirely British technology from end to end.

But fibre to every building in the land would be a FAR better use of the money - assuming it was using all UK made kit.

Monday, January 09, 2012

No more rearranging the deckchairs?


David Cameron showed up on the Andrew Marr show (Jan 8th 2012) and said a couple of encouraging things. So far the coalition has been mostly  obliged to take bearings in a tempestuous global situation, compounded by Labour's 13 years of cock-ups and creeping state oppression. But rearranging the same old deckchairs has to stop sooner or later.

One subject he addressed was the inevitable/obvious move of calling the Scottish independence bluff, and forcing the issue of independence. Which we imagine came as a bit of a shock to the not-nearly-as-smart-as-he-thinks-he-is Alex Salmond. Intriguingly, although Cameron has always said he wants Scotland in the union, at this time ist's not at all obvious if he is bothered any longer, given the fact that Scotland has been a tory-free zone for several elections, and there are plenty of Tory MPs who have been pressing to split for years. Faced with the stark reality of making a decision, the general suspicion is that most Scots will not trust Salmond and his preposterous "Arc of Prosperity".

At the same time, we are assuming that the infamous "East Midlothian Question" of Scotland's dramatic over-representation at Westminster will be nailed once and for all, and the English can look forward to no longer to having to pay for Scottish social services.

The other significant comment was that Dave realises that ONLY the UK's small and micro businesses are going to be able to create the required 3 million jobs. Great news: now let's have that promised bonfire of red tape and positive action to help this crucial sector.

Moreover CMD came across very clearly the only politician anywhere in the British Isles with a whiff of leadership about him/her. Other than Boris, perhaps...