I tweeted seventeen times in a row this morning because I was bored of hearing about Corbyn. They have to be read from the bottom up:
As a follow up this exchange, with a right wing talk show host on Talk Radio is worth noting. I can explain the funding for this in 140 characters:
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If you are sick of hearing about Corbyn, then let’s talk about something more closer to our hearts – trains.
Well, HS2 has got through Parliament. This will no doubt contribute to jobs etc.
But for me it is a vanity project only. A much more worthwhile one would have been to:
1) Change the loading gauge of the whole BR network to the European LG so that we could have had bigger and roomier rolling stock that can take more passengers comfortably. This would have provided jobs and output for years plus also overcome current capacity issues and improved things for ripped off passengers.
2) Re-quadrify the routes that were de-quadrified in the run up to privatisation to reduce costs to in order to woo investors and increase service capacity – plus also expand capacity of existing lines where possible – new bridges etc,.
3) Electrify the whole network. As oil runs out, it will become more expensive and travel costs will rise. Stupid. Electrification would also be good for the environment. I’m sick of being poisoned by diesel fumes at British stations as the latest high speed pilchard cans stop there. These new trains seem to spew out more filth than even an HST or an EE Type 3 in need of a service.
What I think will happen is that the existing routes mirrored by HS2 will eventually suffer from a drop in investment and service level as has happened to those routes affected the TGV network in France (only because the more stupid people in the EU – the neo-libs – insist on there being no subsidy as I understand it for services that although socially significant are no longer ‘competitive’).
Our railways are supposed to be a utility. They have beneficial effects on the rest of the economy. Instead they are treated as a stand alone income stream and those beneficial effects are not realised in the round.
The investment I outline above would have had huge returns over many years and not just financial ones.
By God we are a badly ran realm.
There are so man y small things that would massively improve rail at low cost
Around me Ely North Junction would be transformational – but it’s on hold, again
Cross Rail is no problem though
Excellent Richard.
Spot on Richard! But how are you (or anyone else) going to persuade the Blairites – New Labour having been Thatcher’s ‘greatest achievement’?
My job’s to tell the story
I am not in Labour
Love the manifesto, but am confused by emphasis on tax in funding tweet as it seems contrary to arguments in your book re purposes of tax. Or am I missing something?
It’s necessary because if the amount of funding I’d expect to see injected into the economy
And politically it has to be said
Excellent Richard. People point to the so-called failure of tax borrow and spend but the truth is that we have never taxed or borrowed or spent enough.