The Perils Of Privatisation - Part X
News3 mins ago
30 Years Ago Today
30 years ago we were still an adventurous and outward looking nation who did stuff like build the Channel Tunnel.
Now we've degenerated into a frightened, myopic, and inwards looking nation, intent on hiding away behind trade barriers we've erected against our European neighbours (no matter the harm to our own economy we're inflicting in the process).
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Now we've degenerated into a frightened, myopic, and inwards looking nation, intent on hiding away behind trade barriers we've erected against our European neighbours (no matter the harm to our own economy we're inflicting in the process).
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//Crossrail is testament that we are still great at incredible engineering feats. It is remarkable.//
It's remarkable because it's promoters have managed to fool people into believing it is an extensive new railway. The bits that are "completed" are from Liverpool Street and Shenfield, Essex as well as between Paddington and Reading, Berkshire. There is also a line from Paddington to Heathrow operating. The first of those mentioned was first opened in 1843. The Paddington to Reading route was part of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western Railway (opened in 1840) and the Heathrow route was opened more than twenty years ago. The only "new" bit is the bit under Central London and out to Abbey Wood. It is a fine piece of engineering but it is four years late, is beset with technical problems and is massively over budget. That's the story behind most major infrastructure projects in the UK.
It's remarkable because it's promoters have managed to fool people into believing it is an extensive new railway. The bits that are "completed" are from Liverpool Street and Shenfield, Essex as well as between Paddington and Reading, Berkshire. There is also a line from Paddington to Heathrow operating. The first of those mentioned was first opened in 1843. The Paddington to Reading route was part of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western Railway (opened in 1840) and the Heathrow route was opened more than twenty years ago. The only "new" bit is the bit under Central London and out to Abbey Wood. It is a fine piece of engineering but it is four years late, is beset with technical problems and is massively over budget. That's the story behind most major infrastructure projects in the UK.
fairly remarkable, Sunk, I've been waiting on the platform at Bond St for quite a while now. Still, not as long as I'd have been waiting at Berlin's new airport.
But this was the thing that struck me decades ago. I was never a great fan of the British Empire, but at least the British went out and built it. Now so many seem to sit at home whimpering at the sight of foreigners. There does seem to have been a great national loss of nerve at some point.
But this was the thing that struck me decades ago. I was never a great fan of the British Empire, but at least the British went out and built it. Now so many seem to sit at home whimpering at the sight of foreigners. There does seem to have been a great national loss of nerve at some point.
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"73% of those who are worried about immigration voted Leave, compared with 36% of those who did not identify this as a concern. 72% of those holding ‘authoritarian’ views voted to leave, compared with 21% of those holding ‘libertarian’ views."
"73% of those who are worried about immigration voted Leave, compared with 36% of those who did not identify this as a concern. 72% of those holding ‘authoritarian’ views voted to leave, compared with 21% of those holding ‘libertarian’ views."
The Channel tunnel project didn't go without hitches:
The locomotives that were used to pull the tunnel lining segments and spoil trains broke down frequently under wet conditions.
We anticipated that the soil stratum was mostly dry. They thus configured the Tunnel Building Machines in 'open' mode. However, they tunneled into unexpected micro-fissured chalk which was very permeable and very quickly incapacitated the TBM. Dry chalk started to give way to moist chalk and chunks of rocks started to fall from the crown and sides of the newly excavated bore. One of the TBMs had to be left underground as they couldn't back it out.
The estimated budget overran by 80% (total project cost reaching £9.2 billion) and the official opening of the Channel Tunnel was May 1994, one year later then the contractual completion date.
The locomotives that were used to pull the tunnel lining segments and spoil trains broke down frequently under wet conditions.
We anticipated that the soil stratum was mostly dry. They thus configured the Tunnel Building Machines in 'open' mode. However, they tunneled into unexpected micro-fissured chalk which was very permeable and very quickly incapacitated the TBM. Dry chalk started to give way to moist chalk and chunks of rocks started to fall from the crown and sides of the newly excavated bore. One of the TBMs had to be left underground as they couldn't back it out.
The estimated budget overran by 80% (total project cost reaching £9.2 billion) and the official opening of the Channel Tunnel was May 1994, one year later then the contractual completion date.
untitled; "It is not anti-British to oppose or disagree with an act of national self-harm" - indeed if it is actually self harm. 52% of this country didn't think it was. Wanting our nation to be subjugated to unelected foreign bureaucrats and collaborating with our enemies to achieve it? Now that's anti British.
It is not anti-British to care about preserving the Union of Great Britain and to care about protecting this country's vital trade relationships with its neighbours. Those things might not be important to you, but they are to me and it is not anti-British to say so even if a narrow majority disagree.
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