Ot- May calls for election in June.

[swaledale]

There is indeed a misconception including the welfare state and NHS where the majority of expenditure goes to pensioners.

Don't disagree that those able should take work thats available but given unemployment is down to 4.5% which is as close to full employment as one can get, there clearly isn't a lot of "spare" labour in this country, as no doubt we will find out in due course.

[Ram59]

You are right, sorry to hear you will suffer.

Thanks for that, I'm a little one man band who rents a unit on a farm, without a lease. But progress has to be made and it has to affect some people. I also live very close to the route of hs2 and will face years of disruption on the local roads.

C'est le vie, as Del Boy would say.

[roger_ramjet]

Good luck Ram59 - I have just endured over 3 years of atrocious service disruption on Network Southeast and expect more for years to come. Trains overcrowded delayed or cancelled almost every day and then 6 months of strike action on top. Example 1 - a 15 minute journey to work took 3 hours. Exsple 2 - a 35 minute journey to London spent stood up with my face buried in a sweaty armpit. There are lots of better ways to spend the HS2 capital.

[ramAnag]

Thanks for that attachment to #229, KCG. One of the most intelligent and worthwhile pieces to ever appear on here imo.

[roger_ramjet]

Lickspittle!

[Andy_Faber]

Good luck Ram59 - I have just endured over 3 years of atrocious service disruption on Network Southeast and expect more for years to come. Trains overcrowded delayed or cancelled almost every day and then 6 months of strike action on top. Example 1 - a 15 minute journey to work took 3 hours. Exsple 2 - a 35 minute journey to London spent stood up with my face buried in a sweaty armpit. There are lots of better ways to spend the HS2 capital.

My HS2 woe is that to get from home to my place of work will involve SIX crossings of the HS2 path, three of which will be concurrent and within five miles of one another. I had the dubious pleasure of seeing some of the traffic projections and the diversion for me was M1/M69/M6/A446, which on a clear day takes 45 mins longer than my existing 1 hour 30 commute, I'm guessing I'll be looking at a three hour commute from Derby to my office, and no its not commutable by train.

Mrs Faber thinks its Karma on me as I have taken less than a dozen journeys on the UK rail network in my adult life

[Ram59]

My HS2 woe is that to get from home to my place of work will involve SIX crossings of the HS2 path, three of which will be concurrent and within five miles of one another. I had the dubious pleasure of seeing some of the traffic projections and the diversion for me was M1/M69/M6/A446, which on a clear day takes 45 mins longer than my existing 1 hour 30 commute, I'm guessing I'll be looking at a three hour commute from Derby to my office, and no its not commutable by train.

Mrs Faber thinks its Karma on me as I have taken less than a dozen journeys on the UK rail network in my adult life

I think you need a helicopter.

On the renewal of Trident, it's not a simple question of 'who do we need to defend against?' now, because we have to make a decision now in order for the Trident replacement in 10 to 15 years time. Who knows where the threat will come from in 15 years time and if it suddenly appeared, we would be vulnerable for many years, before we could defend ourselves.

[swaledale]

Good luck Ram59 - I have just endured over 3 years of atrocious service disruption on Network Southeast and expect more for years to come. Trains overcrowded delayed or cancelled almost every day and then 6 months of strike action on top. Example 1 - a 15 minute journey to work took 3 hours. Exsple 2 - a 35 minute journey to London spent stood up with my face buried in a sweaty armpit. There are lots of better ways to spend the HS2 capital.

I feel a ahem moment Rog - NetworkSoutheast hasn't existed since privatisation so you can't have had a bad experience with them for the last three years!

[swaledale]

The question surely though is Trident the right method of defence and a sensible use of scarce resources, or do we need more conventional forces?

Or is it a political ambition to be a "nuclear power" rather than any consideration as to the purpose it serves in defence?

[swaledale]

I think there is a misconception about the hs2. It's not just about speed, the existing lines are at capacity and the alternative would be to double the Number of tracks. But there is no room to do this in many places and think of the Disruption to the normal rail service while It was going on.

So, now that we're building a new track, it makes sense to make it as fast and efficient as possible.

BTW, I'm suffering disruption from the hs2 and probably won't get any compensation either.

Very true Ram59, we are still piddling about on victorian infrastructure and HS2 will eventually free up capacity for local passenger and more freight services, its just typical that in this country we fart around for so long before anything happens.