1% is a huge amount when most of the rest of the budget is completely spent unless we have a radical reduction in the welfare state which ain’t gonna happen under this government.

I made a Hornby version to check it's feasibility but my neighbours didn't like it when I bulldozed their garage.

Red and Blue Army!

Bloody nimbys!

They just can't see the larger picture.....or their garage anymore.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

I would rather have a UK space program for £100bn

The Chinese have offered to build HS2 in 5 years.

[Link]

Now of course some people are saying we are losing one master Brussels and replacing it with another Beijing.

I don't have an issue in principle because:

- The Current forms building it are useless.
- The Chinese have vast experience in building high speeds railways about 15,000 miles of them and not just in China.
- As long as they use a British workforce
- Where possible they use British steel
- They are on the hook for construction delays.
- The workmanship is up to standard.

Now the 5 years is a guesstimate they would have to do a proper proposal but anything around 10 years or less is a huge improvement on the current scheme.

The government would be crazy not to at least consider it and to ask the obvious question if the Chinese can do this why can't we?

One more point

Probably true but they can't do that here so they will have to give reasons why they can improve the time frame.

One more point