Going on a journey
Posted on
October 04, 2023 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Or not, as the case may be.
All aboard!
But don’t worry, Scotland, we’ve still got a service for you.
Some pedalling may be required.
ROFL …
That, and our membership of the EU ceasing in the event of a “Yes” vote.
If we ever get IndyRef2 they’ll need to invent a few more horror stories. But first off we need to get a government in Scotland that’s pro-Indy.
Don’t hold your breath…
Peddling lies !The “ con”servative Tory party in a nutshell.
I would quite happily lose a railway if it meant Scotland getting away from England and its hegemony over my country.
Hahaha very good Stuart…brightened up a dreich afternoon in Disney City
Not like Rev Stu to make an error of fact.
Nobody has to pedal on these wee trains, not even the driver.
This is good for us, actually.
The chinese maglev could be pushing 300mph in the future; any UK version will not be as good, but even at just over 200mph, if you put Edinburgh/Borders within a couple of hours of central London, Scotland as a nation of Scots, would be fucking-well-finished … the steady trickle, the slow invasion being hidden from us would become a tsunami.
“we’re all palestinians now”
Personally I would see “New Scots” with zero political rights, even for their grandkids, and it’s not just me – look at this
These racist Burnham-Marketeers need to make the case to the New Burnham-Marketeers
link to dailymail.co.uk
– lovely dose of “anglo exceptionalism” there; for thee but not for me and “it’s alright when we do it”
link to dailymail.co.uk
They did this thing, the locals, they “had a vote”, the outcome of which became “law”, which is the rules you have to live by.
As ever, fears and promises falling by the wayside.
It makes no difference.
Nature hates a vacuum and all that.
Some new ones will be along soon enough.
I’m awaiting North Lanarkshire Council reversing recent reverse for Leisure Centre availability after Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election is over. Cue 15 minutes of online ranting and next to zero coverage in media and Anas squeaky clean.
Its the same hearing as folk shouting out about Tory Ministers just making stuff up at current conference. As if any Tory voter actually cares anymore.
Come the Spring….a nice tax break budget and some stern controls and the Tory faithful are re-assured and its back to same old same old with Keir supporting every move they make just praying he doesn’t upset anyone, ever!
I seem to recall Alex Salmond suggesting they started building HS2 at the Carlisle end, and that Scotland would pay for its own connection to it. That way there was a chance it might be finished.
Memory is fuzzy on the actual words, but everybody knew this was always a con on the North.
So much for leveling up. More like f off jock and enjoy the cold and third rate road and rail networks.
Almost all the bad stuff they said would happen in the event of independence – more difficult international trade, money worth less, price of a stamp going up, etc – has already happened. Just waiting for them to bomb our airports then we’ve got a full house.
link to huffingtonpost.co.uk
Aye the gravy train although one of those is about to hit the buffers big style tomorrow in Rutherglen
It’s no wonder that the London-centric Daily Fail has trotted Michael “Glove-puppet” Gove out to tell us all that the demand for a fully autonomous and independant Scotland is falling. The real polling numbers are clearly causing some London bubble dwellers some serious concern when they are wheeling the wee man out to talk tosh on a scale like that!
Scotland is just a tiny wee country, and it has always been welcoming to well-intentioned incomers. The sheer pace and scale of mass immigration is changing the place forever, though.
The roads are an absolute nightmare to navigate now, and Scotland should be concentrating on badly neglected infrastructure and on replenishing the family unit after decades of rampant negligence and indifference. Hell, our main railway line was only electrified just a few years ago!
We simply cannot do that while fundamental decisions, which always revolve around GDP, are made from London. London will never change, and if we Scots don’t want to be swept up into the increasingly fascist and distopian hell-hole world that London politicians are constructing at breakneck speed, we will need to make a move very,very soon.
Mr Gove is clearly needing to go and take his mouth for the substantial sh1te that it is clearly needing. Deep down, the wee man knows this.
Has the penny dripped in the SNP yet or do they still believe the uk gov will give them a referendum.
At what time tomorrow will Humza start his excuses.
Ah’m fair looking forward to my high speed journey to the YES march in Edinburgh on Saturday -3 hours 30 minutes to travel 130 miles on Scotrail- average speed about 45mph overall, on a 40 year-old diesel scrapheap- another glorious Union Dividend.
Meanwhile,
Northern Line extension to Battersea; 1.4 billion
New trains for the Piccadilly Line; 1.5 billion
Transport cash for the Tory ‘Northern Powerhouse’ (that’s south of here); 6 billion
“HS2” so far (LOL); 24.7 billion etc etc etc
What mugs we are…..
Oh, and Super Ally Jack-boot has promised Scotland about a week’s worth of our oil and gas revenues back to rejuvenate the toon centres. What a hero.
It was never going to happen – not as far as Scotland, anyway. We need independence, and take it from there. The toy train is a nice touch.
Promises, promises….after >300 years WISE UP GUYS!
Time to shove bloated Britannia aff the bus.
Well the media tell you that England don’t want you to go.
And the tax payer funded MPs tell you ‘just tell them no.’ No!
But in Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield they already know.
That we’re fighting for them, and it’s only the start of the show.
Hope over fear!
The fact is that passenger numbers are down by around 20% since before the Covid lockdowns, so it’s more difficult to make the investment case. It’s principally a loss of business travel, because these days many meetings are done online. I think the leisure travel numbers are fairly constant, but for leisure travel, outright speed isn’t perhaps the main concern.
I was up in Perthshire seeing my sister 3 weeks ago. The quickest part of the journey was from Peterborough to Edinburgh. Getting from Norfolk to Peterborough took ages on an antiquated rail track (nearly two hours), and it was much the same from Edinburgh to Perth via Stirling. It’s perhaps the local rail system that needs investing in.
Hope over fear. Don’t be afraid. Tell the Westminster Tories that Scotland’s no longer your slave.
Carpe Diem. Well you’ll sieze the day.
Rip the chains from the Unicorn, show then that Scotland is brave!
I doubt HS2 was front, centre or anywhere in voters’ minds in 2014, but fair enough to highlight the yammering that went on about HS2. Lots of fuzzy aspirational spin for a project that ends up being all about London once again.
Yes they should have started building at Carlisle or Newcastle or Manchester or Leeds. But that would never happen. It looks like northern English voters have an uphill struggle to get attention, same as Welsh voters, maybe not quite the same as Scottish voters due to Barnett.
Of course, Salmond et al were going to build their own HS2 equivalent between Glasgow and Edinburgh but that was hot air and nothing happened. At least that got shelved before money was spent.
So, how to increase rail network capacity as is needed?
So are we to get our supposed 8% share of our investment back + interest?
Naw- it’s oor money they’ll say. As you were Scotland.
Black shadow of the Vincent,
Falls on a Triumph line
I got my motorcycle jacket,
But I’m walking all the time.
South Atlantic wind blows,
Ice from a dying creed.
I see no glory,
When will we be free.
This is England.
Most other countries in the world have caught up with the UK now on most parameters and many have now surpassed us.
The UK only really works for the elite millionaires. People think it’s bad now but there’s a long way to go. Living standards for the average Joe will continue to decline and home ownership will return to Dickensian levels.
Sadly there’s no hope on the horizon as Starmer is another continuity candidate with no aspirations about anything. And Scotland has become a laughing stock of wokenese where perverts are prioritised over sanity.
I’ll be outta here once I get enough to retire.
This article reminds me of where we could have been had we voted Yes in 2014. Remember the Alex Salmond proposal in 2012 to the Intergenerational Foundation? 10% of revenues from North Sea Oil to go into a Sovereign Wealth Fund for Scotland circa one billion a year. We would be sitting on a Sovereign Wealth Fund of over 10 billion now. As long as London is the money sink nothing will change. Sunak promised Euston money for redevelopment. And 36 billion to the Northern Network. Precious little detail on that. So I can’t say if the cancellation of HS2 is a good decision. But it looks like we are getting the crumbs again.
If you cannot get to places easily most people will not bother. Poor communications impede internal development and inward investment. Getting to parts of Scotland takes way too long. Too much of Scotland is infrastructurally third world, with sincere apologies to 3 world countries for the slight.
The Japanese opened their first HS service nearly 60 years ago.
The UK is a millstone and so is the Scottish Not Nat party.
Hop aboard the ghost train to nowhere suckers.
Euston gets a facelift, see what they did there? Nice One!
I wonder what would have happened if it had been built from Scotland to England? I doubt it would have been abandoned by the time it reached Dumfries
James, @ 2:07 pm,
Scotland has had devolved powers over all rail transport since 2007, apart from the major lines coming from England into Edinburgh and Glasgow (what are called “strategic lines”). So if you’ve got a beef with your 3 1/2 hour journey on Scotrail, take it up with Holyrood. It’s not a union matter.
Someone Abroad…
“It’s not a union matter”
Until such time as a Scottish Govt. is responsible for raising and spending and borrowing and repaying every single penny, like any other normal country, then it’s absolutely a “union matter”.
Let’s just hope that this news has an impact on the number of passengers in the Scottish carriage of the UK gravy train.
With a bit of luck there’ll be some back-pedalling into a sidings somewhere leaving the main Independence line free to be travelled by folk who know their destination.
HS2 has been pure pish from the start.
When they upgraded St Pancras International station, they built an out-ramp, this is where HS2 was going to come in to link-up with the already built HS1 to the Channel Tunnel and on into Europe.
What happened; it was decided that, instead, HS2 would terminate at Euston – so you still had to get to St Pancras, and no through trains from Scotland or the North of England.
In any case, British engineer Eric Laithwaite invented maglev technology in the 1940s, and we were testing maglev trains in the early 1970s, but, as with so-many ground-breaking British inventions, we never followed through and today, there are maglev systems in use around the world – and we are still failing to upgrade 19th century infrastructure. How typically British.
At least, IF the promises are kept, we will finally see the A1 and A75 upgraded, or perhaps not; these are Tory promises after all.
Did anyone notice, the only mention Scotland got in the whole Sunak speech was the bits about the roads, and a really cheap dig at Sturgeon. Another case of: “Back in your box Scotland – we are in-charge.”
A Scot Abroad @ 3.22pm
As far as I am aware, the Scottish Government has no control on the rail infrastructure, so if the lines are incapable of using high-speed electric trains, then the people have to endure slower diesel-powered trains.
The fuggers are coming for ciggies and vapes now.
No sex,
No drugs,
No wine,
No women,
No fun,
No sin,
No you.
No wonder it’s dark.
Ten Fuckin billion of Scots taxpayers cash down the plughole, whilst the (JRF) Joseph Rowantree Foundation says there’s at least 500,000 Scots in abject poverty in Scotland right now.
F*ck the union, we need to ditch this English ball and chain that’s robbing us blind.
Also vote Alba, and in the Hamilton West, Rutherglen by-election vote for the ISPs Collette Walker.
“An estimated UK £100 billion spent on a rail line that will get you from Birmingham to London 30 minutes quicker than today. Scotland will pay £10 billion for no benefit!”
link to nitter.net
For some Scottish independence is always the cry, “Show us your Money”.
Well we cannot do that in Scotland as it has been syphoned of from Scotland on a regular basis by the Westminster Government in England,
To the Bank of England, connected to the treasury and connected to the Exchequer in England,
Scotland as a Country, has not had its own money, currency, mint, treasury or its own taxation laws, they all come under the perpetrated hoax treaty.
Even now Westminster allows? Scotland to tax the Scots but not to keep all those taxes to use in Scotlands own treasury to decided how Scotland could work out the revenues for just Scotland,
” Show us the money” well here is a treasure map for the idiots who can’t work it out,
follow the yellow brick road leading south until you come to a city named London. This is where all the finances are accumulated and worked out, most goes in private pockets, pays excesses wages for peers and lords, much is spent on their perks of their jobs, travel and holidays aboard.
Much is spent on think tanks for building a bridge between Ireland and Scotland that Scotland never requested, or railways that never quite reach Scotland,
Or billions of taxes are sent to other Countries for investments and financial sponsership of wars in other Countries that have not attacked Scotland.
Even their Scotland branch office was encouraged to financially sponsor Death through true ” HATE CRIMES ” of people we have never met.
So this (small part) explains a very much longer list may aid unionist to understand.
We are “showing you the money” most of which is not spent in a treasury of Scotland that we have no receipts for.
Perhaps a independent Sovereign Scotland may not make those needless expenditure decisions
Before you shout to loud about the Scottish governments expenditure,
It would be wise to remember it is a branch office of Westminster officially., not a Scottish parliament,
And encouraged to spend and fail with Scottish tax payers money.
Ours Scottish parliament was extinguished in 1707 states Westminster parliament in 2023,
The devolved parliament to Scotland from Westminster states, “what it does on tin,” a colonial branch office for extract money from the natives.
“A House Jock Abroad”.
It’s the Seagull Shit principle.
1. You get crapped upon from a great height
2. You are incredulous that it should happen to you
3. You move on thinking it won’t happen again
Asa.
Isn’t it great for unionists to feel that they have “lent” Scotland a little bit of power from Westminster.
They must be chuffed and self pleased internally at their generousity.
I’m riding third class on a one class train.
Robertkknight, @3:36pm,
The Holyrood parliament has full devolved authority to raise and spend money on Scotland’s rail network, apart from the two main lines coming from England.
So if the rail service is shit between point A and point B anywhere else in Scotland, take it up with Holyrood.
HS2 has so far cost over £1,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. To put it another way, that’s £3,660 per family.
All that for a rail line that was never going to benefit Scotland in the slightest, and now most certainly never will. It is benefitting some big businesses however. I wonder how many politicians have interests in these businesses, either directly or indirectly?
Just how often do you need to be kicked before you kick back?
Alex Salmond, “start it at Carlisle and we’ll pay for the connecting line.”
Legend! Big Eck. Scotland First! I’ll need to tune into Scotland speaks. I’ll be listening to his show that’s for sure.
Looks like we’ve got plenty of friends in Europe, now how to use this to its greatest effect.
“YESSERS from Sweden, the Netherlands and France are all making the journey to Scotland to take part in the Chain of Freedom on Saturday, October 15.
With under two weeks to go, grassroots organisers are estimating approximately 49,000 Yes activists are to line the Forth and Clyde canal, which has been split into sections from Bowling to Falkirk.
It is understood sections 1A, 6A, 6E, and 6F have reached capacity and are now closed, with five others nearing capacity.
Eva Andersson, 64, is making the trip from Sweden to join fellow Scottish independence supporters in creating a human chain from Bowling to Falkirk.”
“Scotland deserves independence! We all know Scotland has all the natural resources, is big enough, rich enough (and will be richer after independence) and is smart enough.
“But the most important is that independence makes sure that the power to decide about the future, about a fairer, greener and more prosperous Scotland is where it belongs: in the hands of the Scottish people.””
link to 12ft.io
Pity then that the departments opened up inside UK embassies by the SNP to represent Scotland, the latest one in Warsaw Poland, are all staffed by die-hard unionists.
I realise that unionist supporters are totally unaware no idea how condecending and derogatory their old empire mindset speeches of controlling the native populations appears to others.
Their old Colonial empire is dying but their thought patterns have not adjusted to the passing of time.
It appears to me that the bigger a liar you are the more likely it is for you to succeed these days. You have to laugh at the U.K. spending £100 billion on this tiny route and compare it to the new railways being built between China and Russia. The UK’s got all our oil and gas revenue and still can’t build a high speed link between the two countries.
Everyone around me is a total stranger.
Everyone avoids me like a Glasgow Ranger.
Everyone…
Any future independence debate should ask one question
Should a country be independent or a colony?
It’s totally pointless talking about the price of a stamp, eu membership, High speed rail or anything else.
Nobody knows what will happen in future.
Birmingham to London 30 min faster also means Glasgow to London 30 min faster.
Also, my understanding is that rail network responsibilities in Scotland are largely devolved, as others have mentioned.
List of projects: link to transport.gov.scot
My understanding is also that Scotland gets Barnett money for English HS2 spending.
I am happy to be shown where my understanding is wrong, if sources are provided.
If Scotland is poor, uneducated and cannot control its spending as the unionist supporters suggest,
All we have to do in Scotland is remind ourselves that Westminster has been running and governing Scotland for the past three hundred years,
Scotland has had no Scottish parliament in Westminster to govern it since it was extinguished from the hoax treaty of parliamentary union in 1707.
This advertises Westminster parliaments failures in big bold letters,
And the projection of the blame game and finger pointing by unionists for Scotlands to take the heat for its, Westminster failures reminds one of a child that has been caught doing wrong and blames his little sister,
However it does leave us more strongly supporting Scottish independence from big brother,
Take the below with a very big pinch of salt.
“As Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer visited the Rutherglen & Hamilton West constituency, the party pledged to put money in people’s pockets and address the cost of living crisis as they look to regain the seat.”
In July 2023, he was nicknamed “Sir Kid Starver” over Labour plans to keep the Tories’ two-child benefit cap.
The reputable Max Blumenthal said this of him and he was bang on the money.
“Keir Starmer did not become leader to help Labour win, but to restore establishment control over the party and vanquish the heretics that dared defy its agenda. For the forces he truly represents, the project has been a smashing success.”
Starmer is a member of the intelligence agencies linked Trilateral Commission.
link to declassifieduk.org
link to declassifieduk.org
link to declassifieduk.org
Vote for Collette Walker (ISP) at the Hamilton West Rutherglen by-election, no votes for any other party.
The next GE vote Alba or ISP.
I was lucky enough to get a shot on the Shinkansen aka ‘bullet train’, Tokyo to Osaka a couple of times.
It had already been operational for 26 years.
That was in 1990.
“Rishi Sunak scraps the rest of the HS2 rail project in England”
This must rank as one of the worst kept secrets of this tory government.
People have been saying that for weeks.
Barelybare,
The Barnett formula system has been thoroughly explained here on Wings,
Your just a bit late coming to class.
Sources will be in the Wings over Scotland archive,
Hope this helps,
Yes, it’s shite being british.
Would you not have to change trains at Birmingham?
30 mins gain reduced to 15 mins.
Maybe no gain depending on the connections could even be an increased journey time.
@A Scot Abroad 4:12pm
You missed the salient point the Union has to benefit every corner of the UK. I can’t say if the cancellation of HS2 is a good decision. I am surprised you have come out so quickly referring the problem to Holyrood. Is this an example of muscular Unionism. Sure to work if someone that has left Scotland years ago and doesn’t understand what is happening in Scotland now. And quick visits to Perth don’t count I watched a programme on the Union the other night. I learned nothing except the BBC continually talking about the Darien Scheme and the Protestant reformation. A propaganda piece. I hope the next episode is better. Because I am still waiting on a positive reason to stay in the Union.
Is the Barnet formula not based on population?
That doesn’t work for infrastructure.
The calculations would need to be based on miles.
To be fair Scotland would need to get 50% of what is spent on HS2n or perhaps it’s more.
@ruby “Would you not have to change trains at Birmingham?”
No, assuming a high speed capable loco is used from Glasgow. It goes normal speed to Birmingham then speeds up on the high speed track.
See link to en.m.wikipedia.org
Barelybare,
Devolved from Westminster translates /means it is still fully under Westminster laws, statues, and legislation in a legal capacity.
Independent to Scotland means it would be totally separate from the decision and laws of the parliament of Westminster in England,
Devolved is borrowing or lending a secondary power from a superior overseer or management similar to secondary government in India under Colonialism,
The natives Of India under British Rule had a system of secondary lower power given to Indians, to administer for the Colonialists but India were never allowed the ultiminate or total control of their own Country, until they broke free of Colonialism,
The Colonies of Australia, Nova Scotia, America etc were not all Black or dark skinned people as were led to envisage by the elite,
They were Scots, Irish, Welsh and English,. Forced and Shipped out of their homelands against their will,
Scotland at present is under the same system as India, this influence given subordinate Secondary powers from its Colonial master,
It is not allowed to have its own government or independence of it Country.
Scotland is one of the earliest Colonies and one of the last Colonies to be recognised and to be freed .
When news and information was not free flowing.
And when the ordinary people were deliberately not informed by lords barons and monarchs skulduggary until a deed was or was not done.
Did the past, deliberately mislead Scots into falsified treaty of parliamentary Union and what now appears to be a falsified United kingdoms under one monarch of England,
I have always wondered why the persistence by the “Unionist supporters ” never wanting Scots to go looking in deep into the records,
It is considerably deflecting contrary point of view by unionist supporters to state Scotland is in a union with England and from that it created one united kingdom of great Britain,
And yet they persist that “old history” recorded history is not important, so don’t believe it, is not important anymore to Scotland anyway,
The unionist supporters apparently think Scots should be kept in the dark like mushrooms selectively And just keep believing what they say is true,
If ever there was a reason to investigate and separate years of propaganda or truths by lords peers barons and elites of Britain, over the union and monarchy from conception to present day.
it is this red butchers apron flag of advice from unionists to Scots, “DO NOT LOOK”
Rishi Sunak: The idea that people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t, a man is a man and a woman is a woman. That’s just common sense.” That simple biological fact has the wokeratti in meltdown. How refreshing to hear it spelt out loud and clear for the biology deniers. The fact that it had to come from a conservative pm and not a Scottish First Minister show how deeply Stonewall managed to infiltrate the SNP government to the point were they would go to the Supreme Court in an attempt to placate their Green paymasters wishes.
Breeks.
I fully support you in saying things as they are, and what could be achieved if Scotland joined it thinking parties together mentally.
Although not necessarily physically as it may be targeted under one umbrella, this is what the snp attempted to do not so long ago,with “caveats” for control of Scottish independence and grassroots movement, in a devolved government sent to Scotland.
Entrapments are not always financial or sexual as in the attempted to stitch up AS, ,
The SNPs are working in a operation to gather the movement together to give it one title, So that it can be control better via legislation. The SNP case recently was political entrapment of the grassroots. Whereby it suggested speech laws for the independence Yes movement to stymie Scots voices.
It alerted me to how far the SNP are will go, against Scotland and Scots while working for and within the establishment,
However that will not or should not prevent coming together as individual thinkers all participating in planning Scotlands future routes to independence and planning future committees, governance,Sovereignty, Monarchy or not, Banks, Currency, trade industries, infrastructure, agriculural and fishing, future politically, or elections with or without franchise within and owned by Scots, , democracy votes on big issues related to Scotland, mechanisms to revert and reduce big Corporation control over Scots in Scotland, or many Independent media suppliers within Scotland, registration and licence offices.
A new invigorated NHS and nationalised stuctures,
It has to be opposite to the normal practices of the old politics of a Colonial administration and much more democratic for society.
Scotland and the people of Scotlands welfare
HS2 Cancelled and the £36 BILLION saved will go to projects across the UK. For UK read England & one project in North Wales.
A mam is a man and a woman is a woman, they simply can’t be anything else.
Britain is NOT racist.
All of the above are messages from UK PM Sunak. Will some decent journo pin Ruth Davidson and Douglas Ross down on the man’s a man thing? Or have both ran back into hiding? Did Ross, the gutless rentboy, just put in a recent media cameo appearance to gloat about his London masters giving his constituency a large sum of Scotland’s cash? LOL!
________
And in between promoting Sunak the BBC are waxing lyrical about The Euros (International Football Tournament) possibly “coming home” again. Any excuse to show the alcoholic wife-beater Gascoigne’s wonder goal against Scotland again.
How the BBC can idolise that wife-beating sack of crap is beyond me. Shame on you, BBC. Mind you, they tried to hush the biggest paedophile scandal imaginable. Aye! That’s good auld “Aunty” for you, a history shared with abusers.
Irrespective of the subject matter in any article Stu produces we can always rely on Che to bore everyone to death with it’s usual 300 year old guff. Does it not realise that only a few similar minded nutters are remotely interested?
Of course, if you do not concur with the repeated shite you are a Unionist!
Give it a rest. Your sanity might improve.
Folks, here’s some info on the HS2/Barnet Formula Arrangement:
link to fullfact.org
Den says:
4 October, 2023 at 6:01 pm
Rishi Sunak: The idea that people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t, a man is a man and a woman is a woman. That’s just common sense.” That simple biological fact has the wokeratti in meltdown. How refreshing to hear it spelt out loud and clear for the biology deniers.
Rishi says hunners of things, talks a better game than Michael Beale. They’re not going to do anything to keep men out of women’s toilets or stop LGBTQIA grooming in primary schools. That would require changing the law, something they’re only urgently able to do for the most serious issues of the day (banning laughing gas).
If you don’t like Rishi’s latest promises, wait five minutes for the next set. He’s Billionaire Bollywood Tony Blair, he’s whatever you want him to be, except normal adult male human size.
He had only the weest chance of winning the election, his chance after that messy fart of a speech is zero. Not that it’ll make any difference. I wonder what politicians have to do to clue in the public that they don’t like you or care about you.
Humza told the whole of Scotland what he thinks of “vvvvvight people” and got away with it, Scot free. Mibbe if Michael Gove starts spitting highly toxic endangered tree frog venom at passing schoolchildren? Or if Sir Keir Starmer takes to inviting random plebs such as myself to his secluded country estate, where he intends to hunt the most dangerous game of all… Scotsmen!
I hope not, you get to an age where you cannae be arsed being hunted for sport by toffs.
The Tories are worse than pathetic.
HS2 is levelling up!
It could link up to Scotland- it isn’t
It will link up to Leeds- it isn’t
It will link up to Manchester- it isn’t
It will take computers from Birmingham straight into Euston- It isn’t.
The costs are viable- they never were but now doubled and increasing day by day.
All of the above investments in 10’s of £Billions wasted.
Can anyone advise if Scotland gets some of that wasted money in England sent to us via the Barnett Formula and how do the finances compare to the Scottish Ferries that are over budget?
As the Shill Alistair Jack, Laird of the corrupt Tory manner said yesterday- how could Scotland run itself with the ferries running over like that.
Could he apply that thought to Englands £100 Billion Brexit disaster, the £45 Billion Track and Trace disaster, the Billions spent on substandard PPE contracts for Tory Donors or maybe the panic costs of doing nothing about substandard concrete in schools when one school collapsed last year, or maybe the cost to the country financially, physically and psychologically with refusing to negotiate Doctors and Rail workers pay.
Thanks for the HS2 link but really, a rail network only in England for England and hundreds of miles away from Scotland is in some way a benefit to Scotland?
Would a Scot travelling to Edinburgh from Central London need to take a train to the outer London Station where HS2 is now supposed to be terminating.
Will the Scot need to hang around there for the next train to Birmingham.
Will the Scot need to wait again until the Edinburgh train turns up.
It’s an average travelling time of just under 5 hours for this last leg.
There you go it will add several hours to the current journey time.
Not to worry as Westminster won’t negotiate with the rail workers so you will be getting a bus
@ Ruby at 5.02pm:
I suspect it’s quite a lot worse than that. Assuming the lines linking HS2 to the West Coast Main Line have been scrapped, HS2 trains will terminate at Curzon Street Station in Birmingham, presently under construction, while trains from Scotland will continue to pass through New Street Station, which is probably a half-hour walk away. Also, I don’t know whether the planned London HS2 station at Euston has been postponed or scrapped entirely, but either way HS2 trains will now terminate at Old Oak Common, meaning passengers for London will have to transfer to local trains in west London to reach the city centre.
After all these £millions have been spent, what we are left with is a bit of railway that is to all intents and purposes useless, not only to Scotland but to the UK as a whole. Passenger numbers will be a small fraction of what they would have been if the full route had been built, and I suspect what remains will be a massive white elephant.
How is it that the UK could be criss-crossed with motorways having far greater land uptake than any railway in the 1960s and ’70s, but we can’t build a piddling wee bit of railway with all the advances in technology since then? And how is it that so many other countries can manage to build high speed railways – Japan, France, Germany, China, Spain, even Morocco – but the UK can’t? It’s shameful, pathetic and embarrassing.
@Red.
The Vapors. Love ‘em.
James Che If Scotland was actually a colony all Scottish MPs and Lords would be expelled from Westminster, Holyrood would be scrapped and it would be ruled by a governor general
This is nothing new.
Once upon a time, (because that’s how all fairy stories begin), there was a steelworks called Ravenscraig that was meant to have its own Eurostar terminal designed to export Scottish steel to Europe.
It was all pish, as usual, never happened, and we know what happened to Ravenscraig.
Scotland should retain it’s wealth and forge its own links with outside world. That way, we’d still have had a steel industry.
Rishi Sunak says a man’s a man and a woman’s a woman.
However the 2004 UK Gender Recognition Act allows for a man to legally become a woman and a woman to become a man.
Maybe Rishi will repeal the GRA2004.
HS2 Birmingham to London is to facilitate office workers to commutte to London, no need for a link to Manchester or wherever, there will be sufficient workers willing to commute for the enhanced salary, and so a bigger house, fancier car etc.
Catch the train from B’ham around 7am, kids are still asleep, back home about 8 pm, kids are in bed asleep.
Well, there is the weekend to cut the grass, wash the car….your going …to the football!?
HS2 Birmingham to London is to facilitate office workers to commute to London, no need for a link to Manchester or wherever, there will be sufficient workers from B’ham willing to commute for the enhanced salary, and so a bigger house, fancier car etc.
Catch the train from B’ham around 7am, kids are still asleep, back home about 8 pm, kids are in bed asleep.
Well, there is the weekend to cut the grass, wash the car….your going …to the football!?
Breeks,
leaving aside transport costs of steel from the arse end of north west Europe to where the markets are, you’re going to have to lower labour rates by about 80%, and inputs such as electricity costs by around 50%, before Scottish steel is even vaguely marketable to the world. There’s nothing wrong with Scottish steel, but equally there’s nothing special about it over China or India.
It ain’t going to happen. The deck is stacked against it. It comes down to money.
George Ferguson,
We may disagree. The salient point in my view is that the Scottish government from 2000-2007 (then led by Labour) actively sought to have full devolved control of rail infrastructure, and achieved that. It took no less than 3 acts of the Westminster parliament. What we ended up with is a compromise whereby the two main lines into Edinburgh and Glasgow remain the responsibility of Network Rail, but everything else is run by the Holyrood administration, with them able to raise taxes to fund works and services. Subsequently, ScotRail was nationalised. Network Rail are still involved (partly for safety reasons), but directed by ScotGov for those lines.
So, if the rail is shit between Inverness and Oban, it’s down to Holyrood. If it’s shit between Edinburgh Waverley and London, it’s down to Westminster.
HS@?
I never wanted to go to England anyway.
Better Together. The most powerful devolved parliament in the World. The Vow. The Union Dividend.
Do we remember all of that?
Of course we do.
And THIS is the problem. Over and over and over again, Scots were promised one thing after another, if only they rejected independence. The ultimate betrayal and lie was of course ‘The Vow’ dreamed up by Murray Foote of the Daily Record. Utter betrayal and treachery of truly mindblowing proportions.
And then we have HS2. I recall many years ago, Scotland was also promised a direct through train link via the ‘still to be built’ Channel Tunnel. Of course Scots taxes and oil wealth were used to build the channel tunnel, and the direct Scottish link?? Of course that was dropped.
Why, to this day, some intelligent Scots still think Scotland is best served by English rule from London, truly escapes me. Time and time again, Scotland has been treated with utter, utter contempt. In 2014, when I saw the headlines about HS2, I actually laughed, since I knew that in reality hell would freeze over before any English government in London would invest so much money in a route to Scotland.
For heavens sake, Scots, stop believing these thieving corrupt liars down in Westminster. They work for England and ONLY England.
So, just so folk realise how far behind the rest of the world Scotland is failing under English rule from London, I had a look to see what other countries actually had high speed rail networks. Italy, Germany, Sweden, France, Spain, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, ALL have high speed rail that would put the pathetic nonsense between Birmingham in England and London in England (100 miles) to shame.
England really has become an utter sh*t hole. Arguing for decades over a silly 100 mile long piece of railway for decades, while the rest of the world is building whole networks of high speed rail. It is just pathetic.
Scotland has a choice. Stay ruled by these English clowns, or become independent, and rejoin the modern world.
I see folk posting above that rail is fully devolved in Scotland. It isn’t, and I guess those posting such rubbish already know that.
One of the most significant problems with improving rail in Scotland, is the infrastructure. That means, tracks, signalling, some big train stations like Waverley, Glas central and bridges etc.. ALL ARE CONTROLLED BY NETWORK RAIL in England.
Network rail is based at Waterloo train station in LONDON, England.
link to networkrail.co.uk
So, Sunak has abandoned the HS2 project. Walked away. Told the world it’s an unaffordable white elephant.
So, the question has to be asked: Is he right? Or is he wrong?
Screeds of comments on here, and on everywhere else. Screeds of editorial. Screeds of politicians bumping their gums.
But is anybody saying he is wrong? Is anybody (Starmer maybes) saying “vote me in, and I will finish HS2 as planned”.
Naw.
Gie Sunak some credit. He made a difficult decision. The right decision. There’s plenty more difficult and right decisions queuing up to be made. The pensions triple lock. The ECHR. The boats.
The sacred cows have to be slaughtered one by one. Sunak, being a Hindu, knows about that. If/when he makes the difficult decisions, listen to the other politicians. Will they be vowing to reverse them?
Naw.
Got to say, a little less of Scotland’s dosh is going to be pissed up the wall from today. Surely somebody else besides me can see that as a good thing.
WTF are ALBA doing getting all hot n bothered about what wee Tory bastard Sunak said about about wee conniving , crypto-Unionist bastard Sturgeon ?
Aye , I know , Craig Murray jailed , others harassed by polis/judiciary, the general public ( ie ..the tiny % that give a fuck about such things ) compelled to refrain from comment on * ongoing * criminal cases etc ; while ” Billionaire Bollywood Tony Blair ” ( lol , cheers for that one Red ) does exactly that – albeit in a pretty innocuous comment : his speechwriter will be getting smacked for that faux pas – or was it calculated ?
ESTABLISHMENT IN HYPOCRISY & DOUBLE STANDARDS SHOCKA !!!!
Who here doesn’t think Sturgeon deserves to face some consequence for her actions ?
All this shite could easily benefit her case ; at the very least allow her apologists to flood Social Media with tears of performative * rage * , wrapping her in the mantle of sanctified victimhood – ha fckn ha – and claiming any future legal proceedings against her ( extremely unlikely , granted , but who knows the machinations of the Brit State ? ) will have been prejudiced by Sunak’s comment . Result !
Let the idiots in Nu SNP defend their own . ALBA need to stop scoring own-goals
This is doing the rounds.
Priceless…
link to twitter.com
This is alternative if above not work…
link to x.com
Not sure what to make of this one…
Off-Topic Scotland
@offtopicscot
‘If Operation Branchform exonerates Nicola Sturgeon, would you welcome her return as SNP leader/First Minister?’
Yes 35%
No 65%
1,313 votes
9 hours left
9,400 Views
link to twitter.com
More than a third of respondents would have her back? WTF is that all about?
Indonesia has started its new High Speed train running from Jakarta to Bandung cutting the journey time from 3.5 hours to 40 minutes.
time.com/6319443/indonesia-high-speed-rail-china-bri/
It cost $7.3Bn and is 88 miles long. Scaling that up to the original proposed HS2 at 340 miles then HS2 should have cost us $33.2bn. Or roughly $83m per mile.
They did a joint venture with China… still pretty good value considering Indonesia is one of the most corrupt countries on earth
Meanwhile in UK land…
“What remains is 140 miles of tracks under construction between London and Birmingham. Budgeted at around $50 billion at 2019 prices…”
enr.com/articles/57201-uk-cancels-large-piece-of-hs2-high-speed-rail-project
And that pathetic 140 miles is going to be a lot more than ‘2019 prices’ for sure.
The real story here is what a shambolic, broken, dishevelled country Britain is these days.
Another one is the cost of the newest nuclear power station. China built 6 for a fraction of the costs of us building just one.
Everything in Britain takes ten times longer, costs ten times more and in general the outcome is shite.
A lot of this traces back to Thatcher and Thatcherism. The damage done is deep and so pervasive it is hard to see how to fix it. Independence should have been our escape hatch from it but it was bolted shut.
Robert Louis says on 5 October 2023 at 6:46 am:
“And THIS is the problem. Over and over and over again, Scots were promised one thing after another, if only they rejected independence. The ultimate betrayal and lie was of course ‘The Vow’ dreamed up by Murray Foote of the Daily Record. Utter betrayal and treachery of truly mindblowing proportions.”
And he’s now one of the big cheeses in Sturgeon’s Nasty Party. The only folk not rewarded for *our* 2014IndyRef is *us*, Scotland’s electorate. Other lesser players, such as Darling, Davidson & Moore, all set up for life. And Foote rewarded with a position within Scotland’s supposedly main indy party. A position where he can have endless influence on just how far we progress (or not) to indy. The lunatics are now in full control of the asylum. We’re truly fucked! 🙁
A selfie of the current state of Scotland’s politics?
link to thenational.scot
The self styled political class is plainly on a planet far, far away narcissistically admiring itself.
Basic communication, Scotland’s unresolved issue.
Nota…no one «young» in this vox pop.
A lot of people are writing that the Sturgeon are SNP are devolutionists and not real independence supporters.
That may well be true in terms of appearance but it misses the deeper truth which is far worse.
These people are not devolutionists at heart but globalists at heart. All the woke garbage goes hand in hand with it.
So what is a globalist? By definition it is someone who opposes the concept of ‘nations’ and nation states. Their vision of the future is all that disappears…
This is why people like Sturgeon and Angela Merkel to take another obvious example have this clear distaste for anything overtly ‘nationalistic’.
It is ironic to me that Thatcher, in her own swivel-eyed mentalist fashion, was far more of a nationalist in character and spirit than any so called Scottish nationalists in the Sturgeon SNP. It was British Nationalism of course not Scottish but she was a true believer in it, in a way that Nicola Sturgeon never was for Scotland, that is for sure. Because Sturgeon is a globalist. Nations becoming stronger and more independent is the opposite of their vision for our futures.
The SNP need completely cleared out and even then I doubt they can be saved in a real sense. It depends how successfully they can be cleaned out. It is so far gone at this point…
Robert Knight , thanks for raising a smile.
Robert Hughes , I agree but I did wince at the Sunak cheap shot.If it is at all possible to diminish him that facile , smart arsed remark did just that.
By the way , if folk don’t want to read certain posters comments , they should do as I do – scroll on by, no need to repeatedly tell us all how irritating you find them as it makes you look even more foolish.
Trains in wartime
link to archive.vn
Ian Brotherhood says on 5 October 2023 at 8:18 am:
“More than a third of respondents would have her back? WTF is that all about?”
I can only surmise that those voting for her return see her as the lesser of two evils &/or better to have the puppet master in control than the pretence of the puppet.
As much as i detest the skank she’s got the wider appeal of the two. Another inconvenient truth is that a substantial percentage of Scotland see him as “another f@ckin’ Paki” etc. I hear these type of comments quite often. Sad but true!
We’ve also got to remember that most of the public are totally oblivious to the political detail that we all know. It would be interesting to know what percentage of those voting in your poll closely follow politics. I think the answer to that could be quite revealing one way or the other.
Having said all that i’m also always very weary of online polls because, as we all know, any determined individual can manipulate multiple votes. Some folk on social media, as on here, have multiple accounts. Some members of the Skanky Sturgeon fanclub will be no different.
That’s my tuppence worth.
@Robert Hughes
Could be a lovely gambit and twist on My Enemies Enemy is My Friend.
While its not ALBAs fight…in raising this matter to the Police and creating Headlines..it does 2 things…
1: Makes People wonder why SNP not defending one of their own against the evil Tories
2: Reminding People that Blessed Nicola isnt out the woods yet and that black cloud hanging over the SNP hasnt gone away despite “All is rosy” claims of recent polls etc
A little bit of “Would you look at that!” can go a long way.
Alba “strategy” has consisted of: vote SNP.
Taking seats in WM to disrupt is also part of Alex Salmond’s failed strategy to raise the profile of Alba. Yet, Alba then don’t contest a high profile WN seat. That does not make sense.
Craig Murray has now stated Alba must start competing against the Unionist SNP instead of supporting them and that’s why he is seeking nomination and votes for a place on the Alba NEC. I think Craig is right about this.
I am really cheesed off with UK Privy Counsellor Alex Salmond for proclaiming (along with Blackford and Sturgeon) that KCIII is their sovereign overlord like a 21st Century Toom Tabard paying homage to Edward I.
I believe it is a fundamental issue that has to be lived by now, that the Scots people are sovereign and not vassals of the English Crown or British Empire, so swearing to serve the UK monarch as their sovereign is a red line that must never be crossed – especially since Scotland is denied the right of a self-determination referendum by WM MPs (and the Nu-SNP).
The SNP politicians (and former SNP politicians) appear to have no problem saying the Scots are sovereign ( then they in “tradition” ) but then swear allegiance to the UK head of state as their sovereign.
It totally undermines the message that Scots are a sovereign people who have the sovereign right to end the Union with England without WM consent.
If I were to give a rating, I would give an F, as in FFS.
@ AScotAbroad
“So if the rail service is shit between point A and point B anywhere else in Scotland, take it up with Holyrood.”
Ah, yes.Nonsense.
“Network Rail owns, operates and develops Britain’s railway infrastructure ?
That’s 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We manage 20 of the UK’s largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are managed by the country’s train operating companies.”
That is from Network Rail’s website.
So is this.
“We’ve created 14 routes which are supported by five Network Rail regions, each led by a managing director. The five Network Rail regions are Eastern, North West & Central, Scotland’s Railway, Southern and Wales & Western. These five regions were formed in June 2019 and have the budget and capability to take on more responsibility from other parts of the business.
The routes are responsible for operations, maintenance and minor renewals, including the day-to-day delivery of train performance and the relationship with their local train operating companies.”
Network Rail is a private limited company.It is responsible for this tragedy at Carmont near Stonehaven as reported by the BBC.
“In the three years since the crash a long investigation has tried to answer three key questions: what went wrong, who’s to blame, and what can be done to prevent a similar tragedy in future?
Among the specific findings, highlighted in court, was the fact that a drainage system in the area was incorrectly installed by the giant construction firm Carillion, which has since gone into liquidation.
Network Rail engineers had not fully inspected this drainage system. So problems were spotted too late.
The company has now been fined £6.7m – but officials at the RMT rail union are angry.
They say Network Rail has got off lightly and that corporate manslaughter charges must be made an option in similar cases in future.”
Changes are being made.The SG runs Scotrail since 2022 and Network Rail is supposed to be away, says the BBC.
“It looks like that means passengers in Scotland will have ScotRail (a Scottish government-owned public body) running the trains, GBR (UK government-owned public body) running the tracks and infrastructure and GBR selling the tickets. Although the fare structure will still be set by the Scottish government.”
Nicola Sturgeon was the original ‘diversity hiring’. She was only there to appeal to the female demographic and make Salmond more likeable to them.
When she got handed the keys to the SNP by Salmond I have no doubt she knew that Salmond would return one day and take his old job back. She was a placeholder. Well we know how she ‘solved’ that problem.
Yousaf was also a ‘diversity hiring’.
So interesting that these are the ones who betray.
And Sturgeon completely filled the SNP with ‘diversity hirings’ to the point that is nearly all that is left.
I think the lesson here is never ever deviate from hiring the most competent person for the job and never ever hire someone because they belong to a certain demographic. Doing that opens a vector for betrayers to enter your sphere.
In a way maybe it is deserved, as you are using them as ‘tokens’, and so in turn they betray you. They use you as you use them. It is just generally a bad, bad idea.
No one paid a higher price personally than Alex Salmond but that is dwarfed by the damage done (and being done) to Scotland.
It might as well be that Sturgeon is still there. And just to make sure you know it, they replaced Murrell with the guy who wrote the fucking vow. Wow! They are laughing at us.
Robert Hughes says on 5 October 2023 at 7:21 am:
“Let the idiots in Nu SNP defend their own.”
Couldn’t agree more! I had no idea about this until i read your comment. I had to do a shoogle on Google to find out what it’s all about. I couldn’t find what all the fuss was about, something about nationalists being “in retreat”?
It actually comes across as quite embarrassing to me. What ALBA have done here is set up a double-whammy hit for the BritNats. First with a questionable swipe at Skanky Sturgeon, then ALBA will be made a laughing stock when Police Scotland come out and tell us all to move along, nothing to see here. Play nice, children!
The BritNat media will then erupt into orgasmic attack decrying ALBA as whinging Jocks, cry-babies who need to grow up and grow a sense of humour etc. Chris may have a legal point, and he seems to be defending Scots Law rather than Skanky, but if anyone thinks Sunak will be charged over this they are truly very sadly deluded.
And as far as i’m aware, i’m no legal expert, Police Scotland have absolutely no jurisdiction over England. This will all be laughed off and we will be seen once again to be sent packing with our tails embarrassingly tucked firmly between our legs.
As for Skanky? Popularity boosted! Rather nicely timed if the rumours of a “comeback” are true, don’t yah think?
Something to ponder should you be crazy enough to vote, out of spite, for a unionist party today.
link to hs2.org.uk
Scotland, the arse end of north west England it seems.
Gov doc on alt to HS2, «Network North» among many errors, puts Manchester in wrong place, public school spads, the Brit élite clueless as standard.
link to assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
The Brits couldn’t plan the route to their own front door.
Crush the Union before it crushes you.
@ Mac
Couple of good contributions from you this morning. I enjoyed reading those. Found your “globalist” theory interesting and one that i’d never contemplated before.
In your 9:59 am comments you state: “In a way maybe it is deserved,” All morning i’ve had that old saying going around my cranium: In life we get what we deserve. And oh boy, are we all paying the price for not seeing the writing on the wall? Mind you, we do have a very legitimate excuse. We were all blinded by the excitement of a referendum and the aftermath of keeping the momentum going.
There was no elephant in the room, it was more a stampede of elephants right before our eyes, and most of us were totally oblivious to it until Stuart Campbell started pointing it out. But by then, too late, damage well and truly done. The rot has set fast and you’re right, they’re all laughing at us.
From HS2 site.
«HS2 will re-balance the country.
HS2 will benefit the Scottish economy by over £5bn and will help Scotland compete in the 21st Century. It will help build a fairer, more balanced Britain. It will join up the economic powerhouses of Glasgow and Edinburgh with fast, zero carbon train travel to other big cities in the UK. The UK and Scottish governments share the ultimate ambition of three-hour rail journeys between London and Scotland’s Central Belt»
Truly English is THE best for talking rubbish.
@ Ian Brotherhood at 8.18am:
I think a great many supporters of independence placed their faith in Sturgeon, and it’s very difficult for them to accept the fact that they’ve been fooled. They might know it at some level, but they don’t want to believe it. And, regardless of what we now know, I think most would agree that Sturgeon was a skilled communicator who gave the appearance of being honest and down-to-earth and was ‘the embodiment of Scottishness’, as I used to say. Unlike most politicians, she answered questions directly and didn’t deal in platitudes. She was a very convincing liar.
Also, I think there is a substantial portion of the population that still trusts the mainstream media and in particular the BBC, and their political viewpoint is based on what the BBC news chooses to report. That portion of the population isn’t going to have much awareness of what Sturgeon has done at every stage to wreck the SNP and our progress towards independence.
I am sure the unionists will follow through on the benefit to Scotland of construction projects wholly in England. Im sure Sunak is on the phone right now to Macron asking how much the UK should contribute to improvements on the French side of Lond. – Paris and Lond. – Lille connections.
MICHAEL LAING
Sturgeon is history, someone tell Sunak, and soon Yousaf will be.
Nationalist politics needs to quit the retro rut and actually grow «a pair».
Too much raking over dead embers.
Total tedium.
A Jock Abroad;
“…Scotland has had devolved powers over all rail transport since 2007…”
Utter bollocks yet again from the resident house jock.
Network Rail builds and maintains the infrastructure (or doesn’t as the case may be), dimwit, and Network Rail control is reserved to Westminster. Try to keep up.
@ TURABDIN at 11.18am:
Your snide comment seems misdirected. Did you actually read my comment? I am no supporter of Sturgeon; I merely suggested reasons why support for Sturgeon remains so high. How’s about directing your ire towards the people I referred to in my comment instead of at me?
The Alba Party has reported 2 snacks to the police, for saying Nicola Sturgeon ‘is going down.’
I thought Nicola Sturgeon could defend herself?
“I’m innocent.”
“I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“I can’t speak for him.” – Throwing her husband under the bus. Silly man.
“Think of my neighbours.” As invite the press pack to congregate. Again!
Remember Nicola Sturgeon said that the common sense thing to do during covid was to saw off the bottom of school doors to increase ventilation? Ahaha.
I can just picture Peter Murrell looking out the bottom of theirs. “Nothing to see here.”
For that stupitidy alone I’m glad the showroom was ransacked by fraud cops and looked like a crime scene in a Val McDermid novel.
Get it up them!
A big boy did it and ran away.
Let Nicola defend herself. I see that Lloyd has deserted the sinking ship.
Her hench woman has jumped ship.
Meanwhile Nicola is still stuck on back benches.
Sadly she’s still pulling Yousaf’s strings
Let’s hope there’s a rebellion soon.
Good governance? What a shambles.
Timeline from the Independent.
– January 2009
Labour establishes HS2 Ltd to examine the case for a new high-speed rail line.
– December 2010
A consultation on a route for HS2 from London to Birmingham with a Y-shaped section to Manchester and Leeds is published by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.
– January 2012
Transport secretary Justine Greening announces the Government has decided to go ahead with the project, despite concerns over its cost and the environmental impact of construction.
– November 2013
The Bill setting out the powers needed to build Phase 1 of HS2 between London and Birmingham is introduced to Parliament.
– January 2014
The Supreme Court rejects outstanding appeals by opponents of the rail scheme.
– November 2015
HS2 is given a budget of £55.7 billion.
– June 2016
The National Audit Office warns HS2 is under financial strain and could be delayed by a year.
– September 2016
Simon Kirby resigns as HS2 Ltd chief executive.
– February 2017
The Bill for Phase 1 achieves royal assent, enabling preparation work to begin.
– July 2017
HS2 Ltd accepts it was a “serious error” to make £1.76 million of unauthorised redundancy payments to staff.
– December 2018
Sir Terry Morgan resigns as chairman of HS2 Ltd amid criticism over his role as chairman of Crossrail, which is delayed and over budget.
– August 2019
The Conservatives commission a review into whether and how HS2 should continue, led by former HS2 Ltd chairman Douglas Oakervee.
– September 2019
A report by HS2 Ltd chairman Allan Cook says the railway may not be completed until 2040 and could cost £88 billion.
– January 2020
The Oakervee Review is widely leaked.
It finds that HS2 could cost up to £106 billion, but concludes “on balance” that the project should continue.
– February 2020
Prime minister Boris Johnson gives HS2 the go-ahead despite “exploded” costs.
The so-called funding envelope is reset.
Phase 1 is set at £44.6 billion (at 2019 prices), with the estimated cost for the full network revised to a range of between £72 billion-£98 billion.
– April 2020
HS2 Ltd gives formal approval for companies to begin construction of Phase 1.
July 2020
The delivery of HS2 is given the highest risk warning by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) for the first time.
– September 2020
Boris Johnson marks the project’s formal beginning of construction at an event in Solihull, West Midlands.
– January 2021
Environmental activists dig a network of tunnels in London’s Euston Square Gardens, resulting in a complex operation to remove them.
– February 2021
Legislation for Phase 2a of the railway – extending the line from Birmingham to Crewe – achieves royal assent, opening the way for construction to begin.
– March 2021
Anti-HS2 protests and the coronavirus pandemic have contributed to the project facing new “cost pressures” of £800 million, the Government announces.
– May 2021
HS2 launches its first giant tunnelling machine from a site in Buckinghamshire near the M25 motorway.
– June 2021
Concerns over HS2 are a major issue in a shock by-election defeat for the Tories as the Liberal Democrats win in Chesham and Amersham, Buckinghamshire.
– October 2021
HS2’s “cost pressures” have risen to “around £1.3 billion”, the Government says.
This is partly attributed to delays completing preparatory work, approving designs and securing planning consents.
– November 2021
HS2’s eastern leg between Leeds and the East Midlands is scrapped by the Government.
– January 2022
The Bill for Phase 2b, extending HS2 to Manchester, is laid in Parliament.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps hails this as a “landmark moment”.
– May 2022
Construction of the Colne Valley Viaduct begins.
It will be the UK’s longest railway bridge, stretching for 2.1 miles above a series of lakes and waterways just outside north-west London.
– October 2022
Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove suggests capital investment for HS2 would be reviewed, but Chancellor Jeremy Hunt subsequently backs the project.
– March 2023
The Government announces that construction of the Birmingham to Crewe leg of HS2 will be delayed by two years.
Work at Euston is paused as costs have ballooned to £4.8 billion compared with an initial budget of £2.6 billion.
This means HS2 services will start and stop at Old Oak Common, west London, until at least the 2040s.
Well, the way I see it, ye can catch a plane at Edinburgh Airport and be in London, within an hour or so. Twa hours if ye include getting aff the plane and intae Trafalgar Square. All this far cheaper than the train companies charge fur an overcrowded carriage full o rugby / fitba fans. So dae we really need tae cut rail journeys doon by an hour ?
Scotland should take possession of 8% of HS2 and extract tolls, every mile or so. Get our fucking cut, for a change.
Anyway, time for some innovative thinking.
– what this country needs is to rip up all the rail lines and replace it with new track that is twice the width of the current tracks; this means bigger trains and you can go a lot faster.
– then you connect every city, town and village in england on the new system … the scots will happily pay for all this as they love the barnett formula and the benign philanthropy of the anglo who relieved them of all that black stuff they didnt know what to do with …
— then you have new NUCLEAR POWERED TRAINS – these will be able to do around 500 miles an hour through the countryside.
statistically, nuclear power being safest of all, additional radiation deaths will be less than 100th of the people who would die by smoking anyway
train tickets will be too cheap to meter, no more season tickets to london and a boon for all south easters
all passengers get a free geiger counter and complementary iodine pills
when stationary the trains reactors can be kept running producing power for the national grid, thus the system will pay for itself
then we advertise – Jimmy Saviles ghost will appear saying this is the age … of the … nuclear powered land missile
link to youtube.com
– and enthuse on how much faster he can get around the country – r4ping kids in aberystwith, then on the same day, more r4pes, in folkstone AND torquay; such level of r4ping would never be possible under the old trains
this would revitalise the reputation of britain for engineering excellence – both in large projects, civilian, transport and nuclear engineering and help to restore the reputation of the nuclear r4ping industry
once a year they should smash two of these trains together at full speed in central london, just to prove how safe it all is
link to youtube.com
emissions by aircraft flights can thus be greatly reduced, contributing to net zero save the planet and all that shite
link to youtube.com
in an indy Scotland Liz Frazer will be minister for transport
link to youtube.com
James,
Network Rail’s operations in Scotland are directed by Holyrood, which has funding power devolved.
Meanwhile ScotRail runs the actual services on the tracks maintained by Network Rail, and is a nationalised company owned by the Scottish government. If you want more or better trains, take it up with the Scottish government.
Do try to keep up with reality. Rail operations in Scotland, less the ECML and WCML are nothing to do with Westminster.
@A Scot Abroad 1:18pm
What is the fundamental point you are missing? The HS2 decision will release 3 billion under the the Barnet consequentials. Hopefully for rail infrastructure but I wouldn’t bet on that. Today there was a fair question at FMQs about a new rail station in the fastest growing town in Scotland. Humza who I have noticed rarely answers any questions did his usual. Hence my reluctance to say this 3 billion will be spent on rail infrastructure. Nevertheless under the current settlement what happens on the rail network in England has consequences for Scotland. BTW I still don’t know if the decision to cancel HS2 is a good one or not. Precious little detail so far.
Confused @ 12.37 I heard through the grapevine that you maybe getting a call from some conservative ministers and some snp nonce ministers who are very interested in your Saville express , it seems they have money to invest in your project, just to be sociable ye ken
@twathater
I might be looking for a gubmint job soon, so I am training myself to “think like a psychopath”