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From Osbourne onward the Tories have become obsessed with the National Debt and annual borrowing levels.Covid and the cost of funding Furlough etc, and the cost of footing energy bills has increased government borrowing and led to this obsession coming back to the fore.Their complete inability to distinguish between capital spend and day-to-day expenditure beggars belief.Day-to-day expenditure needs to be controlled within the taxation framework a government wishes to employ.Well directed capital expenditure, especially when interest rates are low and economic growth sluggish, should be encouraged to help foster future economic growth which in turn both increases the tax yield and reduces National debt to GDP.Quite why they don't get this is beyond me. Delaying HS2 is just another example of their short-termist, illogical thinking on government expenditure.They're not saying that they're against HS2 here.
It's always made me chuckle seeing sleeper carriages parked up at Doncaster station with sleeping businessmen inside getting their money's worth because the country's too bloody small for the journey to last for a full night's kip!Back in 1972 I travelled from Belgrade to Hanovers on a sleeper which parked up on Passau RAILWAY station for 3 hours 12 am to 3am! It was a 26 hour hour n eh 8am to 10am the following day!
Then cancel it.If there's an economic decision to be made, make it.
If you make contractors liable for overruns on long term contracts you won't get anyone tendering for the work. Infrastructure of national importance such as public transport the business case should be offset by the benefits to AQ, those that don't drive, reductions in road building and maintenance, tourism etc, maybe it already is? Design and Construct is a method used where the engineer/architect lays down the performance specifications and it's up to the winning bidder on a fixed price to meet those requirements but not viable on such a complicated project.
You've always attacked the government BST, but soon your position on here will change from attack to defence, and I can't wait. You'll soon see that my wit is still very much alive, and better than ever!
BST,"As I said, if there's an economic case to build HS2, build it. If there's not, cancel it."It doesn't work like that.There are penalty clauses which apply to main contractors (and their sub-contractors) which are triggered by revisions. All these are normal inclusions.The reality is that once a project like Hs2 is significantly underway, it is almost impossible to withdraw from the scheme unless that is specifically provided in the original terms.As I posted above, the issue is with approval granted on the basis of inaccurate cost benefit assessment at the outset. All subsequent problems are traceable back to this deceptive analysis.