There has been quite a lot happening in the past few weeks which are worth commenting on outside the area of pensions, which has been quiet.
The extension of HS2 to Manchester and Leeds was announced at a cost of £34bn, which one presumes is additional to the London to Birmingham section costing some £32bn. One can think of much better ways to spend £66bn to promote growth and improve infrastructure.
Both routes are going to cause major disruption and damage to Local economies and people and for what, to cut 20 to 40 minutes off journey times, which could be more readily and cheaply saved by reducing waiting and feeder journey times at departure and arrival.
The dual track will be dedicated to high speed trains only and would not allow slower traffic, in addition because braking distance increases fourfold at twice the speed, frequency is halved giving little benefit in capacity. It will be out of date before the first train runs.
China is proceeding with a vacuum train, which they aim to have running in ten years, this will run at speeds of 300 to 600 mph, be super green with little fuel costs and could run underground or above and screened to virtually disappear from view.
We have advanced low cost gas pipeline technology, which could be applied to a car or container module at a small fraction of the cost. If applied to freight traffic between main storage and distribution centres, a 12,000 mile dual tubeway spinal network covering most of the Country would cost some £9bn.
This would reduce congestion on motorways and railways, fuel costs and emissions would be negligible being super green and they would be invisible underground. The 197 mile Milford Haven to Gloucestershire pipeline cost £700 million to build and is now no longer visible. This is the transport future for freight and even humans.
Marriage also hit the headlines, developed over time by tribes and social groups to ensure stability and continuity of the human species, it was embraced by religious groups and society for this purpose and should be respected as such. If we all became gay or lesbian then the human race would be extinct in a generation.
They are a minority group, who have a right to their choice, but already have the legal security of civil ceremony open to all couples so why waste Parliamentary time and upset traditional beliefs.
Then we have the Stafford Hospital scandal, which should never had happened but was inevitable with the economic, bureaucratic and target culture. I have only had to spend one night in hospital, it was a revelation and I have complete sympathy with the overworked nurses and doctors.
There was one trained nurse and a green assistant looking after at least three wards holding 15 to 20 patients each, a staff level we would not allow in our schools, there were also harassed doctors rushing to and fro. The Manager was locked securely in her room and came out occasionally to give orders, but never ventured into the wards. There were groups of chatting cleaners who pushed debris around the floor at times.
One couldn’t help remembering, from my father’s time in hospital, the hospital hands on matron who ran everything efficiently, who knew and talked to the patients, helped out when necessary and ensured their comfort and met needs. Thankfully they are returning.
Those were the good old days before Managers tried to run hospitals like a supermarket or major business. Essential staff have been cut to save money, but up to half these wages goes straight back to the Treasury, the rest circulates with a large part also returning there. The real cost is probably not much more than benefit for the redundant.
Finally there is the GCSE U turn, we are continually changing methods and like the Hospitals suffer from too much interference and half baked ideas, let us leave the very professional staff to do the job properly. I had a good balanced education at school and home in the 30’s and 40’s, reached University from a working background with State grants but little interference.
We do not want to go back to the past, but we should learn its lessons and hang on to the good bits. There is a need to bring back common sense and humanity to our lives, and assess carefully changes to century old traditions, which were based on these.
Too much time is spent running around chasing our own tails, worrying about money and keeping up with the neighbours, both household and Nationally and also finding someone to blame when things go wrong.
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