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Old 15th February 2020, 12:18
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Dartskipper United Kingdom Dartskipper is offline
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Location: Paignton. Devon.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Engine Serang View Post
The "Coolies" as you so delicately put it, will be assembling the microchips for the digital signals and arranging the finance for HMG to issue as Bonds. HS2 may have to introduce the snowflake generation to picks and shovels. FCUK Savid Javid has just resigned.
But who, exactly, will be foolhardy enough to invest lifetime savings or pension funds in those Bonds? The Victorians raised private finance for their railway building orgies by similar processes, issuing Bonds backed by fanciful promises that were impossible to uphold, causing much financial misery to the investors who appear to have not learnt from the South Sea bubble or Dutch Tulips. It was all very well for the Government of the day to nationalise the system after WWII while it was struggling to recover after 6 years of highly intensive operations and considerable neglect, but no new lines were built for years and the "Modernisation Program" of the 1950's was all about using imported oil that was cheaper than domestic coal supplies, and building new diesel powered locomotives that were capable of sustained high speeds on a railway that was essentially the same one built by the Victorians but designed for slower speeds and semaphore signalling systems.

No amount of bombastic hyperbole about getting things done can hide the fact that HST is an answer to a question that nobody asked.
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