Westministenders: Canada Plus and the Transition Phase

[RedToothBrush]

As we approach the 31st January, we slowly tick towards exit and transition.

Things are not yet signed off though the No Deal planning has quietly been stood down with no press release and the government have said they won't talk about trade deals post 31st Jan because the public are bored of them and don't understand.

The new EU president has said that the UK doesn't have time to make a full deal with the EU before 31st December with a deadline which isn't flexible.

We still have no idea what the government plans are. We still have many EU citizens feeling very vulnerable.

Perhaps we should start talking about this rather than Royals for a couple of weeks...

In that brave new world l'd rather mine come across as witches than meek little lambs.

Modern day suffragettes would be extremists under anti terror laws.

Paul Brand @paulbranditv
Pro-HS2 Tory MPs tell me they have at least 30 signatures on letter calling for it to go ahead. More than the 20 anti-HS2 Tory group.

Not as divisive as Brexit and all very polite and discreet. But this is shaping up to be the first proper internal Tory row since the election.

Ah, HS2. By the time it's running - if at all, entire families in the area will have had children that will be 25+ years old, and probably not at all interested in it anymore.

You know the paradox with space exploration ? That if we sent someone now, they'd be overtaken by the next generation who set out in 50 years time ?

HS2 is much like that. By the time it's reached it's destination, rail travel will look nothing like it does today.

Jan Treagle springs to mind.

What is it that makes major infrastructure projects in the U.K. so controversial? Since I moved to France just in the south west region alone we have had an entire new motorway and several new sections of high speed train line.

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www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/news/grimsby-news/brexit-exemption-sought-grimsby-seafood-736984.amp?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar&__twitter_impression=true
Brexit exemption sought for Grimsby seafood trade
Industry representatives want free trade for seafood at Grimsby and Immingham ports

Seafood should be given special free trade status after Brexit to ensure Grimsby’s industry is not damaged, MPs have been told.

Key figures from the wider Lincolnshire food industry were in Westminster last week to provide the Government with their vision for meeting the challenges presented by the UK leaving the European Union.

Twats

What is it that makes major infrastructure projects in the U.K. so controversial

It’s a bit too socialist. Infrastructure costs taxpayers money and, as with the NHS, British taxpayers want the service and infrastructure without the pinch.

Why we couldn’t have HS2 and a London estuary airport instead of Billion £££££ Brexit I don’t know.

Available space I'd imagine mostly Mistigirl France is bloody massive compared to the UK in terms of landmass and it's population density is much lower isn't it?

We do seem to allow every little thing to stop us though which is just crazy. Get the damn thing built.

What's the Grimsby Telegraph quoted MP chatting about, "we couldn't do this [free trade for fish] now". That's literally what we have now.

What is it that makes major infrastructure projects in the U.K. so controversial

In part, the relationship between the landowners and the people in they put into government.

My DF once caught one of the interminable discussions on the Channel Tunnel high speed link through Kent, and just commented you need a ruler and a pencil, a line from A to B. He never understood how one persons rose garden could delay a billion pound project. (Admittedly Mussolini may have left a mark ...).

Also, as Tatiana suggests, there is that "what's in it for me ?" mindset the English entitled have cultivated so well over the centuries.

Why the jump straight to anti-English sentiment please? Are we sure that other parts of the UK don't respond similarly?

Growing up, I wondered whatever happened to the Victorian visionaries - the Brunels of this world - in 20th century Britain.

Then, on my first trip to the US I found out. They must have all emigrated ( and who'd blame them). When you go around the US and see things like the Empire State, Twin Towers , Hoover Dam, interstate system, you realise, here is a people that do not know what "no" means .

I admit to feeling exceedingly angry right now me too but that made me laugh, just sounds so very British!

Down with this sort of thing!

What is the justification for a 200mph piece of short railway track, costing 100s of billions, in a small country, where the rest of the rail network is falling to pieces? and becoming almost unaffordable?

HS2 will be too expensive to most rail users, will be an environmental disaster and will do nothing to take vehicles of the roads.

The UK needs more & cheaper capacity, not a vanity project.

HS2 may not itself take vehicles off the roads, but I think the effect of building it certainly could.

The West Coast Main Line is full, absolutely full stand on say, Rugby station for an hr or so and you'll see that, clear as day. Running freight, stopping passenger and infrequent stopping passenger trains down the same track is being done to the maximum intensity safely possible, it just isn't very efficient.

If the fastest trains are moved onto HS2, there will more room for other services so there should be an improvement in stopping services, and more capacity for freight = fewer cars and fewer lorries on the roads hopefully.

That said, I agree with Jas in 2 senses. First, it shouldn't be "either/or" smaller projects in other parts of the network need implementing too. Second my personal opinion is they should do the northern bit, say Manchester/Leeds/Birmingham before extending to London.

What is the justification for a 200mph piece of short railway track, costing 100s of billions, in a small country, where the rest of the rail network is falling to pieces? and becoming almost unaffordable?

I imagine Tory donors are running a bit short ?

Grimsby voted Leave and now they would like to opt out?

When is HS2 (it happens) due for completion ? 2030 ? More like 2035. That's pretty much a generation into the future. I would be amazed if the mass transport needs of the UK (whatever remains of it) will be in anyway comparable then to what they are now. It's hard not to equate the whole scheme with the idea of building a huge fuck off canal between London and Birmingham being proposed in 1836.

Not only are our elected representatives venal, weak, racist, misogynist, corrupt, greedy, self serving and stupid (sometimes all at once). They are also deeply unimaginative and uninspiring.

Whilst I don't get the Brexiteer soapy titwank fawning over all things US, at least they had people like Kennedy and (I really cannot believe I am typing this) Reagan who had some vision and rhetoric.

The fact that all they could dream up to "celebrate" Brexit was a rather hackneyed ringing of a clock bell (and even then they hadn't got the brains to plan it in advance) speaks volumes about Brexit as a whole. It's a stale, unimaginative and rather pathetic response to the challenges the UK faces. As are the vast majority of people who supported it.

If I had been paid to devise a celebration for Bexit, I would have devised an "app for Brexit" which enthusiastic Brexiteers could install and which would burst into life with a spectacular video and audio display at midnight on 1st February, where all the gathered folk could waft their phones aloft in triumph as a worlds media captured the clear message that here was a UK that was powering into the 21st century with all the tools at it's disposal.

Which makes arguing over a 19th century bell rather passe.

But there you go. They didn't ask me. They relied on their own wit, intelligence and resources. And believe you me, the message to the world really could not be clearer.

...but if the new track wasn't hi-speed, it would be far cheaper and more money available for adding capacity and opening new lines?

Intercity 125 could easily do 120mph, so no need for any new trains to be pedestrian, i just question why a small country needs bullet trains?
We wont be integrating into european HS routes now, perhaps a US - UK HS route? lol!!

Zero justification to build a HS route between Manchester and Leeds, they are right next to each other!!!

I would challenge that Jas you'd still need the route, you'd still need to compensate people, etc. Building a railway line is still building a railway line "HS" or not, not sure the cost saving would be that huge tbh.

Manchester to Leeds is an hr by train, the service is frequently at capacity and that journey time is a bit of joke really. It probably doesn't really need a 200mph railway, you're right on that, but if London is getting one the Conservatives had better make absolutely damn sure the north gets the same.

However I can't really disagree that CdG was also farsighted, and possibly knew the Brits better then they knew themselves.

Knew the English. You have Little Englanders, but you don't have Little Welsh or Little Scots, or Little Irish do you?

The West Coast Main Line is full, absolutely full stand on say, Rugby station for an hr or so and you'll see that, clear as day.

Yes, it is certainly is, from Rugby or thereabouts and south. But build a relief freight line. I suppose it might still cut through some well heeled Tory shires, but it won't be as costly to build. You don't need the trains to go at the same speed, or need the station infrastructure.

Something of a cross post there about HS2.

Now as for celebrations, one of my earliest memories* is the Coronation. We children were all give a coronation cup and saucer, or a commemorative mug, and a bar of chocolate.

• I didn't remember that it was the Coronation - I remember going to some marquee, clutching said bar of chocolate and being told that's what I was remembering.

Key figures from the wider Lincolnshire food industry were in Westminster last week to provide the Government with their vision for meeting the challenges presented by the UK leaving the European Union.

Where is Liz Truss to witter on about doing a deal with the US here?

Key figures from the wider Lincolnshire food industry were in Westminster last week to be told to fuck off.

Or rather "Get orf my land".