Campaign grows to switch the building of HS2 station to Sheffield city

[AndrewC]

Or in the real world. Labour have only had one electable leader in the last 45 years. That was Blair and he stole Tory policies. Leaders like Corbyn and Foot can't see that and remain unelectable. But there you go. Perhaps after Corbyn Labour will find another Tory to lead them.

 

Or perhaps the masses will stop letting themselves get conned by the minority?

[foxy lady]

Or perhaps the masses will stop letting themselves get conned by the minority?

 

What you mean is you want the masses to be conned by an even smaller minority.

[LeMaquis]

Labour have only had one electable leader in the last 45 years. That was Blair......

 

Harold Wilson did well to get elected PM in 1974 despite being unelectable. John Smith would have got elected PM too if he'd lived.

[foxy lady]

Harold Wilson did well to get elected PM in 1974 despite being unelectable. John Smith would have got elected PM too if he'd lived.

 

Ah yes 1974. The time when 1970s politics was fashionable. Sorry to tell you this but John Smith never faced a general election and certainly never won one, even though some still let their imaginations run riot.

 

Ah. My apologies. I've now worked out what you are trying to say. It's only 42 years since a left thinking Labour leader actually won a general election.

Edited May 14, 2016 by foxy lady

[dutch]

Politics will swing from one side to the other and then back to the one again, you see it in States, Canada, Australia and England.

Just look in a 40 year window and you see it go round and around.

 

HS is nothing more than some temporary investment to strengthen UK international image.

 

Sheffield to London off peak open return ticket £115.

In Netherlands a similar distance one way journey at rush hour costs £18 there.

And they are blabbing about high tech HS futuristic expensive bullet trains while they cannot even keep the existing ones under control.

[WalkleyIan]

Or in the real world. Labour have only had one electable leader in the last 45 years. That was Blair and he stole Tory policies. Leaders like Corbyn and Foot can't see that and remain unelectable. But there you go. Perhaps after Corbyn Labour will find another Tory to lead them.

 

There is a well known mantra something like opposition parties don't win elections rather that governments lose them.

 

Arguably May 1997 was as much result of September 16th 1992 as the Blair factor.

 

The current Tory party has two huge strengths that got them elected . Cameron is the most liked (least disliked) party leader and they are trusted on the economy.

 

In the predicted post Brexit mini recession they will have lost their two trump cards, Cameron will be gone and they could be blamed for the economy.

 

Apologies if the thread is meandering but you cant predict who is going to be in charge in 10, let alone 20 years

[foxy lady]

Politics will swing from one side to the other and then back to the one again, you see it in States, Canada, Australia and England.

Just look in a 40 year window and you see it go round and around.

 

 

Indeed they do.But this is not a 2 party state. There was a time when the liberals were the dominant force until they fell apart and their policies went out of fashion. We may well have 2 parties that will share government in future, but that doesn't mean one of them needs to be a Corbynist Labour.

[Cyclone]

Don't you imagine that our railways will improve over the next 30 years? 30 years ago they had only just replaced steam engines on the railways and had manned signal boxes where men had to pull leavers to operat manual signals.

 

Let me just fact check this.

30 years ago, it was 1983.

In 1976 the intercity 125 was launched.

Steam was phased out in the 1930's according to wikipedia.

 

The limitations on journey time are down to box sizes (minimum safe distance between trains), which won't decrease. Speed limits on sections of track due to curvature which can't be decreased and the level of traffic, which is pretty much at saturation.

There is very little additional capacity that can be squeezed out of the existing infrastructure.

[dutch]

Let me just fact check this.

30 years ago, it was 1983.

In 1976 the intercity 125 was launched.

Steam was phased out in the 1930's according to wikipedia.

 

The limitations on journey time are down to box sizes (minimum safe distance between trains), which won't decrease. Speed limits on sections of track due to curvature which can't be decreased and the level of traffic, which is pretty much at saturation.

There is very little additional capacity that can be squeezed out of the existing infrastructure.

 

Longer double decker trains?

[Hambeast]

Longer double decker trains?

 

Who is going to pay for all the bridges and tunnels to be modified to take these taller trains?

Who is going to pay for the extra carriages to make the trains longer?

Who is going to pay for all the platforms to be modified to take longer trains?