[VintageKrug]

I don’t buy the defeatist approach which says just because it didn’t work in the past it won’t work in this case. We’re not the French.

Boris and Dave are actually very aligned on this, the issue is about creating a debate and getting the public behind one of the available options. That’s what politicians do best, and the Conservatives have played a masterstroke by having one foot in each camp at this early stage in the game, and making this issue central to the next election, ensuring a political mandate for whichever option is most popular.

As to whether the jobs go to Brits or others, I couldn’t care less – as long as the job is done to a high standard and at reasonable cost.

[Bucksnet]

Trying to make it a political ‘football’ and delaying anything until after the next election is not helping British business, but that is probably part of the plan.

As for jobs going to Brits we should care, as the economy and budget deficit are terrible. Don’t forget our taxes are higher to pay for the 5 million plus people on out of work benefits, and we are borrowing unsustainably as well.

[canucklad]

VK……you’re optimism is both admirable and obscureley patriotic (ref the french)

I’m going to set you a challenge if you’re willing to accept ?

[AnthonyDunn]

canucklad – 19/12/2012 10:43 GMT

Ah, is that of a £1M or a knee to the cajones variety…?!!! =:-)

[canucklad]

Ahhhh well…..AD

Possibly a bit more mentally painfull and challenging than a knee to the cajones !! 🙂

[TerryMcManus24]

nous attendons en prévision

[canucklad]

Well Terry Mc……Apologies , you will have to wait until the challenge is accepted !!!

[Binman62]

Build it and they will come.

A new airport is entirely possible by the end of the decade with 3 runways and sufficient terminal capacity to close LHR. It can then grow as HKG does.

Osaka is built in the sea on a man made Island and had to overcoem earthquake and other risks. They started in 1987 and it was finished and open in 1994…and stunning it was too.

Dealing with a bit of bog and the odd bird by comparison should be straight forward

[SimonS1]

By the end of the decade, yes. Sadly it won’t be this decade or the next one though.

Barring a Falklands factor the Conservatives will clearly go west at the next election so it will be “pass the parcel” again.

[Bucksnet]

I still don’t understand why LHR has to close if another airport is built?

[VintageKrug]

Despite an excellent lunch at the Royal Yacht Club which may be clouding my judgement, I am intrigued, M le Canuck.

Elucidate more and I may well accept!

[canucklad]

A very smart man once said,,,,,,

“To adequately define the problem is the first step towards solving it”

In this vain, VK you’re mission if you choose to accept ……

Is to move the name of the new hub from JM Barrie International to Sir Winston Churchill international.

A starting point for you would be to list all the successful “Capital Projects” that the UK have delivered… in my time living in the UK (25 years)

On budget
On time, or earlier..HaHa
And without any compromise from the original vision i.e downsizing

Find 5 major projects and discover the commonalities’ then we found the magical recipe that would propel our country back to the top.

If we market it correctly, you’ll make us all millions VK !!

[AnthonyDunn]

canucklad – 19/12/2012 15:54 GMT

If I might throw in my £63.5Bn worth, this is a somewhat asymmetric challenge. It would be fair, reasonable and credible for a selection of overseas projects also to be brought into the consideration; far from the UK being uniquely bad at infrastructure delivery (once the decision has finally been taken…), I dare say that there are plenty of foreign examples of things that “didn’t quite go to plan…” such as (ahem) Osaka’s new airport in the sea proceeding to sink several inches because the civil engineers had (astonishingly) overlooked the effect of compression on the mud on the seabed – which is why the entire seabed beneath HKG/Chep Lap Kok was scraped clean of mud and infilled with rock prior to construction.

And then there is the twice delayed new/remodelled Berlin Brandenburg/Schonefeld – with a raft of operator compensation claims now being processed…

Or the Boston inner expressway system than ran years and gazillions of dollars over budget.

Has anyone ever seen any figures for the French state/SNCF’s spending on the TGV train lines across France and how the final bills compared with the original estimates? Ditto for Germany and its ICE network or Spain’s high speed rail network.

[canucklad]

AD. Your £63. 5 Bn worth of comments are valuable to the ov erall discussion. However, in this year of the Olympics past the UK excels itself in the art of ******* things up. We are true gold medalists at procasternation- compromise and snouting in the trough by all concerned!

So the challenge is a very British one only!

Although as I’ve already commented. If we had trusted the chinese rather than our EU buddies, the Germans— I would be already using our Tram system instead of spotting kangaroos in the deep holes still being dug throughout Edinburgh.

[AnthonyDunn]

canucklad – 19/12/2012 18:02 GMT

Now I was under the clear impression that the ongoing débacle that is the Edinburgh tramway system owes itself to the chronic inability to (a) decide exactly where is to be served and (b) determine the consequent budget and stick to it. A manifestation of the Scottish Executive?

As for the suggestion of having the Chinese build our infrastructure, I am reminded of Chinese high-speed trains falling off bridges and the local communist party leadership literally burying the evidence. Then there is my personal experience of the worst rain storms in Beijing in over 60 years this Summer. The ensuing floods lead to the deaths by drowning of over 80 people trapped in their cars and buses in underpasses on Beijing’s 2nd inner ring road. They could not get out in time such was the rapidity of the flooding because of poor drainage and such was the inadequacy of the rescue services. Interestingly, the comparisons made locally were with the rescue infrastructure in Hong Kong (inherited from …the British colonial administration)

I am altogether not taken with the idea of the Chinese doing our infrastructure and most definitely NOT any new London airport.

[Author]

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