No money for projects outside of London

Dis86 said:
www.bbc.co.uk

Why the California Cross junction has divided Finchampstead

California Cross roundabout has been the subject of controversy since its redesign in 2024.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

UK's 'most bizarre' road markings to be removed in weeks

The work, which includes removing controversial wavy lines, follows feedback and is to take 12 weeks.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Prime example. Southern councils have money to spaff up the wall on things like this. Curiously they're not in compliance with national highways standards so not sure how they got away with them in the first place.
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I have dealt with councils before. They are just a bunch of pipe-smoking idiots.

That type of thing is supposed to instil uncertainty in drivers to make them pay attention to what's going on, but history has shown they don't work. Typical council that they don't know this.

The reason they don't work is because at first everyone is cautious of the new thing, but soon the locals get confident and start taking advantage of the noobs. This leads to really dangerous situations, especially when you get several over-confident drivers on the road at the same time.

There was a similar thing (not quite as flamboyant) built near a house I lived in about ten years ago. After two years and a ton of accidents they put traffic lights on it.
 
Dis86 said:
Suggest you read the article. Those things were done with the line markings. The ones they're removing.
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Suggest you re-read the article, it included changing road layouts and introducing one way system and cycle lanes. The second change didn’t revert the layout to the original, the cycle lanes were retained and other works.

It’s more than just wavy markings…

To be clear, I’m not passing judgement, I’ve not seen the old layout, new layout, second new layout and how the cycle lanes interact with the rest of the road network, I’m just simply pointing out they didn’t just spend £1.5m on some wavy lines which is what you are presenting it as.
 
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MichaelAwkward said:
If a company pulling in $50 billion revenue per year won't pony up the £50m shortfall to build the factory anyway, you've got to question their motivations. Corporate socialism can't continue the way it has.
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This is part of the general problem, really, isn’t it? These tech corps have garnered so many tax breaks over the years, and been paid so much tax payer money over the years, and have the temerity to turn around and push the image that socialism is evil, that high tax and public services are the worse thing imaginable, yet they’ve benefited from corporate socialism all this time.
 
could be talking about TATA(JLR) too, some degree of blackmail, jobs for monetary investment/guarantor; but, we do have pfizer investment in Cambridge to cover future pandemics

road infrastructure - from last week, the Welsh/labour 20mph zones seem to have reduced accidents (more data needed) so that could have had net economic benefit, vs roundabouts.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Suggest you re-read the article, it included changing road layouts and introducing one way system and cycle lanes. The second change didn’t revert the layout to the original, the cycle lanes were retained and other works.

It’s more than just wavy markings…

To be clear, I’m not passing judgement, I’ve not seen the old layout, new layout, second new layout and how the cycle lanes interact with the rest of the road network, I’m just simply pointing out they didn’t just spend £1.5m on some wavy lines which is what you are presenting it as.
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Look at the images...there is no infrastructure, it's all with white lining.
 
Dis86 said:
Look at the images...there is no infrastructure, it's all with white lining.
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You don’t know that, the article you linked has one image covering a fraction of the work of what you can see is mostly covered in cars.

The article lacks any and all detail of what they actually did and why it cost what it did.

The first article of the double mini roundabout has clearly had a lot of work done to re-profile the road. The line paining was a tiny part of what they did.
 
platypus said:
This is part of the general problem, really, isn’t it? These tech corps have garnered so many tax breaks over the years, and been paid so much tax payer money over the years, and have the temerity to turn around and push the image that socialism is evil, that high tax and public services are the worse thing imaginable, yet they’ve benefited from corporate socialism all this time.
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Surprise surprise, AZ were full of ****.

www.theguardian.com

AstraZeneca’s U-turn on £450m Speke expansion ‘deeply disappointing’, says minister

Chris Bryant says reduction of government support was linked to change in drugmaker’s proposed investment
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

So they were offered £90m for a £150m investment by the Tories, but when Labour only offered them £78m they cut their investment to only £90m which meant it made even less sense for the government to offer that much. Subsidies are all well and good when they offer value for money to the taxpayer in terms of jobs, revenues, etc but we shouldn't still do them when they don't or offer less value for money just to keep big business happy.
 
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I hate to say it but we need a Musk. We really need to cut back on government employees and red tape. Unfortunately, all of the current parties just don't want to do that. They keep on trying to cut anything they can - military, benefits and so on, when they could save far more digging in to the government itself.

I mean successive governments have managed, over the years, to weave a web so complex that they literally can't do anything they know needs to be done. It's absolutely ridiculous. And every new government just messes around the edges instead of getting it done.

We need infrastructure projects. We need energy. We need houses. We need control of legal immigration. We need to reduce the tax burden.

And decade after decade it all just gets worse because these idiots refuse to do anything about it.

I am not a right wing supporter. I mostly sit in the middle of things. But these parties need to be flexible and there are times when we need a bit of right wing rationalisation.

The government have known for decades that the economists have been saying that London, despite it's wealth, is now being held back by the rest of the country. It's no longer "something nice" it's essential that we do something about it. No arguments. No bat tunnels. We need to cut through the red-tape and sort it. Yet government after government, they re-organise stuff and nothing happens. It's unbelievably frustrating. We really need to start holding politicians accountable for their failures - like the rest of us are in private industry.
 
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The issue with the phrase ‘red tape’ is that for the most part ‘red tape’ = protections for citizens.

You say we need a person like musk but in reality all he has done is put hundreds of thousands of people out of a job with zero plan on how to work the country without them and zero safety net for those who he has just let go. The USA has very little protections for employees, a lot of those fired will have got next to nothing in terms of severance/redundancy pay and the US welfare system is almost nonexistent compared to Europe.

Musk has also gone around removing a number of checks and balances within the federal system (the equivalent of the NAO) which makes corruption a lot easier. Also look at who stands to benefit from lots of juicy government contracts with limited checks and balances, ah yes, it’s Musk with his own interests.

Please don’t suggest we need to be inflicted with this pain. The presentation and the reality in the US is very different.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
It turns out that Starmer’s found a load of money for projects outside of London.

The bad new is that project is Ukraine.
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Assuming you are talking about the new loan, maybe try engaging your brain?

The UK government has announced a £2.26 billion loan to bolster Ukraine’s military capabilities, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko signing the agreement today (1 March 2025).​


"The loan will be repaid using profits generated from sanctioned Russian sovereign assets held in the EU."
 
SpellowHouse said:
I hate to say it but we need a Musk. We really need to cut back on government employees and red tape. Unfortunately, all of the current parties just don't want to do that. They keep on trying to cut anything they can - military, benefits and so on, when they could save far more digging in to the government itself.

I mean successive governments have managed, over the years, to weave a web so complex that they literally can't do anything they know needs to be done. It's absolutely ridiculous. And every new government just messes around the edges instead of getting it done.

We need infrastructure projects. We need energy. We need houses. We need control of legal immigration. We need to reduce the tax burden.

And decade after decade it all just gets worse because these idiots refuse to do anything about it.

I am not a right wing supporter. I mostly sit in the middle of things. But these parties need to be flexible and there are times when we need a bit of right wing rationalisation.

The government have known for decades that the economists have been saying that London, despite it's wealth, is now being held back by the rest of the country. It's no longer "something nice" it's essential that we do something about it. No arguments. No bat tunnels. We need to cut through the red-tape and sort it. Yet government after government, they re-organise stuff and nothing happens. It's unbelievably frustrating. We really need to start holding politicians accountable for their failures - like the rest of us are in private industry.
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Couldn't agree more.

The first thing I'd do if I got in office is strip that ridiculous life-long payout that MPs and PMs get. If you leave office, that's it. No more pay. That will help address the four-year mentality that our political idiots have, that they simply need to do a four year term and be set for life. It's changed their mentality from "how can I improve this country" to "I need to survicve four years and I'm sorted".

Gut the lot from the top down and start fresh, house of lords, no10, the lot. Get shot of all of them and get some fresh people and fresh mindsets in there.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
The issue with the phrase ‘red tape’ is that for the most part ‘red tape’ = protections for citizens.

You say we need a person like musk but in reality all he has done is put hundreds of thousands of people out of a job with zero plan on how to work the country without them and zero safety net for those who he has just let go. The USA has very little protections for employees, a lot of those fired will have got next to nothing in terms of severance/redundancy pay and the US welfare system is almost nonexistent compared to Europe.

Musk has also gone around removing a number of checks and balances within the federal system (the equivalent of the NAO) which makes corruption a lot easier. Also look at who stands to benefit from lots of juicy government contracts with limited checks and balances, ah yes, it’s Musk with his own interests.

Please don’t suggest we need to be inflicted with this pain. The presentation and the reality in the US is very different.
Click to expand...

So, what, you are going to allow red tape to be so tangled that absolutely nothing can be done? The system needs to be rationalised. The balance is all wrong when half a dozen citizens cost seventy million their future.

The government are elected to do a job. They should be allowed to do it. When we have court cases, the outcome shouldn't be to stop a project going ahead, it should be about being fair to the people it affects.

If the government want to build something, they should be allowed to build it. That's what they are there for! That's why we elected them!
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
The issue with the phrase ‘red tape’ is that for the most part ‘red tape’ = protections for citizens.

You say we need a person like musk but in reality all he has done is put hundreds of thousands of people out of a job with zero plan on how to work the country without them and zero safety net for those who he has just let go. The USA has very little protections for employees, a lot of those fired will have got next to nothing in terms of severance/redundancy pay and the US welfare system is almost nonexistent compared to Europe.

Musk has also gone around removing a number of checks and balances within the federal system (the equivalent of the NAO) which makes corruption a lot easier. Also look at who stands to benefit from lots of juicy government contracts with limited checks and balances, ah yes, it’s Musk with his own interests.

Please don’t suggest we need to be inflicted with this pain. The presentation and the reality in the US is very different.
Click to expand...
Americans are about to find out how pathetic a lot of these cuts are.

It'll start with annoying things like the National park toilets being locked up because there's nobody to clean them, and America is quite big on supporting veterans and 1000's of those have lost their jobs

www.rollingstone.com

DOGE Is a Cruel Joke. The Punchline Is Making Life Hell for Veterans

Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are making reckless cuts that are devastating the lives of veterans.
www.rollingstone.com www.rollingstone.com
 
SpellowHouse said:
So, what, you are going to allow red tape to be so tangled that absolutely nothing can be done?
Click to expand...
At no point did I say that.

I pointed out that the term red tape is an old trope. The vast majority of what people (usually rich and powerful business owners) refer to as red tape in in fact protection for citizens which they don’t like because it’s costs them money they’d prefer to keep for themselves.

Your issue mains seems to be with the planning system which is something that is fixed relatively easily. It doesn’t constitute hardly anything to the red tape most people refer to.

The irony is the government is ripping up a lot of the rules on planning, assuming they actually pass the proposed legislation.
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
At no point did I say that.

I pointed out that the term red tape is an old trope. The vast majority of what people (usually rich and powerful business owners) refer to as red tape in in fact protection for citizens which they don’t like because it’s costs them money they’d prefer to keep for themselves.

Your issue mains seems to be with the planning system which is something that is fixed relatively easily. It doesn’t constitute hardly anything to the red tape most people refer to.

The irony is the government is ripping up a lot of the rules on planning, assuming they actually pass the proposed legislation.
Click to expand...

I hear your objections, but I don't hear any solutions.

I know what the red tape is there for, but I think we are far too biased in favour of the minority. In my opinion, red tape protects the people, but it protects them too much. We can not have a situation where the entire energy future of the nation is held back by a small collection of people complaining about their houses, or birds, or noise or whatever. What we need is a system of fair compensation, instead of a system that stops a project going ahead.

We desperately need new power stations, but it takes literally decades to get approval for them. This is madness. We need to start today, not in ten years time. I don't care if that inconveniences 1000 people. What I care is that it will mess the entire country up in twenty years if we take the course of least resistance.
 
VincentHanna said:
Assuming you are talking about the new loan, maybe try engaging your brain?

The UK government has announced a £2.26 billion loan to bolster Ukraine’s military capabilities, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko signing the agreement today (1 March 2025).​


"The loan will be repaid using profits generated from sanctioned Russian sovereign assets held in the EU."
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That’s this week’s money.

From WWW.GOV.UK:

“Today’s announcement builds on the £12.8 billion package of support the UK has given Ukraine, including £7.8bn of military assistance, a commitment for £3bn in military aid until as long as it takes, and ongoing energy infrastructure support to help hospitals and community facilities provide light and warmth to innocent civilians impacted by Putin’s invasion.”
 
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