HS2, NIMBYs and France

Given the Government's decision to go ahead with the HS2, would it be too much to ask that we follow the example of the French.

That is, we get the thing done as a national priority and not just through to Birmingham but on to Manchester and Leeds. 

One of the things I admire about the French is that once they decide, at a national level, on a grand projet, they get on with it.  According to reports, the legislation for the initial phase, through to Birmingham, won't come before parliament before 2014. 

Honestly!  It would be quicker to get a referendum on Scottish independence!

Wherever and whatever route is used, someone will be affected and so will someone's view.  Sorry (not really though) but that's the price of progress and I really think we do need to progress.

Some of the opposition to the proposal suggest that the current congestion on trains could be eased if more carriages were added to existing trains and platforms extended.  Well let's do that as well.  The indications or proposal suggests that the first phase won't be complete before 2026, anyway!

I am really not sure I understand why it will take 14 years to build a railway line and yet we got the whole London Olympics site built in less than 7 years!

Let's get this done and done now.

Cameron and Co need to put the national interest before party interest and tell the constituencies through which the line goes, this is the way it is!

One further point though.  It is my understanding that one reason the French manage to get their grand projet through is that they don't penny-pinch on compensation and they accommodate those that they effect - so build under-passes for farmers etc.  In other words they buy-off a lot of the moaners!

Award disrespects the true victims of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

The British part of the World has gone mad.  More specifically, the legal side.
A doctor has just been awarded £4.5 million because of discrimination against her.

She was adjudged to have been hounded out of her job by colleagues and the Trust at the hospital where she worked and to be the victim of sex and racial discrimination.

Now go back to the second line and make sure you read it again - £4.5 million!

Consider:
She is 53.  She left her position in 2008 but the trouble started back in 2003.  So approx when she was 45.  Meaning she then had 15 years of normal work before retirement.  Is someone saying that her income is £300K per year!

Consider this as well:
She is said to be suffering from 'Post Traumatic Stress Disorder'.  This is usually associated with those that go through horrific episodes such as bombings and shootings.  Sorry, but I can't help think that this association between her suffering and those of the July 7 victims or that of our military in Iraq and Afghanistan somewhat diminshes that of the latter.  And that is shameful.

I haven't seen the evidence in this case and frankly I don't need to.  I have seen the evidence, on TV of the bombings and shootings and our wounded and fallen returning home and to conflate her suffering with that of these true victims is shameful.