How likely is it HS2 will be stopped?

How will improved links between the business parks of the M6/M62 corridor and London take money from the North West?

Lack of passport, which unless the SNP win next year won't be an issue with staying in the UK.

Also, lower living standards.

A passport costs about £80. If you were seriously considering moving abroad, I don't see how that could be the main thing holding you back. Also I think it is possible to get a flight within the EEA without a passport as long as you have some other form of ID.

Lower living standards? Plenty of countries in Europe with living standards at least as good as the UK.

Yeah if I were seriously considering moving abroad - why wouldn't I just move to Canterbury?

Which? the only one I can think of is Germany.

Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria.

Do any of them have high speed trains running in them? If not then whats the relevance?

To my knowledge of that list (I agree they have higher living standards) Switzerland is the closest as its building a high speed freight line...

This.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Speed_2

links to this.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Speed_1

Which ultimately links to this

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-European_high-speed_rail_network


so what we have is an awful lot of people complaining about the government not doing enough to create jobs, and then when it does. They don't want it. Take your pick. HS2. Fracking. Nuclear power generation.

so what we have is an awful lot of people complaining about the government not doing enough to create jobs, and then when it does. They don't want it. Take your pick. HS2. Fracking. Nuclear power generation.

Sorry I don't get it, I thought the poster was suggesting I go to Europe as there is high speed rail there. I said there are lower living standards and now people are either suggesting I go to Norway etc (which doesn't have high speed rail) or Spain (which does but now resembles Ethiopia).

Norway is rather mountainous and sparsely populated. Not much need for it. Spain's high speed rail network is actually rather good when Islamic fundamentalists aren't blowing it up. Even they're upgrading it to high speed though.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Spain

So basically, there's a plan to connect all of the major cities in Europe with high speed rail links and HS2 is the UKs contribution building upon the work done by HS2.

I'm sure they could "create jobs" which aren't environment destroying.

And an argument I've seen thrown around a lot is "it's not for the government to create jobs"

Invention of the wheel, the boat, the dirt track, the paved road, the railway, the steam engine, the motor car, the internal combustion engine, the bus, the lorry, the car, the horse and cart, the sail boat, the paddle steamer, the screw propellor, the airplane, the jet engine in fact anything that enables people and goods from A to B boosts the economy. All impact on the environment somehow, boost the economy and all raise the standard of living for people. HS2 is likely to actually have an overall benefit getting people off roads and planes.

Getting from A to B is perfectly possible now. All that HS2 would do is shave twenty minutes from the journey. Not as revolutionary as the wheel, combustion engine or roads. For all the damage it would do, and money spent, there should be a better payoff than 20 minutes.

Getting from A to B is perfectly possible now. All that HS2 would do is shave twenty minutes from the journey. Not as revolutionary as the wheel, combustion engine or roads. For all the damage it would do, and money spent, there should be a better payoff than 20 minutes.

It knocks twenty minutes off the distance from London to birmingham. What's the time saving between birmingham and Berlin?

The great Eastern didn't shave that much time of the journey time across the Atlantic compared to the fastest clipper. But guess what. Steam still took over from sail even though they went to the same places. Broad band took over from dial up even though they did the same job. But one was quicker and boosted the economy.

And yet for the thing that's actually in question, only twenty is saved.