this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
17 points (87.0% liked)

United Kingdom

4038 readers
229 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in !casualuk@feddit.uk or !andfinally@feddit.uk
More serious politics should go in !uk_politics@feddit.uk.

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 10 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] FatLegTed@feddit.uk 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

One word.

Tories.

That is all.

[–] HeartyBeast@kbin.social 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The HS2 company was set up under Labour. I watched a bit if the video, interesting content, though I found the presentation pretty insufferable

[–] palordrolap@kbin.social 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

New Labour*. They dropped the New almost immediately and for a while recently it looked like they might drop it in spirit as well, but apparently not. Their current figurehead is a literal knight of the realm. Not necessarily a conflict of interest, but, well, have you seen him?

Anyway, the purpose of projects like HS2 is to get as much money out of the public purse and into the pockets of politician's pals as quickly as possible, Labour, Tory or otherwise. If something comes out of it that's actually useful at the end of it all, well, maybe it'll garner a few more votes in future? Who cares when you've got huge piles of money?

[–] HeartyBeast@kbin.social 2 points 11 months ago

So, to summarise ’politicians, amirite?’

I suspect thing are a bit more complicated than that.

[–] Big_Twerp@feddit.uk 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So tell me you don’t understand without saying you don’t understand.

The HS2 act, which effectively set the costs (known, unknown and unknowable) was passed by a Tory government desperate not to upset their financial backers in the Home Counties.

[–] HeartyBeast@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hello up there on your high horse - I specifically said the HS 2 company.

[–] Big_Twerp@feddit.uk 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Double down on your ignorance by all means. The company is a government owned entity that does as it’s told by the government, and is bound the act. It existed well before the budget was set and well before things like land compensation were agreed.

[–] HeartyBeast@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago

Just to be clear, you think it was a good idea to have it set up as a Ltd company funded by the government. OK

[–] GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's a public infrastructure project. They often go wildly over budget, because the payoff is generally still worth it.

(Plus, on a lot of projects, the quotes are often ridiculously low, because the companies know govts. will cover "unexpected" costs)

[–] Syldon@feddit.uk 4 points 11 months ago

Except all work carried out under the Tories is done at exorbitant costs. Public projects under the Tories is nothing more than schemes to refund donations made to them.