There is further controversy surrounding this project, focussing once again on the financial argument that it is not worth the money.
The problem with Britain, and in particular England, is that its infrastructure falls short of modern needs. It is not just about money, it is about political will and the venerated status of the notion of protest. Thus the nation which sparked the industrial revolution, built an empire on railways, invented the computer and television and much else besides, is now in growing trouble.
All the major European nations have significant inter-connecting high speed railways. Britain has one line, opposed in its infancy by the Tories and every kind of campaign group. A costly white elephant and a blight upon the countryside. In the event the cross channel connection is a vital artery to the continent and the new commuter services are transforming the economies of the communities which the only modern railway in the country serves. Barely anyone notices the line is there and there are no protesters whatsoever.
HS2 is not about its budget any more than was the building of the first sewers in London or water mains in big cities. It is about moving civilised life forward in the ever expanding prospect of improvement. What is expensive at the outset becomes a bargain for later generations. The failure of the British to be able to see their noses in front of their faces and their propensity to select and elect politicians bereft of vision has led to a crisis in power generation due to lack of replacement of both nuclear and coal stations with anything but fantasy talk, inadequate road and rail systems to provide modern connectivity of regions and communities, a chronic housing shortage and a perpetual crisis in national IT projects.
Britain is the only country within the range of its GDP which cannot send a rocket into space, has destroyed its industrial base, still relies for a good many of its services on engineering undertaken by Victorians and expects, once again, to grow its economy on the foundation of house price inflation.
Britain already ranks in the mid twenties on the measure of GDP output per head of population, and is at number two in the world for both the size of its external debt and the size of its balance of trade deficit. On every measure of economic performance it is sliding down in the the tables. The time has come for every British person to recognise the need for a re-think. Above all end the mean habit of thinking little and about me. It’s time to think big and about my country and future generations. For the first time since the peasants came in from the countryside to the cities, the rising generation of the UK will get a less good deal than their parents. That is the most telling measure of all.