Our government still fancies the country as a world leader. If there were prizes for short-sightedness and bloody-mindedness, we'd certainly be top of the pile.
I awoke today to news of new runways for both Heathrow and Gatwick. HS2 has gone quiet for the time being but there's rarely a time these days when people aren't discussing new ways of transporting people to and from our over-crowded, unaffordable, claustrophobic capital. Recently, domestic news stories have been dominated by house prices and the lack of new homes being built and new runways for London airports will result in houses being demolished. I feel like my brain is going to explode!
When are our leading politicians going to realise that drastic FORWARD-THINKING action is needed to reduce the pressure on London and spread employment opportunities more evenly around the country?
I still think that the amount of business-led transportation is absurd in this day and age. But even if more environmentally and economically friendly ideas continue to be ignored, there's still no sense whatsoever in continuing to develop London only and ignoring everywhere else. HS2 will bring people to business in London; it will not bring business elsewhere. Increasing the capacity of London airports will just make the City even busier, even more expensive.
Constantly concentrating everything in London is like giving plates to 10 people but putting all the food on just one of them. Instead of trying to squeeze more people into an ever more expensive, more claustrophobic corner of the country, we need to move some of the country's opportunities to other areas with more space to expand. This is especially obvious with many areas desperately short of work.
It's infuriating how the problems of airport and rail capacity, housing shortages and prices and unemployment in other areas are being worsened by this ridiculous, short-sighted, pig-headed obsession with London.
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