Labour Plans To Teach British Empire Injustice In Schools

[naomi24]

In other words, Labour intends to fill young minds with its own anti-British brand of politics rather than history.

And there’s more.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50551765

Be afraid … be very afraid.

[mushroom25]

//Look at HS2 - millions spent, and not a foot of track laid yet. //

the difference with HS2 is that it's not a "vanity" project - at least not entirely. it was conceived as a solution to the chronic overcrowding of the existing north-south rail infrastructure, which the last upgrade to the west coast line was meant to sort but is itself now chronically overcrowded. there is no room for more trains, in particular freight. if there's to be no HS2 there needs to be something else, do nothing isn't an option. another upgrade? well maybe if the industry can tolerate another 20 years of disruptive works - always an issue when working on a live railway - and a price tag that may not be far off that for HS2. or maybe doubling the number of lanes on the M1 and the M40? obviously more available to everybody but would it be environmentally acceptable?

[pixie374]

A stupid question, I expect... but if we desperately need HS2, why can't it just go underground, like the channel tunnel? Once we have Brexited, we can cancel it anyway, it is for European connections and nothing really to do with the UK.

[emmie]

much of Euston has been flattened already, around the station. I can't see it going underground for all the reasons that Crossrail is being built and how would that be compatible.

[pixie374]

I don't honestly know, emmie x

[emmie]

Phase One: London to the West Midlands
Phase 2a: West Midlands to Crewe
Phase 2b: Crewe to Manchester and West Midlands to Leeds
Maps and plans
HS2 for businesses
High Court Order: Harvil Road
All HS2 Ltd services and information

[emmie]

that is the proposal, they have already spent billions on it.

[pixie374]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/9015342/The-continent-is-the-final-destination-for-HS2.html

They have over spent on the budget already, while having done less than 2% of the work.

[Old_Geezer]

It matters little. Due to deliberate procrastination this is still a Brexit election. If a week is a long time in politics, 5 years is a lot longer to think about other strategies.

[pixie374]

This will be the 3rd time we have asked for Brexit... but I think that has to be clear for even the most self-obsessed remainers. We can stop HS2 then as well.

[mushroom25]

//why can't it just go underground//

a lot of it is proposed to do just that, which is one reason why the cost has grown. see here http://www.thehs2.com/phase1/maps/showmap.php
from Euston the line will follow the west coast line to Gloucester Gate Bridge, then in tunnel to Old Oak Common, following the central line to West Ruislip (a lot of it in tunnel), then turning right up the Colne Valley to Chalfont Common with more tunnel to Great Missenden, etc etc.....

[pixie374]

Great Missenden is just about where I live... and it is already being destroyed. Campaigners have managed to save a few trees, but it still seems to be destined to go straight through the greenbelt here, and people have already been forcibly moved from their homes.

[emmie]

as they have in the capital by the hundreds -

[emmie]

this has gone completely off thread....

[naomi24]

Soooo ... should we allow this bunch of numpties to teach our children their dangerous brand of politics?

[youngmafbog]

NO!

[KARL]

The USA defines publicising their exploits in such things as using civilians as a lethal real-life version of a computer game as criminal behaviour.

It seems there is rage over the very idea that ensuring past exploitation, mistreatment and worse being taught as part of history and that when it comes to British misdeeds this forms the definition of being anti-British. What should be done about those deeds and events which are shameful about the glorious Empire, burn the records, administer frontal lobotomy or exterminate those who know about it, wage genocide against the descendants of those who were wronged because they carry living recollection ? Or should there by now be sufficient courage about to hold these things up to the light of day - or is that too much to expect ?

[THELOONYCORBYN]

By todays standards just about every country has done wrong.....

abott et al should ask themselves where would they be if it wasnt for this countrys past ..they wouldnt be here spouting their anti british ant white racist bile all the time thats for sure

[naomi24]

Karl, the wrongs are already held up to the light of day. We don’t need the Labour party to do that. The danger is that given the opportunity, a Corbyn government will bury all record of the numerous benefits the British Empire brought to the world.

[andy-hughes]

mushroom - // the difference with HS2 is that it's not a "vanity" project - at least not entirely. //

Seriously?????

Given that successive governments and privatised companies have consistently proven themselves to be utterly incapable of running the rail system they have got, or effectively and on-budget and on time, build the Cross-Rail project, why on earth should the tax payer be funding yet more pie-in-the-sky nonsense like HS2?

The current network is, and always has been, chronically under-funded and resourced.

The simple fact is, if you privatise a utility, it ceases to function for service, and starts to function for profit.

That means that everyone develops severe tunnel (no pun intended!) vision, focusing on profit and cost saving, not delivery of service, because the raison d'etre ceases to be the provision of something the nation needs and uses, and becomes something that generates cash for share holders, and bonuses for executives.

If the budget for HS2 was given to upgrade the existing infrastructure, with longer platforms and fully maintained track and signaling, and new rolling stock, the whole thing could be transformed within a few years.

Currently, any spend for maintenance and replacement has to be wrung out of a reluctant organisation that wants to keep every penny in its share dividends, and not spend it on actually running the rail network. That means work is done as cheaply as possible, by the cheapest contractors working weekdays only to save overtime, using cheap materials, and the result is a sticking plaster over a fatal wound.

And we now expect these people to design and run a new rail network from scratch and get it running on time under budget and providing solutions?

Dream on!!!!

[andy-hughes]

naomi - // Karl, the wrongs are already held up to the light of day. We don’t need the Labour party to do that. //

Precisely, that is the very definition of history.

// The danger is that given the opportunity, a Corbyn government will bury all record of the numerous benefits the British Empire brought to the world. //

And that is the worry - focusing entirely on the negative aspects of history which, be definition cannot be changed, and apologising to the world for our part in that negativity.

What was done was done, there is no point in people who were not there apologising to other people who were not there - it's a futile exercise in right-oness, and it's organised by people with an over-developed sense of self-obsession and desire to venerate themselves with their inverse humbleness.

It stinks, and it deserves no room in a civilised culture.