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Can we do anything in the UK without it taking 10 20 years....

500km of railway, 20+ years. China, 50000km, 10 years. They built a bloody 20 million person world class city from scratch in 30 years. Are we still talking about new garden cities (that aren't really new cities), haven't they been in the works for 15 years???

China isn't necessarily tge best example to follow. They have 80 million empty houses because they built far too many because it made the GDP figure go up; their trains ferry around a lot of empty air, and their infrastructure is quite fally-downy

If you don't like China, you can have Singapore.

But having been in China for a month, I can tell you for instance "trains ferry a lot of empty air" isn't true, certainly not in Eastern China. The 1000 person trains were full. And the bullet trains are miles ahead of the rest of the world now in every aspect and they can make more in a year than the rest of the world combined x10. They have production lined train manufacture in a similar way to cars, but in a way no other company has. The train lines in the far north are the criticism for empty air, but it kinda of irrevelant in the grand scheme. There is politics / "control" in play, but also engineering testing for high speed in very cold temps and high desert, as they are exporting high speed to rest of the world now.

I think a lot of the poor quality stuff ends up being linked to corruption in lower tier cities. The Tier 1 cities are better than basically every Western city now.

Yes China keep their GDP up by doing effectively Keynsian ecomics of building in the down times and have overbuilt housing. But the point was they get shit done....the West, particularly the UK, don't get shit done, its more shit stuff gets done.

China gets stuff done by having no democracy, planning law, health & safety or environmental standards.

If they want to build something, they'll move you out of your house in 24 hrs - no questions- then bulldoze it, and they don't really care how many die in building the new stuff.

If you take that attitude, you can get quite a lot done quite quickly with an authoritarian state.

But would you want to live in one?

Unfortunately, what we nearly all want is JFDI for things we approve of, and review/delay/filibuster for things we don't approve of.

We just disagree on what ideas and projects should go in each category.

It will be great to see Kemi slaughtering Labour if they do insist on an all BAME (I thought it was Global Majority now?) shortlist

I was doing some interviews for a management post last week. One of the candidates described herself as BAME spontaneously in the interview.

It's not a great descriptor, but it is a damn sight better than 'Global majority' which is just plain dumb.

Yes: there isn't a global majority, unless the argument is that all non-whites have something in common.
Genetically, arguably the global majority is everyone not negroid.

BAME irritates me for two reasons: first, why did 'minority ethnic' suddenly become more correct than 'ethnic minority'? That's not hiw we construct English. And second, redundancy: "black" is an ethnic minority - so is covered already by the ME bit. It's almost exactly like Cheshire West amd Chester. Just "West Cheshire" would do.

Yes, its not a term that I would use. Neither would I use Global Majority.

But there are a number of similar curiosities. Using "Coloured People" is likely to end in disciplinary action but using "People of Colour" is fine and dandy.

The difference between those two is group vs individual

“People [who happen to be] of Colour” vs a group based segregation-associated classification

Though the NAACP still use the old term.

I think this is all part of euphemism inflation. Existing usage gets tainted by pejorative connotations, so new terms come into usage, which in turn become pejorative.

So we started with the medical terms "imbecile", "moron" and "lunatic" but wind up "Learning Diability" "Special Needs" and "mental health issues" but as the underlying prejudices are little changed these new terms become tainted.

Rachel Reeves beat Rishi Sunak at chess in Davos at 1am this morning
https://x.com/PolitlcsUK/status/2014379649342550137?s=20

Well done Rishi. We all knew she was a very good player. it's good to know that without fanfares he is too. I've always liked Rishi except for the way he allowed himself to be pushed around by his Party's right wing

I've always liked him except for the way he was totally over-promoted and out of his depth in both of the big jobs he did.

He was a fairly competent junior minister and might have been ready in about a decade. But being Prime Minister is completely different from being a junior minister or running a quango, as the current incumbent is finding out. You don't just need administrative ability, you need a popular vision, and the ability to appoint colleagues who will deliver it, and take the public with you.

Morning all.
Interesting set of local by elections last night, The Lib Dems nicely won a four way dust up in the Cotswolds with the Greens collapsing and Reform behind the Tories.
SNP a solid hold on mid forties in Glenrothes with only Reform reallytroubling the scorers otherwise and Labour falling apart
Reform picked up Leeswood in Flintshire on 22% with Labour in freefall and the indies doing well
Tories held in the Wirral/Willaston on a very solid 53% Labour and Reform distant in second and third
And locally in Norfolk for me a Tory hold in Wymondham on 31% from the Greens with Reform third. Labour collapsed to fifth. Both the Greens (who got 30% in 2023) and Reform will have fancied this one. Wymondham is classic small market town Tory Norfolk but certainly not the strongest part of the county and it will encourage them to hold here. It makes South Norfolk one to watch as a Tory snaffle at the GE as Labour arent holding it and Reform not looking dominant here. But watch the Greens - not a big chance but outside Norwich, S Norfolk is probably their strongest (wholly, not like partial Waveney) Norfolk seat

I predict this will not happen:

Politics UK @PolitlcsUK
🚨 SUMMARY: The major policing reforms set to be outlined by the Home Secretary next week:

- The number of police forces in England and Wales will be cut from 43 to around 12 "mega forces" from 2034

Nine England regions (9), one Welsh region (1), the City of London Police (1) and the British Transport Police (1). Total twelve.

I can't see the Civil Nuclear Constabulary being absorbed into anybody, because obvious.

Those are the chaps that arrest you if you detonate a nuclear device without the correct permit? Paging @Malmesbury.

They do it very politely though…

And if you resist they call on the Brusque Nuclear Constabulary for assistance