Stephen Crabb, of course, is more of a Leviticus kind of guy.
Can I say something controversial, that nearly cost me friends in the past.
I preferred Phil Collins Genesis to Peter Gabriel Genesis
This explains alot.
I was a massive PG fan when I was a kid, and during a summer job at an Insurance Company, I processed his insurance policy. It was filled in so meticulously. That was the highlight of my summer.
See point 2 in my recent thread predicting the EURef was more like the AV referendum
The focus of referendum has been portrayed as an opportunity to kick an unpopular politician rather than look at the merits of the argument. Had the AV referendum focused purely on the merits of AV, then I’m sure the undoubted merits of AV would have ensured a triumph for Yes2AV.
Now an elevated Hyperloop train system between Gatwick and Heathrow I could see,
'Mazing. Much discussion about the best mode of transport to link two airports. May I 'umbly suggest some sort of aircraft perhaps?
Mr. Code, you seem to have missed my earlier comment when I referenced the former helicopter link which worked very successfully between Heathrow and Gatwick. It was killed off by eco-loons.
It wasn't killed by eco-loons. It was killed by NIMBYs in the leafy stockbroker belt between LHR and LGW not liking the noise.
I'll stick up for nimbyism in this case - albeit as someone who lives in Woking. We used to have a lot of helicopters fly over us and they were very intrusive. For whatever reason we don't have so many now - perhaps it's because we're under the flightpath for Farnborough and that's a lot busier than it used to be.
"Such a Cabinet needs two new powerful Secretary of State positions...Existing departments of state could be merged to make way for the new posts required." TRANSLATION. The task is so large we are going to have to lose departments and strip their staff to fill the new ones
"In the boardrooms ...and at...kitchen tables, decisions...are now on hold, awaiting clarity on our post-EU plans and prospects. That is why a recession in the coming months is widely predicted. " TRANSLATION. Nobody knows what to do next and the s**t is about to hit the fan.
"There is no way of reassuring these companies about continued access to the European single market on the same terms... " TRANSLATION. Your ability to trade will be permanently reduced.
"The EU Working Time Directive could be abolished and replaced with a more flexible alternative." TRANSLATION. You are going to work harder.
"Everyone...now has to...work out how to compensate for what we are losing with new national advantages." TRANSLATION. We are going to lose stuff and I don't know how to fix that. Anybody got any ideas?
When you read through the threads of the popular newspapers, nobody has a good word to say about Theresa May.
The more dismissive they are, the more up voted.
Just sayin'
Choosing May would be a massive error by the Tories. She's Britain's Hillary.
By this time next year May will probably be PM and Hillary US president and Merkel still head of the most powerful nation in the EU, 2017 will be a milestone year of women in power
Leadsom PM, Trump President. Frau Merkel and Mrs Clinton sectioned. By this time next year.
I could see a Thatcher and Reagan relationship between Leadsom and Trump but I don't think it is going to happen
OK, here's the real solution to all aviation problems in the capital:
What we need is a network of underground taxiways, deep below the surface of London, with plane access to runways at Gatwick, Heathrow and City, and passenger access from strategic points, mainly linked to other transport hubs - mainline stations, tube stations, underground car parks etc.
Passengers would be able to check in, go through security and board the plane at their local station, which would be less crowded than more pleasant than a major airport. Once everyone is boarded, the plane then taxis along under London, picking up other passengers from the other stops until everybody is on board and it can come to the surface and take off. Airport 'terminals' as we know them could be consigned to history and the space used for more runway and landing strip capacity
Stephen Crabb, of course, is more of a Leviticus kind of guy.
Can I say something controversial, that nearly cost me friends in the past.
I preferred Phil Collins Genesis to Peter Gabriel Genesis
This explains alot.
I was a massive PG fan when I was a kid, and during a summer job at an Insurance Company, I processed his insurance policy. It was filled in so meticulously. That was the highlight of my summer.
Christ, I hope life got more exciting for you after that.
While you're about. Can I ask that you change the header from drops out, to dumped out. It would ensure his humiliation is recorded for ever. (Or as long as the internet remembers) and would cheer me up no end.
Is Mike's thread and he's currently locked into it.
But the pic records it accurately, Liam Fox eliminated
"Such a Cabinet needs two new powerful Secretary of State positions...Existing departments of state could be merged to make way for the new posts required." TRANSLATION. The task is so large we are going to have to lose departments and strip their staff to fill the new ones
"In the boardrooms ...and at...kitchen tables, decisions...are now on hold, awaiting clarity on our post-EU plans and prospects. That is why a recession in the coming months is widely predicted. " TRANSLATION. Nobody knows what to do next and the s**t is about to hit the fan.
"There is no way of reassuring these companies about continued access to the European single market on the same terms... " TRANSLATION. Your ability to trade will be permanently reduced.
"The EU Working Time Directive could be abolished and replaced with a more flexible alternative." TRANSLATION. You are going to work harder.
"Everyone...now has to...work out how to compensate for what we are losing with new national advantages." TRANSLATION. We are going to lose stuff and I don't know how to fix that. Anybody got any ideas?
That's your translation. How do you even expect people to respond? I suggest you go and tweet it or something.
PS You could save a lot of electrons by just writing THE SKY IS FALLING!!!! in big letters.
Now an elevated Hyperloop train system between Gatwick and Heathrow I could see,
'Mazing. Much discussion about the best mode of transport to link two airports. May I 'umbly suggest some sort of aircraft perhaps?
Mr. Code, you seem to have missed my earlier comment when I referenced the former helicopter link which worked very successfully between Heathrow and Gatwick. It was killed off by eco-loons.
It wasn't killed by eco-loons. It was killed by NIMBYs in the leafy stockbroker belt between LHR and LGW not liking the noise.
It was not exactly profitable, much like the Scillies helicopter link.
Looks like only May and Leadsom have a shot. There aren't many countries that have elected a second female leader. I think we would be the first G20 country. It is interesting that the tories seem much more able to elect women than labour.
So, 199 Tory MP's are remain. Add to that the Labour Party, the LD's, Gibraltar, the Nats, the entire House of Lords and Delia Smith.
And the leading Tory Brexiters- Leadsom and Johnson didn't believe in it.
I just don't get how this all went so horribly wrong.
You forgot the people ...... ( you always do)
See previous post.
In the spirit of bonhomie and coming together I was speaking to my Brexit brother today who said he voted Brexit to stop Islamic terrorism. I cannot quite believe we share the same DNA.
The stupidity of the Brexiters will never cease to amaze.
Next I will hear someone voted Brexit because they want Man Utd to win the league.
The stupidity of some family members never ceases to amaze me either.
The roads are only a mile and a half apart, and there's already a couple of minor roads in the area that could be improved. Many people would have benefited from that the other Sunday.
I'd love to see some of our great scientists working on transport problems, it's not impossible to get a Hyperloop or Maglev up and running, and between the two busiest airports in the country would be an ideal place to start.
It seems we're scared as a country of developing new technology, preferring old and tested solutions to pushing the boundaries. Maybe we should ask the F1 teams for advise on how to push technological boundaries, they seem quite good at it from where I'm sitting.
Hopefully Mrs May will have the new runway as her first announcement as PM. We need to show the world we're open for business and that's a good starting point.
Fair go, Mr. Pit,/ On the wider idea of developing new technology, the Uk was once very good at this. However, consider the response of Mr. Jessop upthread - which in this context boils down to "it will never work". Yet Mr. Jessop is one of the few engineers we have on this site.
We can see the same thing in nuclear power. The only option is to spend squillions of pounds with the the French and hand over enormous amounts of dosh to the Chinese every year for the next god knows how many years. All for what one power station? Built to a design which has yet to be completed anywhere. I cannot accept that. There have to be better options.
It's been suggested to me that British politics is like a Latin American soap. It would be great if we could translate the names accordingly. Guillermo Zorro, Esteban Cangrejo and Teresa Cinco de Mayo have a real ring to them.
OK, here's the real solution to all aviation problems in the capital:
What we need is a network of underground taxiways, deep below the surface of London, with plane access to runways at Gatwick, Heathrow and City, and passenger access from strategic points, mainly linked to other transport hubs - mainline stations, tube stations, underground car parks etc.
Passengers would be able to check in, go through security and board the plane at their local station, which would be less crowded than more pleasant than a major airport. Once everyone is boarded, the plane then taxis along under London, picking up other passengers from the other stops until everybody is on board and it can come to the surface and take off. Airport 'terminals' as we know them could be consigned to history and the space used for more runway and landing strip capacity
I prefer teleporters as seen in Blakes' 7. Helpfully, they're also more likely.
Three left. Will Gove or Leadsom follow and save a second ballot on Thursday?
No, they both have far bigger egos than Crabb. Crabb's supporters should now ensure May has a large lead going into the membership ballot after Thursday's second ballot, with Leadsom probably knocking out Gove once she picks up the bulk of Fox's support
Let's say Leadsom gains 6 from Fox - that will give her 72.
For Gove to make the Final he would then need 73, which would leave May on 184 (assuming 329 total votes - ie one abstention again).
So May can show good growth whilst still lending enough votes to allow Gove to come second.
Yes - it is totally within May's gift who comes second.
It is in her interests that it is Gove. He doesn't want to be PM, isn't capable of being PM according to him, is a political assassin and is Harry Enfield in disguise. Whereas Leadsom is an unknown quantity.
She has said she doesn't want to play games. But she already is being accused of games playing. Her advisors know how this is played. There is a lot of scope. Gove must be odds on to come second and then lose to May. Actually, he isn't odds on. He is 3/1 against.
If I were a duplicitous sh*t like Brutus I'd say that Crabb will exit shortly, endorse May and on Thursday any Gove tactical switchers return home with a result around :
Looks like only May and Leadsom have a shot. There aren't many countries that have elected a second female leader. I think we would be the first G20 country. It is interesting that the tories seem much more able to elect women than labour.
The Argentinians had Isabel Peron as well as Cristina Kirchner, but I don't think the former was elected so I think you're probably right there..
"Such a Cabinet needs two new powerful Secretary of State positions...Existing departments of state could be merged to make way for the new posts required." TRANSLATION. The task is so large we are going to have to lose departments and strip their staff to fill the new ones
"In the boardrooms ...and at...kitchen tables, decisions...are now on hold, awaiting clarity on our post-EU plans and prospects. That is why a recession in the coming months is widely predicted. " TRANSLATION. Nobody knows what to do next and the s**t is about to hit the fan.
"There is no way of reassuring these companies about continued access to the European single market on the same terms... " TRANSLATION. Your ability to trade will be permanently reduced.
"The EU Working Time Directive could be abolished and replaced with a more flexible alternative." TRANSLATION. You are going to work harder.
"Everyone...now has to...work out how to compensate for what we are losing with new national advantages." TRANSLATION. We are going to lose stuff and I don't know how to fix that. Anybody got any ideas?
The £ has recovered a little and it is nowhere near Armageddon levels. Hague backed Remain but losing the EU Working Time Directive and replacing it with a more flexible alternative or even a mild recession, does not a Great Depression make
If I were a duplicitous sh*t like Brutus I'd say that Crabb will exit shortly, endorse May and on Thursday any Gove tactical switchers return home with a result around :
May 210 .. Leadsom 85 .. Gove 35
I knew my ARSE was twitching for some reason ....
Why would you want to risk Leadsom on the ballot, better for Gove to get in and be destroyed by the membership. We don't want the Tory Corbyn to become PM.
Boris nearly bought Leadsom off with a job promise. So surely May will now do the same (dump Brexit on her. She deserves it) and we will have a new PM well before September?
As not much is happening, whoever gets the Brexit job will have to deal with this (from the TPP FTA that Robert posted earlier):
". A textile or apparel good classified outside of Chapters 61 through 63 of the Harmonized System that contains non-originating materials that do not satisfy the applicable change in tariff classification requirement specified in Annex 4-A (Textiles and Apparel Product-Specific Rules of Origin), shall nonetheless be considered to be an originating good if the total weight of all those materials is not more than 10 per cent of the total weight of the good and the good meets all the other applicable requirements of this Chapter and Chapter 3 (Rules of Origin and Origin Procedures)."
There's 30 chapters full of prose of this nature. They even have two paragraphs on the definition of 'Lycra'.
They should totally give this to Gove. It's a punishment straight from Greek mythology, like Sisyphus.
Any possibility that May has leant supporters to both Gove and Leadsom. Call them home in the next round and it's all over.
There's another factor here, which makes the Tory rules inappropriate for choosing a PM, as opposed to LOTO. Is it really right that the Home Secretary should be spending a huge amount of her time up and down the country campaigning for a party leadership election?
If I were a duplicitous sh*t like Brutus I'd say that Crabb will exit shortly, endorse May and on Thursday any Gove tactical switchers return home with a result around :
May 210 .. Leadsom 85 .. Gove 35
I knew my ARSE was twitching for some reason ....
Why would you want to risk Leadsom on the ballot, better for Gove to get in and be destroyed by the membership. We don't want the Tory Corbyn to become PM.
There is no risk.
May will trample either Leadsom or Gove with the members - YouGov refers. May should also not be seen to be part of a grubby effort to deny Leadsom the opportunity to fail.
OK, here's the real solution to all aviation problems in the capital:
What we need is a network of underground taxiways, deep below the surface of London, with plane access to runways at Gatwick, Heathrow and City, and passenger access from strategic points, mainly linked to other transport hubs - mainline stations, tube stations, underground car parks etc.
Passengers would be able to check in, go through security and board the plane at their local station, which would be less crowded than more pleasant than a major airport. Once everyone is boarded, the plane then taxis along under London, picking up other passengers from the other stops until everybody is on board and it can come to the surface and take off. Airport 'terminals' as we know them could be consigned to history and the space used for more runway and landing strip capacity
I prefer teleporters as seen in Blakes' 7. Helpfully, they're also more likely.
Surely the likely thing is they'll create a digital representation of your mind, attach that to an email, and then load you into a Sony robot at the other end.
I can't see Leadsom or Gove dropping out unless eliminated. Even if they can't win amongst the members they can force May to adopt a more brexity tone by keeping the pressure on. If it's a coronation she has more scope to fudge.
Thanks. The tories really can't afford to stitch up the referendum result or try to ignore it on the basis of England having a ten point lead for leave
The roads are only a mile and a half apart, and there's already a couple of minor roads in the area that could be improved. Many people would have benefited from that the other Sunday.
I'd love to see some of our great scientists working on transport problems, it's not impossible to get a Hyperloop or Maglev up and running, and between the two busiest airports in the country would be an ideal place to start.
It seems we're scared as a country of developing new technology, preferring old and tested solutions to pushing the boundaries. Maybe we should ask the F1 teams for advise on how to push technological boundaries, they seem quite good at it from where I'm sitting. (Snip)
We're great at inventing new technology in this country. Developing it... less so.
But I'll defend us on this. We abandoned Maglev when it was clear that it was not particularly practical - and we were right, as the Germans also abandoned their system (which was meant to be 100% safe) after a fatal crash. The Chinese have replaced the extension to their one Maglev line with a traditional rail line. Only the Japanese are really pushing the technology (and to be fair, theirs is significantly different to the German/Chinese system).
At around the same time as all this, the bods at the RTC at Derby (who were also developing the first Maglev) were dong work on high-speed trains, especially rail-wheel interactions. This allowed faster speeds on existing tracks, without the need for massively-expensive new tracks. Add in tilt (cough)APT(cough) and they were looking at pushing the most out of our existing network. They were hardly 'old and tested'. In fact, I think the APT-E was the first train in the world built using aerospace techniques.
By not developing Maglev further, we saved ourselves an absolute fortune. Germany did not have that wisdom.
It was a political decision in the 1960s: the French chose to build new high-speed lines; we decided to get the most out of our existing network. That was probably right given the respective geographical sizes of our countries. Unfortunately we've probably pushed parts of our network as far as they can go.
If I were a duplicitous sh*t like Brutus I'd say that Crabb will exit shortly, endorse May and on Thursday any Gove tactical switchers return home with a result around :
May 210 .. Leadsom 85 .. Gove 35
I knew my ARSE was twitching for some reason ....
Why would you want to risk Leadsom on the ballot, better for Gove to get in and be destroyed by the membership. We don't want the Tory Corbyn to become PM.
There is no risk.
May will trample either Leadsom or Gove with the members - YouGov refers. May should also not be seen to be part of a grubby effort to deny Leadsom the opportunity to fail.
Mr W., It was only a few weeks ago that you assured me that remain were going to win comfortably. Forgive me if I take a holiday from your forecasts.
If I were a duplicitous sh*t like Brutus I'd say that Crabb will exit shortly, endorse May and on Thursday any Gove tactical switchers return home with a result around :
May 210 .. Leadsom 85 .. Gove 35
I knew my ARSE was twitching for some reason ....
Why would you want to risk Leadsom on the ballot, better for Gove to get in and be destroyed by the membership. We don't want the Tory Corbyn to become PM.
There is no risk.
May will trample either Leadsom or Gove with the members - YouGov refers. May should also not be seen to be part of a grubby effort to deny Leadsom the opportunity to fail.
It's a secret ballot. She cannot control how her supporters are going to vote. She might not want to be seen to be part of a grubby effort but each MP will be making their own calculation.
Edit: May/Gove has come in from 3/1 to 2/1 but very thin market.
Gove suddenly has a lot of power. If he backs Leadsom we could head for a members' ballot without another round of voting in Westminster.
Gove is toxic with the members.
The only way Leadsom wins is if May is caught in bed with Gove and Corbyn and then is found reading a copy of the Morning Star whilst smuggling ISIS members into the country on Sir Philip Green's new yacht ..... and even then she might just edge the contest !!
If I were a duplicitous sh*t like Brutus I'd say that Crabb will exit shortly, endorse May and on Thursday any Gove tactical switchers return home with a result around :
May 210 .. Leadsom 85 .. Gove 35
I knew my ARSE was twitching for some reason ....
Why would you want to risk Leadsom on the ballot, better for Gove to get in and be destroyed by the membership. We don't want the Tory Corbyn to become PM.
This kind of plotting is precisely the kind of thing that plays badly with Tory members. If May is good enough you should entrust them to vote for her in the members' ballot. Let Leadsom face public exposure and justify some of the statements she made on behalf of Vote Leave - if she proves to be inadequate you can be sure members will reject her. We're not the Labour party.
I wonder if Brexiters have considered that having a coronation for May is the best way of achieving what they want. They could potentially be in a race against time before the next election - wouldn't it be best to have the new PM in place and commencing negotiations asap?
The roads are only a mile and a half apart, and there's already a couple of minor roads in the area that could be improved. Many people would have benefited from that the other Sunday.
I'd love to see some of our great scientists working on transport problems, it's not impossible to get a Hyperloop or Maglev up and running, and between the two busiest airports in the country would be an ideal place to start.
It seems we're scared as a country of developing new technology, preferring old and tested solutions to pushing the boundaries. Maybe we should ask the F1 teams for advise on how to push technological boundaries, they seem quite good at it from where I'm sitting. (Snip)
We're great at inventing new technology in this country. Developing it... less so.
But I'll defend us on this. We abandoned Maglev when it was clear that it was not particularly practical - and we were right, as the Germans also abandoned their system (which was meant to be 100% safe) after a fatal crash. The Chinese have replaced the extension to their one Maglev line with a traditional rail line. Only the Japanese are really pushing the technology (and to be fair, theirs is significantly different to the German/Chinese system).
The grand-daddy of them all - in every sense of the word - was Brunel's atmospheric railway in the 1850s, which ended rather disastrously when the £25,000 best oxhide leather first froze solid and was then eaten by rats.
If I were a duplicitous sh*t like Brutus I'd say that Crabb will exit shortly, endorse May and on Thursday any Gove tactical switchers return home with a result around :
May 210 .. Leadsom 85 .. Gove 35
I knew my ARSE was twitching for some reason ....
Why would you want to risk Leadsom on the ballot, better for Gove to get in and be destroyed by the membership. We don't want the Tory Corbyn to become PM.
This kind of plotting is precisely the kind of thing that plays badly with Tory members. If May is good enough you should entrust them to vote for her in the members' ballot. Let Leadsom face public exposure and justify some of the statements she made on behalf of Vote Leave - if she proves to be inadequate you can be sure members will reject her. We're not the Labour party.
I wonder if Brexiters have considered that having a coronation for May is the best way of achieving what they want. They could potentially be in a race against time before the next election - wouldn't it be best to have the new PM in place and commencing negotiations asap?
Comments
For Gove to make the Final he would then need 73, which would leave May on 184 (assuming 329 total votes - ie one abstention again).
So May can show good growth whilst still lending enough votes to allow Gove to come second.
"Such a Cabinet needs two new powerful Secretary of State positions...Existing departments of state could be merged to make way for the new posts required."
TRANSLATION. The task is so large we are going to have to lose departments and strip their staff to fill the new ones
"In the boardrooms ...and at...kitchen tables, decisions...are now on hold, awaiting clarity on our post-EU plans and prospects. That is why a recession in the coming months is widely predicted. "
TRANSLATION. Nobody knows what to do next and the s**t is about to hit the fan.
"There is no way of reassuring these companies about continued access to the European single market on the same terms... "
TRANSLATION. Your ability to trade will be permanently reduced.
"The EU Working Time Directive could be abolished and replaced with a more flexible alternative."
TRANSLATION. You are going to work harder.
"Everyone...now has to...work out how to compensate for what we are losing with new national advantages."
TRANSLATION. We are going to lose stuff and I don't know how to fix that. Anybody got any ideas?
What we need is a network of underground taxiways, deep below the surface of London, with plane access to runways at Gatwick, Heathrow and City, and passenger access from strategic points, mainly linked to other transport hubs - mainline stations, tube stations, underground car parks etc.
Passengers would be able to check in, go through security and board the plane at their local station, which would be less crowded than more pleasant than a major airport. Once everyone is boarded, the plane then taxis along under London, picking up other passengers from the other stops until everybody is on board and it can come to the surface and take off. Airport 'terminals' as we know them could be consigned to history and the space used for more runway and landing strip capacity
PS You could save a lot of electrons by just writing THE SKY IS FALLING!!!! in big letters.
I'll get my coat
Cameron was really scraping the barrel when he appointed Crabb and he was clearly intended as a temporary stopgap.
Crabb played the politics game quite well, IMO.
May 1.31 / 1.32
Leadsom 4.9 / 5.7
Gove 19 / 20
We can see the same thing in nuclear power. The only option is to spend squillions of pounds with the the French and hand over enormous amounts of dosh to the Chinese every year for the next god knows how many years. All for what one power station? Built to a design which has yet to be completed anywhere. I cannot accept that. There have to be better options.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum/results
It is in her interests that it is Gove. He doesn't want to be PM, isn't capable of being PM according to him, is a political assassin and is Harry Enfield in disguise. Whereas Leadsom is an unknown quantity.
She has said she doesn't want to play games. But she already is being accused of games playing. Her advisors know how this is played. There is a lot of scope. Gove must be odds on to come second and then lose to May. Actually, he isn't odds on. He is 3/1 against.
Leave 53.4%
15,188,406 VOTES
Remain 46.6%
13,266,996 VOTES
Turnout: 73.0%
55.4-44.6 Leave (excl London)
". A textile or apparel good classified outside of Chapters 61 through 63 of
the Harmonized System that contains non-originating materials that do not satisfy
the applicable change in tariff classification requirement specified in Annex 4-A
(Textiles and Apparel Product-Specific Rules of Origin), shall nonetheless be
considered to be an originating good if the total weight of all those materials is not
more than 10 per cent of the total weight of the good and the good meets all the
other applicable requirements of this Chapter and Chapter 3 (Rules of Origin and
Origin Procedures)."
There's 30 chapters full of prose of this nature. They even have two paragraphs on the definition of 'Lycra'.
They should totally give this to Gove. It's a punishment straight from Greek mythology, like Sisyphus.
There's another factor here, which makes the Tory rules inappropriate for choosing a PM, as opposed to LOTO. Is it really right that the Home Secretary should be spending a huge amount of her time up and down the country campaigning for a party leadership election?
May will trample either Leadsom or Gove with the members - YouGov refers. May should also not be seen to be part of a grubby effort to deny Leadsom the opportunity to fail.
Headbangers / joke right do nut...
https://twitter.com/B_HQ/status/750410759432183812
Mensch retweets this:
https://twitter.com/georgeroyce91/status/750406177968812032
I can't think how to work in Deutoronomy though.
But I'll defend us on this. We abandoned Maglev when it was clear that it was not particularly practical - and we were right, as the Germans also abandoned their system (which was meant to be 100% safe) after a fatal crash. The Chinese have replaced the extension to their one Maglev line with a traditional rail line. Only the Japanese are really pushing the technology (and to be fair, theirs is significantly different to the German/Chinese system).
We also abandoned other things, for instance the tracked hovercraft we spent a fortune developing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracked_Hovercraft
At around the same time as all this, the bods at the RTC at Derby (who were also developing the first Maglev) were dong work on high-speed trains, especially rail-wheel interactions. This allowed faster speeds on existing tracks, without the need for massively-expensive new tracks. Add in tilt (cough)APT(cough) and they were looking at pushing the most out of our existing network. They were hardly 'old and tested'. In fact, I think the APT-E was the first train in the world built using aerospace techniques.
By not developing Maglev further, we saved ourselves an absolute fortune. Germany did not have that wisdom.
It was a political decision in the 1960s: the French chose to build new high-speed lines; we decided to get the most out of our existing network. That was probably right given the respective geographical sizes of our countries. Unfortunately we've probably pushed parts of our network as far as they can go.
For anyone wanting a boring amount of information, below is a link with an interview with an RTC engineer at the time, Dr Alan Wickens:
http://www.nrm.org.uk/railwaystories/railwayvoices/dralanwicken
As an aside, F1 teams are working in other areas. Williams is an example, with their advaned engineering division:
http://www.williamsf1.com/advanced-engineering/case-studies/hanergy
https://twitter.com/LouiseMensch/status/750404529087209472
Edit: May/Gove has come in from 3/1 to 2/1 but very thin market.
"The need for us to recognise that we have deep seated divisions in our society that we need to do much better in tackling and mending"
Listening to this, one is bound to wonder whether Mr. Crabb wouldn't feel much more comfortable in the Labour Party?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHWjHKY4VJc
SarahActually, maybe not.
The only way Leadsom wins is if May is caught in bed with Gove and Corbyn and then is found reading a copy of the Morning Star whilst smuggling ISIS members into the country on Sir Philip Green's new yacht ..... and even then she might just edge the contest !!