Tim, the Heathrow proposal includes a 17 mile non-stop high speed rail link to St Pancrass giving Heathrow an almost direct link to Paris city centre in just over 2h. The Heathrow proposal is very, very well thought out unlike HS2.
As for capacity, as I said in the previous thread, capacity on the toads/roads and in the air needs to be expanded, rail is an antiquated way to ferry people around the country, at least in a nation this small. Going from 125mph to 200mph for £70-80bn for just 250 miles of track (distance between London and Leeds) makes little sense as it only saves a maximum of 50 minutes from the journey time. We could invest less than a fifth of that money nationwide on electrification of all current lines and in-cab signalling to enable 140mph trains, as well as lengthening platforms at major stations for 10 carriage trains.
Again, HS2 is a Tory vote buying scheme, nothing more or less. At 140mph the time saved jumping to 200mph is just 35 minutes, hardly worth the extra £60bn. Dave winning a few extra marginal seats in the Midlands most certainly is not.
1) Why is rail antiquated, aside from your biases? 2) Your costs are way out. Use official figures, not IEA's invented ones (which included Crossrail 2, for Christ's sake). 3) It is not just London to Leeds; there is a link to Manchester and the WCML further north as well. 4) It is not just about journey time, but about capacity. In fact, capacity is more important. 5) Where are your costings for the electrification? Bedford to Sheffield and Nottingham is £800 million alone (and that's being done). 6) What in-cab signalling system? Are you aware of the signalling fiasco on the WCML upgrade program? 7) Lengthening platforms at major stations is *massively* expensive in many cases. For instance, the entire Rochester station is having to be moved to allow it to have longer platforms. That is for around £26 million for one station.
Anyone talking about upgrading the WCML to increase capacity to the level of HS2 should be beaten around the head with the following document, and also learn why the WCML upgrade cost nearly £10 billion for small improvements.
I'm not against on rails mass transit, it's just that current tech high speed rail does not represent value for money. When the Japanese are jumping to 500km/h Maglev (the L0 train) there is no reason that Britain should not follow those developments. At 500km/h rail travel begins to make sense in a country this size, it is more than twice as fast as the current rolling stock and would cut the journey time to Birmingham down to 25 minutes, a gain worth having, and to Leeds the journey would take just 50 minutes, again, a gain worth having. It is up to the government to have the balls to tell the French to take their antiquated railways and stick them where the sun doesn't shine.
If we're going to do railways, lets at least do it right. We're in the 21st century and by the time HS2 finishes (assuming it goes ahead) Japan will have commercialised Maglev leaving our old system eating its dust. We shouldn't buy a 19th centurty technology from France when a 20th century technology is so close to maturing in Japan. If only our government had the foresight to give research grants for Maglev development so we could then export the technology to the rest of the world like Japan inevitably will in the next 50-100 years or like the French have done with the TGV.
1) Why is rail antiquated, aside from your biases? 2) Your costs are way out. Use official figures, not IEA's invented ones (which included Crossrail 2, for Christ's sake). 3) It is not just London to Leeds; there is a link to Manchester and the WCML further north as well. 4) It is not just about journey time, but about capacity. In fact, capacity is more important. 5) Where are your costings for the electrification? Bedford to Sheffield and Nottingham is £800 million alone (and that's being done). 6) What in-cab signalling system? Are you aware of the signalling fiasco on the WCML upgrade program? 7) Lengthening platforms at major stations is *massively* expensive in many cases. For instance, the entire Rochester station is having to be moved to allow it to have longer platforms. That is for around £26 million for one station.
Anyone talking about upgrading the WCML to increase capacity to the level of HS2 should be beaten around the head with the following document, and also learn why the WCML upgrade cost nearly £10 billion for small improvements.
JJ, I am going answer this post and only this post because we all know that if HS2 was a Labour policy and the Tories had come out against it we would be on the same side. Honestly, if you are trying to pretend to me or anyone else that the opposite is true then you need to take a look at why you bother.
As for your points:
1. It is expensive, slower than air travel and not easily upgraded (one can always buy newer more efficient planes with more capacity, for example)
2. The official figures are rubbish, I am not using the IEA figures, I am using the £50bn plus the usual cost overruns.
3. London to Leeds is the longest distance, which is why I used that, it should technically have the best cost to benefit ratio.
4. Capacity in the air and on the roads is much more critical to economic growth than rail.
5. Are you seriously telling me that £14-16bn would not be enough for electrification?
6. Done properly it can work, don't mistake the incompetence of Railtrack and it's contractors for failures in the underlying technology.
7. Again, we're talking about billions of pounds to extend key intercity stations, not every station in the land. No need to extend Winchmore Hill for example...
3) It is not just London to Leeds; there is a link to Manchester and the WCML further north as well. 4) It is not just about journey time, but about capacity. In fact, capacity is more important. 5) Where are your costings for the electrification? Bedford to Sheffield and Nottingham is £800 million alone (and that's being done). 6) What in-cab signalling system? Are you aware of the signalling fiasco on the WCML upgrade program? 7) Lengthening platforms at major stations is *massively* expensive in many cases. For instance, the entire Rochester station is having to be moved to allow it to have longer platforms. That is for around £26 million for one station.
Anyone talking about upgrading the WCML to increase capacity to the level of HS2 should be beaten around the head with the following document, and also learn why the WCML upgrade cost nearly £10 billion for small improvements.
Quick question here. I live near Stockport / Wilmslow (about mid way between the stations) and the current inter city trains stop at both stations. I sometimes have meetings south of London, outside the M25, so I generally drive, but occasionally take the train. Would I have to travel into central Manchester in order to get on this train, if so that will add 40 minutes to my journey time on each side.
Most relatively affluent people round here live in the suburbs, very few live in the city centre. If the train doesn't stop here, it may be quicker traveling on the existing trains rather than HS2.
I am not making any comments on capacity at this point. It is a separate topic.
I'm not against on rails mass transit, it's just that current tech high speed rail does not represent value for money. When the Japanese are jumping to 500km/h Maglev (the L0 train) there is no reason that Britain should not follow those developments. At 500km/h rail travel begins to make sense in a country this size, it is more than twice as fast as the current rolling stock and would cut the journey time to Birmingham down to 25 minutes, a gain worth having, and to Leeds the journey would take just 50 minutes, again, a gain worth having. It is up to the government to have the balls to tell the French to take their antiquated railways and stick them where the sun doesn't shine.
If we're going to do railways, lets at least do it right. We're in the 21st century and by the time HS2 finishes (assuming it goes ahead) Japan will have commercialised Maglev leaving our old system eating its dust. We shouldn't buy a 19th centurty technology from France when a 20th century technology is so close to maturing in Japan. If only our government had the foresight to give research grants for Maglev development so we could then export the technology to the rest of the world like Japan inevitably will in the next 50-100 years or like the French have done with the TGV.
If Maglev is the future, tell me why: 1) Germany's closed down it's Maglev development track at Emsland. 2) China has one operating high-speed Maglev line in Shanghai. But it's extension has been done by conventional rail instead. 3) Japan's line is currently 26.6 miles long and is a test track, only seven miles longer than Germany's Emsland facility. Expansion will not happen for decades.
We did research Maglev. We invented Maglev. And we realised the myriad of problems with the technology decades before others and invested in high-speed trains on our existing network instead.
Even with step-changes in technology (e.g. high-temperature superconductors), Maglev may remain a true white elephant. I'd love the opposite to be the case, but I just can't see it at the current time.
Labour lead among parents with children in the household 22%. Hopefully As A Father Dave will be launching some porn filters next week before those Date Night Photoshoots to make up the gap.
I thought Labour and Tories are supposed to be level.
Looks like the Tories are gliding into the wilderness again!
3) It is not just London to Leeds; there is a link to Manchester and the WCML further north as well. 4) It is not just about journey time, but about capacity. In fact, capacity is more important. 5) Where are your costings for the electrification? Bedford to Sheffield and Nottingham is £800 million alone (and that's being done). 6) What in-cab signalling system? Are you aware of the signalling fiasco on the WCML upgrade program? 7) Lengthening platforms at major stations is *massively* expensive in many cases. For instance, the entire Rochester station is having to be moved to allow it to have longer platforms. That is for around £26 million for one station.
Anyone talking about upgrading the WCML to increase capacity to the level of HS2 should be beaten around the head with the following document, and also learn why the WCML upgrade cost nearly £10 billion for small improvements.
Quick question here. I live near Stockport / Wilmslow (about mid way between the stations) and the current inter city trains stop at both stations. I sometimes have meetings south of London, outside the M25, so I generally drive, but occasionally take the train. Would I have to travel into central Manchester in order to get on this train, if so that will add 40 minutes to my journey time on each side.
Most relatively affluent people round here live in the suburbs, very few live in the city centre. If the train doesn't stop here, it may be quicker traveling on the existing trains rather than HS2.
I am not making any comments on capacity at this point. It is a separate topic.
Either Manchester or the interchange station at Manchester Airport.
Quick question here. I live near Stockport / Wilmslow (about mid way between the stations) and the current inter city trains stop at both stations. I sometimes have meetings south of London, outside the M25, so I generally drive, but occasionally take the train. Would I have to travel into central Manchester in order to get on this train, if so that will add 40 minutes to my journey time on each side.
Most relatively affluent people round here live in the suburbs, very few live in the city centre. If the train doesn't stop here, it may be quicker traveling on the existing trains rather than HS2.
I am not making any comments on capacity at this point. It is a separate topic.
I actually only learned from a civil servant this weekend that the line is direct and has absolutely no stops in between London and Solihull/Fazely Street. Clearly I haven't been keeping up with developments, but it seems the government are so desperate to play up the time advantage that they have forgotten about JJ's "capacity". I find it hard to believe that people who live along each line would travel to their nearest terminus instead of just taking the existing trains...
If Maglev is the future, tell me why: 1) Germany's closed down it's Maglev development track at Emsland. 2) China has one operating high-speed Maglev line in Shanghai. But it's extension has been done by conventional rail instead. 3) Japan's line is currently 26.6 miles long and is a test track, only seven miles longer than Germany's Emsland facility. Expansion will not happen for decades.
We did research Maglev. We invented Maglev. And we realised the myriad of problems with the technology decades before others and invested in high-speed trains on our existing network instead.
Even with step-changes in technology (e.g. high-temperature superconductors), Maglev may remain a true white elephant. I'd love the opposite to be the case, but I just can't see it at the current time.
That latest information I saw in the Nikkei at work was $50bn for 177miles with a completion date of 2027 and the testing is currently going better than expected and the test line extension was completed ahead of schedule as well as the L0 train test. Maglev is happening Josiah, the Japanese are about to perfect our technology, once again and we will be bystanders while they export technology invented here around the world.
They will make it happen, and probably for a lower cost than we will build our 19th century track for. You can't tell me that land prices and labour costs in Japan are lower than here either...
Quick question here. I live near Stockport / Wilmslow (about mid way between the stations) and the current inter city trains stop at both stations. I sometimes have meetings south of London, outside the M25, so I generally drive, but occasionally take the train. Would I have to travel into central Manchester in order to get on this train, if so that will add 40 minutes to my journey time on each side.
Most relatively affluent people round here live in the suburbs, very few live in the city centre. If the train doesn't stop here, it may be quicker traveling on the existing trains rather than HS2.
I am not making any comments on capacity at this point. It is a separate topic.
I actually only learned from a civil servant this weekend that the line is direct and has absolutely no stops in between London and Solihull/Fazely Street. Clearly I haven't been keeping up with developments, but it seems the government are so desperate to play up the time advantage that they have forgotten about JJ's "capacity". I find it hard to believe that people who live along each line would travel to their nearest terminus instead of just taking the existing trains...
The government have been going on about 'capacity'. Indeed, it is the main reason for HS2. For instance, see McLoughlin's speech to the Institute of Civil Engineers about HS2:
You had no reason to learn it from a civil servant - the plans and documents are all publicly available. It's no secret. As for the lack of stations: the more stations, the slower the trains. Existing rail lines will have extra 'capacity' (yes, that word) for more services once the long-distance and high-speed services are put onto HS2. Indeed, there'll be more 'capacity' for all sorts of new services on existing lines.
But consider not doing it: many stations closed during the £9-10 billion WCML upgrade. That means fewer people have access to trains.
And completely unsurprisingly the Toby Young West London Free school is the most socially exclusive non religious state school in London.
And I didn't think Tobes was smart enough to engineer that so quickly, or stupid enough, depending on how you look at it.
Size of the schools would be helpful.
It would, but it's quite an achievement by Toby and his fellow governors to engineer such a socially exclusive school straight away and with no religious admissions policies. Wonder how he did it?
Maybe people whose children are entiled to FSM's don't wnat to be associated with Toby Young!
"McBride recounts how furious he was when Darling warned the country in a Guardian interview that the storm coming was going to be very tough to weather. It hampered, McBride says, Brown's efforts to claim that Britain was better placed than any country to endure the crisis.
But the realistic and sensible Darling was right. It was the worst peacetime crisis in 60 years, maybe more. Britain wasn't well-placed to weather it. It had a mammoth banking system that had ballooned under Brown and a mountain of personal debt.
Going into the crisis Brown was living in a fantasy world (again it was everyone else's fault). Calmly, Darling told it like it was, which was overdue after a decade of Panglossian propaganda from the architect of the "end of boom and bust"."
That latest information I saw in the Nikkei at work was $50bn for 177miles with a completion date of 2027 and the testing is currently going better than expected and the test line extension was completed ahead of schedule as well as the L0 train test. Maglev is happening Josiah, the Japanese are about to perfect our technology, once again and we will be bystanders while they export technology invented here around the world.
They will make it happen, and probably for a lower cost than we will build our 19th century track for. You can't tell me that land prices and labour costs in Japan are lower than here either...
I have said passim (including this morning) that the big problem is that our infrastructure projects all cost more than our competitors. This needs investigating and addressing, but no-one really wants to look at it. I would congratulate any political party that set out a commission to investigate. And no, it's not all land, manpower or planning costs.
But that's the same for any large infrastructure projects - road, rail or airports.
Your '19th century track' jibe is just ridiculous. Really, really ridiculous. The first European motorcars were made in the 1870s/1880s. Does that make the automobile a 19th century technology?
The Japanese figures are just projections. May I suggest you consider the questions asked above? Why has Maglev not taken off (literally) despite the LIM having been invented by Prof. Laithwaite in the 1940s and 1950s, and my dad having built the foundations for the first test track in Derby during the 1970s? Why have Germany closed their test track? Why did China extend their Shanghai Maglev using conventional high-speed rail?
In particular, what can you learn from the Shanghai Maglev experience?
The answer is simple: high-speed Maglev is uneconomic using current technology. I'd love for the opposite to be true as it's fascinating technology, but so are airships. I wish the Japanese system all the best, but the future does not look good.
The Economist hasn't bothered to update its German election diary with the full results. The magazine may go out of business if it doesn't try to keep up with events:
Aha. I didn't see that. Still likely to be quicker going on the slow train for Wilmslow / Macclesfield residents.
But there's more! Yes, I know the absolute, unadultered brilliance of HS2 is now understood by you all, but it gets even better than that. Whilst other stations may not have stations on the high speed line, they can still get services on it:
What the HFI measures is change in confidence in family's financial prospects for the next twelve months. It measures current household finances and future expectations; job security, workplace activity and income; and, current and future inflation expectations. In effect the Markit HFI measures personal expectations of change in 'standards of living'.
We have debated over the past few threads whether Labour are wise to make falls in the standards of living the main focus of opposition to the government's handling of the economy. I have argued that improvements of living standards are indicators and natural consequences of an economy in post recovery stage; that increases in living standards lag indicators such as GDP growth; and, most importantly, that consumer confidence changing from negative to postive precedes actual living standard increases and is generally accepted by economists as denoting the end of a recovery stage.
If these 'rules' apply to the recovering UK economy then Labour have chosen the wrong ground on which to fight. This is a measure of economic performance which is more likely than not to show continued improvement between now and the 2015 GE. The tide is coming in.
But, the two Eds will cry, the UK economy is not yet fully out of recovery mode. This is true and, as the Markit HFI shows, more people are expecting household finances to worsen than get better over the next year. A neutral index would be 50, yet the headline HFI stands in September at 40.8 unchanged from August. As Markit explain "three times as many households reported that their finances deteriorated over the month in September (26%) as those that saw an improvement (8%)".
On the upside is the fact that the HFI is at one of its highest levels since records began in 2009 and has been rising steadily from around 33 since mid 2011. The trend suggests that the index will turn positive by the middle of 2014 if the economy continues to recover at current rates.
Confidence levels differ widely between various work sectors: "people working in Finance/Business Services (47.4) and IT/Telecoms (45.2) were the least downbeat about their household finances in September, while those in manufacturing (38.1) and construction jobs (39.9) were the most pessimistic". There are similar findings for job security, income expectations and workplace activity. The latter measure has already passed 'neutral' and is firmly in positive territory: "workplace activity picked up to 55.1 in September, from 51.6 in August, and has now remained above the neutral 50.0 value for eight successive months. Moreover, the latest reading was the highest for three-and-a-half years".
On inflation and living costs, pessimism levels are very high, 81.3 and only falling slowly, from 81.7 in August [not measured as a 50 neutral index].
Where there is leverage for Labour is in the differential rates of rising confidence: "September data suggested a widening gap between financial expectations among the highest and lowest income groups. Households in the highest income quintile posted a three-and-a-half year high (55.5), while those in the lowest quintile posted one of the weakest readings since the start of 2013 (32.7)". And tim will no doubt remind us that the confidence of owner-occupiers is rising far faster than that of those in rented accommodation:
The gap in financial perceptions between outright homeowners (44.1) and those renting from a private landlord (38.8) was the largest since February, perhaps reflecting the recent upturn in UK property values. For people that own their home outright, the index hit a 14-month high in September, while private renters saw a five-month low and those living in social housing recorded a three-month low (33.0).
So there are plenty of targets for Labour in the short term. The real question though is for how long. If Labour have their timing wrong they risk becoming stranded by the incoming tide.
Plato - Strange how it is only the PB Hodges that see the Labour Conference as a car crash and a disaster. Nothing of the sort on Politicshome, BBC, ITV, Sky News. Anyway back to that TNS poll, .....crap, I forgot, it doesn't run with the PB Hodges narrative, we will just ignore it.
Plato - Strange how it is only the PB Hodges that see the Labour Conference as a car crash and a disaster. Nothing of the sort on Politicshome, BBC, ITV, Sky News. Anyway back to that TNS poll, .....crap, I forgot, it doesn't run with the PB Hodges narrative, we will just ignore it.
Cue links from right wing papers and article writers....and of course the King himself.
Aha. I didn't see that. Still likely to be quicker going on the slow train for Wilmslow / Macclesfield residents.
But there's more! Yes, I know the absolute, unadultered brilliance of HS2 is now understood by you all, but it gets even better than that. Whilst other stations may not have stations on the high speed line, they can still get services on it:
.AndrewSparrow @AndrewSparrow Labour conference votes to end public sector pay freeze - Lab HQ says er, up to a point - #lab13 - theguardian.com/politics/2013/…
What exactly are the problems with building a MagLev system? It seems to work fine in Shanghai.
Some of the problems (IANAE):
Cost. Tthe Shanghai system is making a massive loss, and extensions would cost three times the cost of an equivalent conventional high-speed line. Other sources say they are five times more expensive to construct.
Interconnectivity: see my previous post about hybrid services running along conventional tracks before joining HS2 - that can be done with a high-speed network, but not with a Maglev (although someone has suggested a Maglev that drops down wheels to continue along ordinary tracks - a remarkably silly proposal on the face of it).
Capacity is also low compared to high-speed trains, although it may be possible to improve that.
Aha. I didn't see that. Still likely to be quicker going on the slow train for Wilmslow / Macclesfield residents.
But there's more! Yes, I know the absolute, unadultered brilliance of HS2 is now understood by you all, but it gets even better than that. Whilst other stations may not have stations on the high speed line, they can still get services on it:
Stations like Macclesfield will be served by hybrid services, which join the high-speed route further south.
From your link
HS2 services will also call at Wigan, Runcorn, Warrington, Stockport and Wilmslow from day 1.
This sounds too sensible to be implemented.
Why not? That interoperability is common in Europe - indeed, I think the recent Spanish train crash occurred at the point a high-speed line joined a conventional route.
There won't be as many services as on the main HS route, but they will be served and allow connectivity.
Good, ain't it?
Does anyone thing I should bill HS2 for my advocacy efforts? ;-)
The Conservatives have obtained an extraordinary recording of Len McCluskey speaking at a Labour fringe event today.
In it, McCluskey issues a warning to the Government about laws that restrict the unions' activities – seeming to threaten, at least hypothetically, unlawful behaviour. Is he really speaking for his members?
Here's the transcript with the recording below:
"If this Government continues to attack us, and continues to try and reduce our rights even further, let me warn them this: if you push us further outside of the law then be it on your own heads what the consequences are. Because we’ve got no intention in Unite or in this movement of allowing laws introduced by the Bullingdon boys to restrict the legitimate and international rights that we have to protect our work." http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/willheaven/100237466/len-mccluskeys-warning-to-the-bullingdon-boys-in-full/
Why not? That interoperability is common in Europe - indeed, I think the recent Spanish train crash occurred at the point a high-speed line joined a conventional route.
There won't be as many services as on the main HS route, but they will be served and allow connectivity.
Good, ain't it?
Does anyone thing I should bill HS2 for my advocacy efforts? ;-)
The reason I said it was too sensible to be implemented was that it is travelling (at least from round here), where people mainly live and work, which isn't in the city centre.
Sunil Prasannan @Sunil_P2 7m @PlatoSays Yebbut there are 661 stations on the Oystercard Map - I've visited ALL of them! Tube Challenge folk are slackers - 270 stations?
The Conservatives have obtained an extraordinary recording of Len McCluskey speaking at a Labour fringe event today.
In it, McCluskey issues a warning to the Government about laws that restrict the unions' activities – seeming to threaten, at least hypothetically, unlawful behaviour. Is he really speaking for his members?
Here's the transcript with the recording below:
"If this Government continues to attack us, and continues to try and reduce our rights even further, let me warn them this: if you push us further outside of the law then be it on your own heads what the consequences are. Because we’ve got no intention in Unite or in this movement of allowing laws introduced by the Bullingdon boys to restrict the legitimate and international rights that we have to protect our work." http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/willheaven/100237466/len-mccluskeys-warning-to-the-bullingdon-boys-in-full/
When you say "The Conservatives" - it was actually The Spectator, but hey PB Hodges believe anything the Tories say, don't you.
The Conservatives have obtained an extraordinary recording of Len McCluskey speaking at a Labour fringe event today.
In it, McCluskey issues a warning to the Government about laws that restrict the unions' activities – seeming to threaten, at least hypothetically, unlawful behaviour. Is he really speaking for his members?
Here's the transcript with the recording below:
"If this Government continues to attack us, and continues to try and reduce our rights even further, let me warn them this: if you push us further outside of the law then be it on your own heads what the consequences are. Because we’ve got no intention in Unite or in this movement of allowing laws introduced by the Bullingdon boys to restrict the legitimate and international rights that we have to protect our work." http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/willheaven/100237466/len-mccluskeys-warning-to-the-bullingdon-boys-in-full/
.AndrewSparrow @AndrewSparrow Labour conference votes to end public sector pay freeze - Lab HQ says er, up to a point - #lab13 - theguardian.com/politics/2013/…
Will the two Eds be wanting the OBR to cost that one?
Sean, since you're on how is this for a bit of literary criticism?
"Like all obsessions, Ballard's novel is occasionally boring and frequently ridiculous. The invariance of its intensity is not something the reviewer can easily suggest. Ballard is quite unlike anyone else; indeed, he seems to address a different - a disused - part of the reader's brain. You finish the book with some bafflement and irritation. But this is only half the experience. You then sit around waiting for the novel to come and haunt you. And it does."
Martin Amis proves it does not have to be rubbish.
Mr. T, I'm not much of a traveller, but I must admit I'd love to see some ancient ruins.
The Roman Senate once had to write to Crete to complain about the mercenary archers the island was providing Rome. It wasn't that they weren't really skilled, the problem was other Cretan archers had been hired by the other side.
.AndrewSparrow @AndrewSparrow Labour conference votes to end public sector pay freeze - Lab HQ says er, up to a point - #lab13 - theguardian.com/politics/2013/…
Will the two Eds be wanting the OBR to cost that one?
Its self funding - more pay, more tax, more VAT from spending.
'West London Free School in Hammersmith, had 1,196 applications for just 120 places'
How you must hate that,by the way the after-school classics club is over subscribed as are their school trips,and to think lefties had decided that state school kids were too thick to learn Latin.
You were banging on for months with your conspiracy theory about their Ofsted report only to find out that it hadn't taken place & when it had.....
www.westlondonfreeschool.co.uk/.../west-london-free-school-gets-glowi... 23 Jul 2013 - The West London Free School gets glowing end-of-term report from Ofsted. In the last Ofsted report to be published before the summer holidays ...
Anyway keep trying ,you may eventually find something of substance which would be a change from your personal prejudice..
The Conservatives have obtained an extraordinary recording of Len McCluskey speaking at a Labour fringe event today.
In it, McCluskey issues a warning to the Government about laws that restrict the unions' activities – seeming to threaten, at least hypothetically, unlawful behaviour. Is he really speaking for his members?
Here's the transcript with the recording below:
"If this Government continues to attack us, and continues to try and reduce our rights even further, let me warn them this: if you push us further outside of the law then be it on your own heads what the consequences are. Because we’ve got no intention in Unite or in this movement of allowing laws introduced by the Bullingdon boys to restrict the legitimate and international rights that we have to protect our work." http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/willheaven/100237466/len-mccluskeys-warning-to-the-bullingdon-boys-in-full/
When you say "The Conservatives" - it was actually The Spectator, but hey PB Hodges believe anything the Tories say, don't you.
TGOHF - Though once this news filters through they may want to find another business
From wiki
"Current estimates of the number of Somali immigrants living in the United States vary widely, ranging from 35,760 to 150,000 persons.[10] According to 2010 American Community Survey data, there are approximately 85,700 people with Somali ancestry in the US. Of those, about 25,000 or one third live in Minnesota."
Maybe they should change the name of the NFL team to the Minnesota Pirates...
.AndrewSparrow @AndrewSparrow Labour conference votes to end public sector pay freeze - Lab HQ says er, up to a point - #lab13 - theguardian.com/politics/2013/…
Will the two Eds be wanting the OBR to cost that one?
Its self funding - more pay, more tax, more VAT from spending.
Probably will cut the deficit.
But only once you have applied the "OBR multipliers".
We need Roger to get hold of few of these the next time he is in Patisserie Valerie.
What exactly are the problems with building a MagLev system? It seems to work fine in Shanghai.
Some of the problems (IANAE):
Cost. Tthe Shanghai system is making a massive loss, and extensions would cost three times the cost of an equivalent conventional high-speed line. Other sources say they are five times more expensive to construct.
Interconnectivity: see my previous post about hybrid services running along conventional tracks before joining HS2 - that can be done with a high-speed network, but not with a Maglev (although someone has suggested a Maglev that drops down wheels to continue along ordinary tracks - a remarkably silly proposal on the face of it).
Capacity is also low compared to high-speed trains, although it may be possible to improve that.
Ken Clarke is reselected.. tim says ..In his sleep..has tim ever been selected for anything.. top loser..
What do moronic comments of this nature add to this site ? Nothing. "Tim this, tim that, tim said this, tim wrote that," ad infinitum. Boring, tedious, repetitive, personal, off topic, nasty....infact all the things you and your ilk endlessly accuse tim's posts of being. If we could tax lack of self awareness, this site would make enough to pay off the national debt in under 3 days. Make it cease.
What exactly are the problems with building a MagLev system? It seems to work fine in Shanghai.
Some of the problems (IANAE):
Cost. Tthe Shanghai system is making a massive loss, and extensions would cost three times the cost of an equivalent conventional high-speed line. Other sources say they are five times more expensive to construct.
Interconnectivity: see my previous post about hybrid services running along conventional tracks before joining HS2 - that can be done with a high-speed network, but not with a Maglev (although someone has suggested a Maglev that drops down wheels to continue along ordinary tracks - a remarkably silly proposal on the face of it).
Capacity is also low compared to high-speed trains, although it may be possible to improve that.
But our biggest cost is land and compensation and planning process...............
It's not the technology which should cost the same all over the world.
I'm not sure what the biggest costs are; I can guess, but have no evidence to back it up. There needs to be an investigation (commission?) into why construction costs are so large in the UK, with a side note into why they take so long ...
Yep tim that says it all.. top loser.. the funny thing is, you don't even realise it..you spend all day on here defending the Labour party, taking crap from people like me and you think you have a life .. very funny .. very sad, but please carry on, we all need a laugh down the day.
Mr. T, I'm not much of a traveller, but I must admit I'd love to see some ancient ruins.
Mr Dancer, I’m off on a trek around Tunisia next month; along with Mrs SSC we’ll be visiting Roman sites such as Sousse, Dougga, Carthage and a few more, further inland.
Ken Clarke is reselected.. tim says ..In his sleep..has tim ever been selected for anything.. top loser..
What do moronic comments of this nature add to this site ? Nothing. "Tim this, tim that, tim said this, tim wrote that," ad infinitum. Boring, tedious, repetitive, personal, off topic, nasty....infact all the things you and your ilk endlessly accuse tim's posts of being. If we could tax lack of self awareness, this site would make enough to pay off the national debt in under 3 days. Make it cease.
+1. Even dimmer than the latest incarnation of Ash.
Ken Clarke is reselected.. tim says ..In his sleep..has tim ever been selected for anything.. top loser..
What do moronic comments of this nature add to this site ? Nothing. "Tim this, tim that, tim said this, tim wrote that," ad infinitum. Boring, tedious, repetitive, personal, off topic, nasty....infact all the things you and your ilk endlessly accuse tim's posts of being. If we could tax lack of self awareness, this site would make enough to pay off the national debt in under 3 days. Make it cease.
+1. Even dimmer than the latest incarnation of Ash.
And as if bang on cue here comes another example. Do you people ever read the tripe and bile you pour out every day ? Everything an inane knee jerk reaction and never knowingly out hyperbolied,
Ken Clarke is reselected.. tim says ..In his sleep..has tim ever been selected for anything.. top loser..
What do moronic comments of this nature add to this site ? Nothing. "Tim this, tim that, tim said this, tim wrote that," ad infinitum. Boring, tedious, repetitive, personal, off topic, nasty....infact all the things you and your ilk endlessly accuse tim's posts of being. If we could tax lack of self awareness, this site would make enough to pay off the national debt in under 3 days. Make it cease.
+1. Even dimmer than the latest incarnation of Ash.
And as if bang on cue here comes another example. Do you people ever read the tripe and bile you pour out every day ? Everything an inane knee jerk reaction and never knowingly out hyperbolied,
JJ, I am going answer this post and only this post because we all know that if HS2 was a Labour policy and the Tories had come out against it we would be on the same side. Honestly, if you are trying to pretend to me or anyone else that the opposite is true then you need to take a look at why you bother.
As for your points:
1. It is expensive, slower than air travel and not easily upgraded (one can always buy newer more efficient planes with more capacity, for example)
2. The official figures are rubbish, I am not using the IEA figures, I am using the £50bn plus the usual cost overruns.
3. London to Leeds is the longest distance, which is why I used that, it should technically have the best cost to benefit ratio.
4. Capacity in the air and on the roads is much more critical to economic growth than rail.
5. Are you seriously telling me that £14-16bn would not be enough for electrification?
6. Done properly it can work, don't mistake the incompetence of Railtrack and it's contractors for failures in the underlying technology.
7. Again, we're talking about billions of pounds to extend key intercity stations, not every station in the land. No need to extend Winchmore Hill for example...
I missed this post, but felt I had to respond to the first paragraph before I go out. I think anyone reading what I've written about HS2 on here in the past will know I passionately believe that it's the right thing to do, and will have many advantages. Saying I'd be against it if the Tories were is a cheap shot and utterly wrong.
For one thing, I've repeatedly praised Lord Adonis for his general knowledge and interest in transport.
If the Tories were not to back it, I'd have to look at the reasons and come to a decision. The same for Labour. But I'd also be asking *what* their alternatives are, because there's a big problem that needs fixing, and ignoring it isn't an option.
Balls is now saying that the HS2 £50billion could be spent on "housing and transport"
Coupled with Help To Buy2 stripped of the mad remortgaging bits have the Tories inadvertently provided the country with a massive housebuilding budget for the next decade?
The issue isn't the budget, it' spending it. Labour will just fritter it away as ever.
James Delingpole (@JamesDelingpole) 23/09/2013 10:33 Interviewing Alan Sked to find out what he thinks of UKIP is like digging up Syd Barrett to find out where Floyd went wrong post Dark Side
Balls is now saying that the HS2 £50billion could be spent on "housing and transport"
Coupled with Help To Buy2 stripped of the mad remortgaging bits have the Tories inadvertently provided the country with a massive housebuilding budget for the next decade?
The issue isn't the budget, it' spending it. Labour will just fritter it away as ever.
£50bn HS2 + £13 Bn Help To Buy (used for newbuild up to £300k, Osborne bits stripped out) + remove cap on councils borrowing to build.
A £100 Billion fund for massive housebuilding programme. And it'll save tens of billions in housing benefit.
They didn't do it in 13 years in government they won't do it now. They'll threaten to spend it then find other things they like and the plans will sit of the shelf. Miliband and Balls don't have a happy record on infrastructure spending.
Balls is now saying that the HS2 £50billion could be spent on "housing and transport"
Coupled with Help To Buy2 stripped of the mad remortgaging bits have the Tories inadvertently provided the country with a massive housebuilding budget for the next decade?
The issue isn't the budget, it' spending it. Labour will just fritter it away as ever.
£50bn HS2 + £13 Bn Help To Buy (used for newbuild up to £300k, Osborne bits stripped out) + remove cap on councils borrowing to build.
A £100 Billion fund for massive housebuilding programme. And it'll save tens of billions in housing benefit.
They didn't do it in 13 years in government they won't do it now. They'll threaten to spend it then find other things they like and the plans will sit of the shelf. Miliband and Balls don't have a happy record on infrastructure spending.
Somebody has to do it, we can't go on spending £24 Billion a year on housing benefit forever, thats where the big savings are, not some dividing line dreamed up by the Baronet which saves sod all but excites a few PB Tories.
Somebody has to do it, but it won't be Balls and Miliband, they even make Osborne look good.
Is it worth a game of PB Hodges Bingo for the Tory Conference. People can guess how many links the PB Hodges will produce from their king in one day. Obviously the PB Hodges themselves cannot have a guess as it would be insider dealing. Plus multiple posts or quotes of the same part of the article doesn't count as it happens so often on here we could be in treble figures.
Tim,SO, Neil etc, what do you think the number will be on day one of the Greatest Conservative Conference Ever (well since the last one).
Balls is now saying that the HS2 £50billion could be spent on "housing and transport"
Coupled with Help To Buy2 stripped of the mad remortgaging bits have the Tories inadvertently provided the country with a massive housebuilding budget for the next decade? Good news for everyone if that's the case.
The Help to Buy guarantee scheme does not increase government net borrowing, so no release of investment funds would result from cancelling the scheme.
Balls is now saying that the HS2 £50billion could be spent on "housing and transport"
Coupled with Help To Buy2 stripped of the mad remortgaging bits have the Tories inadvertently provided the country with a massive housebuilding budget for the next decade?
The issue isn't the budget, it' spending it. Labour will just fritter it away as ever.
£50bn HS2 + £13 Bn Help To Buy (used for newbuild up to £300k, Osborne bits stripped out) + remove cap on councils borrowing to build.
A £100 Billion fund for massive housebuilding programme. And it'll save tens of billions in housing benefit.
They didn't do it in 13 years in government they won't do it now. They'll threaten to spend it then find other things they like and the plans will sit of the shelf. Miliband and Balls don't have a happy record on infrastructure spending.
Somebody has to do it, we can't go on spending £24 Billion a year on housing benefit forever, thats where the big savings are, not some dividing line dreamed up by the Baronet which saves sod all but excites a few PB Tories.
There is an analogy with Dave. He has, to camera, promised an EU referendum. People (ok Kippers, mainly) refuse to believe he will make good on that promise. It is the first time he has been PM and the first time he has made such a promise.
Lab, meanwhile, have had a good old long time in govt during which time housebuilding ground to a halt, more or less.
So why should we believe EdM? Other than events, which I appreciate are significant, what has changed in that a housebuilding program is all of a sudden a key Lab policy priority?
Balls is now saying that the HS2 £50billion could be spent on "housing and transport"
Coupled with Help To Buy2 stripped of the mad remortgaging bits have the Tories inadvertently provided the country with a massive housebuilding budget for the next decade?
The issue isn't the budget, it' spending it. Labour will just fritter it away as ever.
£50bn HS2 + £13 Bn Help To Buy (used for newbuild up to £300k, Osborne bits stripped out) + remove cap on councils borrowing to build.
A £100 Billion fund for massive housebuilding programme. And it'll save tens of billions in housing benefit.
They didn't do it in 13 years in government they won't do it now. They'll threaten to spend it then find other things they like and the plans will sit of the shelf. Miliband and Balls don't have a happy record on infrastructure spending.
Somebody has to do it, we can't go on spending £24 Billion a year on housing benefit forever, thats where the big savings are, not some dividing line dreamed up by the Baronet which saves sod all but excites a few PB Tories.
There is an analogy with Dave. He has, to camera, promised an EU referendum. People (ok Kippers, mainly) refuse to believe he will make good on that promise. It is the first time he has been PM and the first time he has made such a promise.
Lab, meanwhile, have had a good old long time in govt during which time housebuilding ground to a halt, more or less.
So why should we believe EdM? Other than events, which I appreciate are significant, what has changed in that a housebuilding program is all of a sudden a key Lab policy priority?
I doubt you'll have a long queue of people taking Dave's word on a referendum.
Is it worth a game of PB Hodges Bingo for the Tory Conference. People can guess how many links the PB Hodges will produce from their king in one day. Obviously the PB Hodges themselves cannot have a guess as it would be insider dealing. Plus multiple posts or quotes of the same part of the article doesn't count as it happens so often on here we could be in treble figures.
Tim,SO, Neil etc, what do you think the number will be on day one of the Greatest Conservative Conference Ever (well since the last one).
"PB Hodges" is not snappy enough. Perhaps spend a bit of time with your co-leftists, on Skype if you want to minimise transport requirements, to come up with an alternative.
Meanwhile, if you were to sum up the Labour conference in one overriding strategic aim (doesn't need to be a single policy), what would it be?
Just listened to Len McCluskey,I am originally a scouser,and going back soon for a visit soon,how do I say worker,is it Wearker,or Weerker. How many times in a speech do you have to say worker.
Balls is now saying that the HS2 £50billion could be spent on "housing and transport"
Coupled with Help To Buy2 stripped of the mad remortgaging bits have the Tories inadvertently provided the country with a massive housebuilding budget for the next decade?
The issue isn't the budget, it' spending it. Labour will just fritter it away as ever.
£50bn HS2 + £13 Bn Help To Buy (used for newbuild up to £300k, Osborne bits stripped out) + remove cap on councils borrowing to build.
A £100 Billion fund for massive housebuilding programme. And it'll save tens of billions in housing benefit.
They didn't do it in 13 years in government they won't do it now. They'll threaten to spend it then find other things they like and the plans will sit of the shelf. Miliband and Balls don't have a happy record on infrastructure spending.
Somebody has to do it, we can't go on spending £24 Billion a year on housing benefit forever, thats where the big savings are, not some dividing line dreamed up by the Baronet which saves sod all but excites a few PB Tories.
There is an analogy with Dave. He has, to camera, promised an EU referendum. People (ok Kippers, mainly) refuse to believe he will make good on that promise. It is the first time he has been PM and the first time he has made such a promise.
Lab, meanwhile, have had a good old long time in govt during which time housebuilding ground to a halt, more or less.
So why should we believe EdM? Other than events, which I appreciate are significant, what has changed in that a housebuilding program is all of a sudden a key Lab policy priority?
I doubt you'll have a long queue of people taking Dave's word on a referendum.
Maybe not but it was as categoric a promise as I have seen made.
If we can't trust it then we should all give up and buy a set of tarot cards.
Balls is now saying that the HS2 £50billion could be spent on "housing and transport"
Coupled with Help To Buy2 stripped of the mad remortgaging bits have the Tories inadvertently provided the country with a massive housebuilding budget for the next decade?
The issue isn't the budget, it' spending it. Labour will just fritter it away as ever.
£50bn HS2 + £13 Bn Help To Buy (used for newbuild up to £300k, Osborne bits stripped out) + remove cap on councils borrowing to build.
A £100 Billion fund for massive housebuilding programme. And it'll save tens of billions in housing benefit.
They didn't do it in 13 years in government they won't do it now. They'll threaten to spend it then find other things they like and the plans will sit of the shelf. Miliband and Balls don't have a happy record on infrastructure spending.
tim's political hero should be Harold MacMillan , toff , Scot , Tory , Etonian and builder ;
"With the Conservative victory in 1951 Macmillan became Minister of Housing under Churchill, who entrusted him with fulfilling the conference promise to build 300,000 houses per year. 'It is a gamble—it will make or mar your political career,' Churchill said, 'but every humble home will bless your name if you succeed.' Macmillan achieved the target a year ahead of schedule."
Just listened to Len McCluskey,I am originally a scouser,and going back soon for a visit soon,how do I say worker,is it Wearker,or Weerker. How many times in a speech do you have to say worker.
Stan Boardman would know, it would rhyme with German
Balls is now saying that the HS2 £50billion could be spent on "housing and transport"
Coupled with Help To Buy2 stripped of the mad remortgaging bits have the Tories inadvertently provided the country with a massive housebuilding budget for the next decade?
The issue isn't the budget, it' spending it. Labour will just fritter it away as ever.
£50bn HS2 + £13 Bn Help To Buy (used for newbuild up to £300k, Osborne bits stripped out) + remove cap on councils borrowing to build.
A £100 Billion fund for massive housebuilding programme. And it'll save tens of billions in housing benefit.
Will that build enough houses to home the builders who come over fo build em ??
Comments
2) Your costs are way out. Use official figures, not IEA's invented ones (which included Crossrail 2, for Christ's sake).
3) It is not just London to Leeds; there is a link to Manchester and the WCML further north as well.
4) It is not just about journey time, but about capacity. In fact, capacity is more important.
5) Where are your costings for the electrification? Bedford to Sheffield and Nottingham is £800 million alone (and that's being done).
6) What in-cab signalling system? Are you aware of the signalling fiasco on the WCML upgrade program?
7) Lengthening platforms at major stations is *massively* expensive in many cases. For instance, the entire Rochester station is having to be moved to allow it to have longer platforms. That is for around £26 million for one station.
Anyone talking about upgrading the WCML to increase capacity to the level of HS2 should be beaten around the head with the following document, and also learn why the WCML upgrade cost nearly £10 billion for small improvements.
http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/hs2-review-of-strategic-alternatives/hs2-review-of-strategic-alternatives.pdf
If we're going to do railways, lets at least do it right. We're in the 21st century and by the time HS2 finishes (assuming it goes ahead) Japan will have commercialised Maglev leaving our old system eating its dust. We shouldn't buy a 19th centurty technology from France when a 20th century technology is so close to maturing in Japan. If only our government had the foresight to give research grants for Maglev development so we could then export the technology to the rest of the world like Japan inevitably will in the next 50-100 years or like the French have done with the TGV.
Mike Hancock nicked.
ho ho...
When he said One Nation Labour, I had assumed he meant the UK... #lab13 pic.twitter.com/q6JPXap3pk
RT @DMiliband: @UKLabour is full of great people. Really hope they get a leader able to take team forward. #Lab13
As for your points:
1. It is expensive, slower than air travel and not easily upgraded (one can always buy newer more efficient planes with more capacity, for example)
2. The official figures are rubbish, I am not using the IEA figures, I am using the £50bn plus the usual cost overruns.
3. London to Leeds is the longest distance, which is why I used that, it should technically have the best cost to benefit ratio.
4. Capacity in the air and on the roads is much more critical to economic growth than rail.
5. Are you seriously telling me that £14-16bn would not be enough for electrification?
6. Done properly it can work, don't mistake the incompetence of Railtrack and it's contractors for failures in the underlying technology.
7. Again, we're talking about billions of pounds to extend key intercity stations, not every station in the land. No need to extend Winchmore Hill for example...
Pre LD, Ukip, Lab conferences..
inter city trains stop at both stations. I sometimes have meetings south of London, outside the M25, so I generally drive, but occasionally take the train. Would I have to travel into central Manchester in order to get on this train, if so that will add 40 minutes to my journey time on each side.
Most relatively affluent people round here live in the suburbs, very few live in the city centre. If the train doesn't stop here, it may be quicker traveling on the existing trains rather than HS2.
I am not making any comments on capacity at this point. It is a separate topic.
1) Germany's closed down it's Maglev development track at Emsland.
2) China has one operating high-speed Maglev line in Shanghai. But it's extension has been done by conventional rail instead.
3) Japan's line is currently 26.6 miles long and is a test track, only seven miles longer than Germany's Emsland facility. Expansion will not happen for decades.
We did research Maglev. We invented Maglev. And we realised the myriad of problems with the technology decades before others and invested in high-speed trains on our existing network instead.
Even with step-changes in technology (e.g. high-temperature superconductors), Maglev may remain a true white elephant. I'd love the opposite to be the case, but I just can't see it at the current time.
Looks like the Tories are gliding into the wilderness again!
http://www.hs2.org.uk/phase-two/manchester
They will make it happen, and probably for a lower cost than we will build our 19th century track for. You can't tell me that land prices and labour costs in Japan are lower than here either...
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/high-speed-two
You had no reason to learn it from a civil servant - the plans and documents are all publicly available. It's no secret. As for the lack of stations: the more stations, the slower the trains. Existing rail lines will have extra 'capacity' (yes, that word) for more services once the long-distance and high-speed services are put onto HS2. Indeed, there'll be more 'capacity' for all sorts of new services on existing lines.
But consider not doing it: many stations closed during the £9-10 billion WCML upgrade. That means fewer people have access to trains.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/iainmartin1/100237424/mcbride-is-talking-balls-about-darling/
"McBride recounts how furious he was when Darling warned the country in a Guardian interview that the storm coming was going to be very tough to weather. It hampered, McBride says, Brown's efforts to claim that Britain was better placed than any country to endure the crisis.
But the realistic and sensible Darling was right. It was the worst peacetime crisis in 60 years, maybe more. Britain wasn't well-placed to weather it. It had a mammoth banking system that had ballooned under Brown and a mountain of personal debt.
Going into the crisis Brown was living in a fantasy world (again it was everyone else's fault). Calmly, Darling told it like it was, which was overdue after a decade of Panglossian propaganda from the architect of the "end of boom and bust"."
But that's the same for any large infrastructure projects - road, rail or airports.
Your '19th century track' jibe is just ridiculous. Really, really ridiculous. The first European motorcars were made in the 1870s/1880s. Does that make the automobile a 19th century technology?
The Japanese figures are just projections. May I suggest you consider the questions asked above? Why has Maglev not taken off (literally) despite the LIM having been invented by Prof. Laithwaite in the 1940s and 1950s, and my dad having built the foundations for the first test track in Derby during the 1970s? Why have Germany closed their test track? Why did China extend their Shanghai Maglev using conventional high-speed rail?
In particular, what can you learn from the Shanghai Maglev experience?
The answer is simple: high-speed Maglev is uneconomic using current technology. I'd love for the opposite to be true as it's fascinating technology, but so are airships. I wish the Japanese system all the best, but the future does not look good.
Sat:McBride v Campbell
Sun:Policy collapses: school hours, immigration & MMR
Mon: Union bosses threaten to break law
Going well!
#labour
http://www.economist.com/blogs/charlemagne/2013/09/german-election-diary-6
'Maybe the parental interviews were in Latin'
Maybe the remaining 20% of FSM parents couldn't be arsed to apply.
http://hs2northwest.wordpress.com/hs2-2026/
Stations like Macclesfield will be served by hybrid services, which join the high-speed route further south.
Markit released their UK Household Finances Index for September this morning. It is a revealing report and one which I recommend PBers read in full.
Link to the PDF is http://bit.ly/17Wk3TH
What the HFI measures is change in confidence in family's financial prospects for the next twelve months. It measures current household finances and future expectations; job security, workplace activity and income; and, current and future inflation expectations. In effect the Markit HFI measures personal expectations of change in 'standards of living'.
We have debated over the past few threads whether Labour are wise to make falls in the standards of living the main focus of opposition to the government's handling of the economy. I have argued that improvements of living standards are indicators and natural consequences of an economy in post recovery stage; that increases in living standards lag indicators such as GDP growth; and, most importantly, that consumer confidence changing from negative to postive precedes actual living standard increases and is generally accepted by economists as denoting the end of a recovery stage.
If these 'rules' apply to the recovering UK economy then Labour have chosen the wrong ground on which to fight. This is a measure of economic performance which is more likely than not to show continued improvement between now and the 2015 GE. The tide is coming in.
But, the two Eds will cry, the UK economy is not yet fully out of recovery mode. This is true and, as the Markit HFI shows, more people are expecting household finances to worsen than get better over the next year. A neutral index would be 50, yet the headline HFI stands in September at 40.8 unchanged from August. As Markit explain "three times as many households reported that their finances deteriorated over the month in September (26%) as those that saw an improvement (8%)".
On the upside is the fact that the HFI is at one of its highest levels since records began in 2009 and has been rising steadily from around 33 since mid 2011. The trend suggests that the index will turn positive by the middle of 2014 if the economy continues to recover at current rates.
[to be continued...]
Confidence levels differ widely between various work sectors: "people working in Finance/Business Services (47.4) and IT/Telecoms (45.2) were the least downbeat about their household finances in September, while those in manufacturing (38.1) and construction jobs (39.9) were the most pessimistic". There are similar findings for job security, income expectations and workplace activity. The latter measure has already passed 'neutral' and is firmly in positive territory: "workplace activity picked up to 55.1 in September, from 51.6 in August, and has now remained above the neutral 50.0 value for eight successive months. Moreover, the latest reading was the highest for three-and-a-half years".
On inflation and living costs, pessimism levels are very high, 81.3 and only falling slowly, from 81.7 in August [not measured as a 50 neutral index].
Where there is leverage for Labour is in the differential rates of rising confidence: "September data suggested a widening gap between financial expectations among the highest and lowest income groups. Households in the highest income quintile posted a three-and-a-half year high (55.5), while those in the lowest quintile posted one of the weakest readings since the start of 2013 (32.7)". And tim will no doubt remind us that the confidence of owner-occupiers is rising far faster than that of those in rented accommodation:
The gap in financial perceptions between outright homeowners (44.1) and those renting from a private landlord (38.8) was the largest since February, perhaps reflecting the recent upturn in UK property values. For people that own their home outright, the index hit a 14-month high in September, while private renters saw a five-month low and those living in social housing recorded a three-month low (33.0).
So there are plenty of targets for Labour in the short term. The real question though is for how long. If Labour have their timing wrong they risk becoming stranded by the incoming tide.
HS2 services will also call at Wigan, Runcorn, Warrington, Stockport and Wilmslow from day 1.
This sounds too sensible to be implemented.
Lib Dems had a good conference, both in itself and by comparison with the UKIP one, and Labour's, which appears a bit ropey at the minute.
Labour conference votes to end public sector pay freeze - Lab HQ says er, up to a point - #lab13 - theguardian.com/politics/2013/…
Cost. Tthe Shanghai system is making a massive loss, and extensions would cost three times the cost of an equivalent conventional high-speed line. Other sources say they are five times more expensive to construct.
Interconnectivity: see my previous post about hybrid services running along conventional tracks before joining HS2 - that can be done with a high-speed network, but not with a Maglev (although someone has suggested a Maglev that drops down wheels to continue along ordinary tracks - a remarkably silly proposal on the face of it).
Capacity is also low compared to high-speed trains, although it may be possible to improve that.
http://www.railway-technology.com/features/feature1606
There won't be as many services as on the main HS route, but they will be served and allow connectivity.
Good, ain't it?
Does anyone thing I should bill HS2 for my advocacy efforts? ;-)
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/education/article3876163.ece
In it, McCluskey issues a warning to the Government about laws that restrict the unions' activities – seeming to threaten, at least hypothetically, unlawful behaviour. Is he really speaking for his members?
Here's the transcript with the recording below:
"If this Government continues to attack us, and continues to try and reduce our rights even further, let me warn them this: if you push us further outside of the law then be it on your own heads what the consequences are. Because we’ve got no intention in Unite or in this movement of allowing laws introduced by the Bullingdon boys to restrict the legitimate and international rights that we have to protect our work." http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/willheaven/100237466/len-mccluskeys-warning-to-the-bullingdon-boys-in-full/
https://audioboo.fm/boos/1616511-len-mccluskey-if-our-party-is-to-have-a-future-it-must-speak-for-working-people-and-organised-labour?utm_campaign=detailpage&utm_content=retweet&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twittershare
"Like all obsessions, Ballard's novel is occasionally boring and frequently ridiculous. The invariance of its intensity is not something the reviewer can easily suggest. Ballard is quite unlike anyone else; indeed, he seems to address a different - a disused - part of the reader's brain. You finish the book with some bafflement and irritation. But this is only half the experience. You then sit around waiting for the novel to come and haunt you. And it does."
Martin Amis proves it does not have to be rubbish.
The Roman Senate once had to write to Crete to complain about the mercenary archers the island was providing Rome. It wasn't that they weren't really skilled, the problem was other Cretan archers had been hired by the other side.
Probably will cut the deficit.
'West London Free School in Hammersmith, had 1,196 applications for just 120 places'
How you must hate that,by the way the after-school classics club is over subscribed as are their school trips,and to think lefties had decided that state school kids were too thick to learn Latin.
You were banging on for months with your conspiracy theory about their Ofsted report only to find out that it hadn't taken place & when it had.....
www.westlondonfreeschool.co.uk/.../west-london-free-school-gets-glowi...
23 Jul 2013 - The West London Free School gets glowing end-of-term report from Ofsted. In the last Ofsted report to be published before the summer holidays ...
Anyway keep trying ,you may eventually find something of substance which would be a change from your personal prejudice..
"Current estimates of the number of Somali immigrants living in the United States vary widely, ranging from 35,760 to 150,000 persons.[10] According to 2010 American Community Survey data, there are approximately 85,700 people with Somali ancestry in the US. Of those, about 25,000 or one third live in Minnesota."
Maybe they should change the name of the NFL team to the Minnesota Pirates...
Chris Christie (R) 41%
Hillary Clinton (D) 41%
Hillary Clinton (D) 47%
Marco Rubio (R) 40%
Hillary Clinton (D) 50%
Rand Paul (R) 42%
top loser..
We need Roger to get hold of few of these the next time he is in Patisserie Valerie.
It's not the technology which should cost the same all over the world.
If we could tax lack of self awareness, this site would make enough to pay off the national debt in under 3 days. Make it cease.
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/steerpike/2013/09/ed-miliband-is-no-ladies-man/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ed-miliband-is-no-ladies-man&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
I’ll send you a post card when we reach here - http://tinyurl.com/carthagetunisia
I look forward to hearing your thoughts and seeing any photos you take of Carthage.
Tim & Richard Dodd, going forward, neither of you are to refer to each other directly or indirectly.
Understood.
For one thing, I've repeatedly praised Lord Adonis for his general knowledge and interest in transport.
If the Tories were not to back it, I'd have to look at the reasons and come to a decision. The same for Labour. But I'd also be asking *what* their alternatives are, because there's a big problem that needs fixing, and ignoring it isn't an option.
Me too : ) – and many thanks MD.
23/09/2013 10:33
Interviewing Alan Sked to find out what he thinks of UKIP is like digging up Syd Barrett to find out where Floyd went wrong post Dark Side
Tim,SO, Neil etc, what do you think the number will be on day one of the Greatest Conservative Conference Ever (well since the last one).
'A £100 Billion fund for massive housebuilding programme.'
With a gridlocked transport system.
Lab, meanwhile, have had a good old long time in govt during which time housebuilding ground to a halt, more or less.
So why should we believe EdM? Other than events, which I appreciate are significant, what has changed in that a housebuilding program is all of a sudden a key Lab policy priority?
Meanwhile, if you were to sum up the Labour conference in one overriding strategic aim (doesn't need to be a single policy), what would it be?
If we can't trust it then we should all give up and buy a set of tarot cards.
"With the Conservative victory in 1951 Macmillan became Minister of Housing under Churchill, who entrusted him with fulfilling the conference promise to build 300,000 houses per year. 'It is a gamble—it will make or mar your political career,' Churchill said, 'but every humble home will bless your name if you succeed.' Macmillan achieved the target a year ahead of schedule."