It was a bargain at £20 billion, which is what it would cost if it cost the global average per mile for high speed lines. It was marginal at £40-50 billion. It is an unbelievable waste of money at £1… (View Post)

Given that the return on farming assets is 0.5%, i.e. sharply negative in real terms, and you can get 4% in a bank with negligible risk, forcing them to sell their unproductive assets is actually doi… (View Post)

That's exactly right. Being efficient means maximising the output from a given amount of land, labour and capital inputs. It is a constant, tedious, demanding grind and even when you put in the … (View Post)

I'm not remotely left-liberal, but I don't get the sentimental drivel people spout about farming, any more than I did about coal mines in the 90s. Like any other marginal industry, if farme… (View Post)

I'm sure they were all sick of the totally unwanted and unnecessary war from Day One. But life is about tradeoffs, and I imagine most of them probably realise, like our ancestors, that giving wa… (View Post)