Meddling, ballooning and slower trains

New HS2 farce as trains to be made slower and even more expensive

Experts believe Labour is repeating the mistakes of previous governments by "meddling" with the project once again

HS2 high speed trains could run slower than initially planned to keep costs down – but it could end up inflating them even further, The i Paper has learned.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has asked HS2 boss Mark Wild to look at whether slower trains could cut costs and delays, as the project has been hit by repeated delays and a ballooning budget.

A dedicated bus route might have been a better bet, but the ability of government to screw things up at enormous cost suggests that the 'do nothing option' should have been selected to begin with.

A creeping reduction of industrial substance

From Blackout News, AI translation from the original German. Relative industrial decline is an issue we in the UK have been familiar with for decades and the issue sets lots of hares running. For example, if industrial production does go elsewhere and AI takes on a range of other functions, what is the point of mass immigration? 

Or to take another topical example, it is glaringly obvious that Net Zero does not favour industrial production and is likely to drive it to less ideologically hamstrung countries. 

Automotive industry is increasingly relocating vehicle production abroad

In Germany and other major car countries in Western Europe, vehicle production has been collapsing noticeably for years. Manufacturers are increasingly relocating their production to Eastern Europe. Last year, unit sales in Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK together were more than a quarter below the level of 2019. In Germany, the minus was 16 percent, in Italy and Great Britain even more than 40 percent each. The main reasons for this are high costs, overcapacities at the plants and fiercer international competition. At the same time, pressure is growing due to weak profits, problems in China and the USA and expensive electric cars with low margins. The main consequences are therefore falling production, endangered locations, job losses and a creeping reduction of industrial substance.

The decline often remains a marginal topic in the public, but it affects a core area of German industry. Manufacturers are building fewer vehicles and at the same time relocating parts of production to countries with lower costs. Industry expert Stefan Bratzel said: "Nobody is talking about it loudly, but we have a creeping relocation of production and jobs abroad." In doing so, he describes not only a trend, but a deep structural change.

But no crackdown on tax gouging

Reeves reveals plan to protect public from unfair Iran war price hikes

A crackdown on companies profiteering from the Iran war at the expense of millions of Brits is among cost-of-living plans announced by Rachel Reeves today.

The Chancellor vowed that the Government would guard against unfair price rises amid fears over surging oil and fuel costs sparked by Donald Trump’s conflict in the Middle East.

She told MPs on Tuesday that she was investigating cuts to tariffs on food in a bid to keep prices low and would be meeting with supermarket and banking bosses this week to “discuss how they can further support their customers”.

The Government will “monitor the cost of household essentials for both price rises and disruption” and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will have the power to "crack down on price gouging", the Chancellor said.


By gum this is poor stuff, as if senior politicians still hope certain words and phrases might trigger something more than indifference. Twaddle words such as protect, unfair, crackdown, support, monitor, gouging and so on. 

Among voters, only blockheads are likely to pay attention and even Labour doesn't seem to have enough of them to stave off electoral disaster. 

Presumably it's the best they can do, but where do they go from such a low and hopelessly unconvincing baseline? Nowhere we'll enjoy probably.

Do It Yourself

B&Q and Screwfix owner hails ‘rapid progress’ as profits jump

Home improvement giant Kingfisher has revealed a jump in profits for the past year on the back of cost-saving efforts and “standout” performances from its B&Q and Screwfix brands.

Bosses at the FTSE 100 company said it has made “rapid progress” in its growth strategy as they hailed the “strong” performance.

That's no surprise, do it yourself and grow it yourself may have acquired more appeal thanks to the economic expertise of Rachel from Accounts. 

Interesting times

A powerful presentation and perhaps inevitable given the politics of the past few decades.

Unbalanced

'Every indicator is flashing red,' says UN as it warns of record 'climate imbalance'

The Earth is close to breaching the key warming threshold of 1.5C - beyond which increasingly severe and compounding climate impacts are triggered.

The Earth's climate is in a "state of emergency", according to the United Nations which has warned it is more out of balance than at any other time in observed history.

Forget wars, death, destruction and grotesque political incompetence, the real threat is made up numbers.

Curiously Familiar

North Korea orders 400 housing units built in North Hamgyong in a single month

Local cadres voice quiet alarm over materials shortages and labor mobilization demands

North Korea is pushing a sweeping housing construction drive across the country under the banner of “regional development,” and central party officials traveled to North Hamgyong province earlier this month to enforce the campaign’s targets with unusual intensity...

The officials repeatedly stressed that the current housing construction targets surpass those of the Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il eras, describing the campaign as “an unprecedented housing supply revolution for regional development in the history of the republic.”

Interesting due to a significant similarity with the UK government target of building 1.5 million net new dwellings in 5 years. 

Not only housing of course. There are prominent UK politicians and political pundits who have government central planning securely embedded at the centre of their ideology, where government is the sole originator of inflexible plans, targets and rules in all areas of life.