A depressing, but increasingly accurate portrayal of life in modern Britain for many. The cancellation of the northern leg of HS2 in its entirety as well as the default cancellation of the Old Oak Common to Euston part of the line shows where we are. The fact that we, the country who bought mass railway transit to the planet, can’t even build a new line is the height of embarrassing.
Unfortunately everything we were once pioneers or world leaders at is seemingly beyond our means or a joke. Whether that be our universities, Police, infrastructure, public broadcasting, our political system or even public welfare. We can’t even stop people coming in by dinghy despite a 23 mile barrier of sea. I wish I could say this was an outsiders doing, but as a Nationalist Spanish General stated during one siege in their civil war during the 1930’s, their fifth column was already inside the city. The UK is in the exact same position as those defenders now.
Absolutely. A couple of years ago, I went home to York to visit my family and took the Transpennine Express from Manchester to York. It was an utter nightmare, the worst train journey I’ve ever had anywhere in the world. I stumbled out the train in search of the bus to Hull and passed what – in my teenage years – was the Railtrack building.
Standing in the drizzle waiting for the bus and attempting to process the dismal rail experience, I happened to look up and see a plaque on the side of the building which informed me of how York used to be the very epicentre of rail innovation.
As moments go, this was quite unmatched in terms of pathos and tragedy. Not even turning my head to look at the Minster and the city walls could cheer me up after that!
I had a similar experience only last night! Took the train to visit some friends in Blackpool, standing room only from Preston onwards.
The return train i was booked on was cancelled, but the 22.22 from Blackpool was still viable – until it was cancelled with less than 30 minutes notice, potentially leaving me (in my 60s) stranded. Very luckily, and by the skin of my teeth, i managed to google a journey that ended up with a bus caught with 30 seconds to spare in Bolton, still an hour from home. At least i made it into my own bed instead of total desolation. How can they do this to people?
As a postscript, i received an email this morning offering me a £4 refund, not even half the cost of the return journey.
I flat out refuse to go on British public transport on trips home these days apart from local buses which are still OK.
It’s unreliable, expensive and often a complete nightmare. No thanks. I fly into Leeds Bradford (also completely outdated not to mention chav central) and try and cadge a lift.
Sad to hear the transpennine continues to set the record for worst train “service” in the country. I’ve had far preferable rail journeys in Peru and early-noughties Bulgaria. Trying to get from Manchester to visit my parents in Hull was invariably a purgatory, endurable only thanks to the pull of family ties…
We no longer have political leaders, we have people in we’re who take surveys before deciding on any policy.
Malcolm Knott
7 months ago
This piece, suffused with gloom, actually boils down to a plea for more government expenditure, i.e. yet more government borrowing; It cuts no ice with me.
That old canard … too easy to redefine current account expenditure as investment … too easy to cook that particular book.
Any business owner will tell you cash flow is king – if you’ve spent the cash on investment & can’t pay this weeks wages you will go bust – however worthy that investment was
Katharine Eyre
7 months ago
As polling for Onward shows, “six in ten Gen Z’ers support the idea of running the UK with a ‘strong leader who doesn’t have to bother with parliament/elections’, compared to only 29 per cent of over-55s. Focus groups suggest this is borne out of apathy: ‘what has democracy done for us?’, they ask with a shrug.”
My partner and I are elder millennials and we also find ourselves having discussions where we dare to toy with the thought of life under that kind of strong leader. For us – brought up in a world where democracy was still delivering and the West was still firmly in the geopolitical driving seat – even saying this in the privacy of our own four walls feels naughty and dangerous somehow. But we’re just so sick of the current state of politics that other, risky ideas are starting to appeal.
I can relate. I’ve started sarcastically remarking to the centrists in my life (online and in the real world) on what a fine job the parties and institutions in question have done on things like standard of living, economy, health, housing etc. I just can’t take their views seriously anymore after them being dominant for 30 odd years with this as the result.
“That kind of strong leader”
Ay, there’s the rub…exactly what kind of strong leader?
Robbie K
7 months ago
Oh dear, did someone steal Aris’s chocolate digestives? We’re not unique in the current set of economic circumstances, it’s a global phase and no doubt we’ll all emerge from it soon enough.
“Soon enough”. I was saying that thirty years ago.
ALLEN MORRIS-YATES
7 months ago
Miss Roach stuck in a boarding house with uncongenial folk and bored witless, probably depressed. Meanwhile many people in most of Europe, west and east, and a good part of Asia are subjected to the most appalling treatment imaginable. She had the capacity and opportunity to be useful, and to share that meaningful existence with others, but seemingly lacked the wit or courage to act. Dear God, can’t we just stop whining and get on with it! (Apologies in advance, I haven’t read the book, just going on the précis provided; so my argument really is with the author of the article.)
Peter Kwasi-Modo
7 months ago
An enjoyable read, but Mr Roussinos is being uncharacteristically naive about the purpose of conference policy pronouncements, He dismisses them as a “pantomime” because none can be implemented before the election. With the general election next year, the role of such polcy pronouncements is to give their canvassers something to say on the doorstep. E.g., unless the punter votes Tory, there is no prospect of Rwanda and every prospect of hyperwoke. The pantomime pronouncements are not going to win an election, but might save a few marginal seats for the Tories.
The WWII novels that Mr Roussinos quotes from are a bit selective. E.g., Mary Wesley’s Camomile Lawn gives the impression that WWII was just a catalyst for sexual liberation.
Walter Marvell
7 months ago
Labour a mandate for major change???? Aris come on! They do not want change! Labour seek a mandate simply to restore fully the authority of the ruling 30 Year Progressive State. They are for continuity in the way we govern..just a cleaner status quo ante, exorcising the failed counter revolution of 2016. Actual power is wielded by a permanent unelected hostile (dreadful,) Public Sector/Blob, the new EU and HR laws and vast devolved Regulatory Quangocracy – not our weedy systemically emasculated national Parliament. The peoples Brexit revolt and the Fake Wetwoke 13 Year Tories must be seen as an just an irritant or blip. If 1997 was our 1918 Moment, recent history is the 1920 Civil War. The EU/Blair Revolution wins. The Tories have not challenged or even dented the System, nor its new State ideologies like DEI and Net Zero. Boris with his Bailout socialism welfarism high tax and entitlement culture actually boosted the Progressive Order. Labour are still the Party of vindictive petty class war, the propertocrat Blob, union thugs, the broken bloated NHS, mass immigration….the grisly failed status quo merrily adopted by the idiot Fake Tories. Labour just offers a Business As Usual agenda, promising an acceleration of our immiseration and decline. The only change would be to the seating plan in the Palace of Westminster talking shop.
Caroline Foulger
6 months ago
It’s an interesting conundrum that there are millions of people in the world who would give their right arm to reside in the UK.
Mike Doyle
6 months ago
Aris Roussinos. Not absolutely wrong about absolutely everything, but damn does he try.
Last edited 6 months ago by Mike Doyle
Martin Butler
7 months ago
And just think despite everything there are still millions of people who will go out and vote for this lot, and think our dire state has got nothing to do with austerity, Brexit and 13 years of complete fantasy and incompetence – it’s all the fault of ‘the boats’, the woke blob, trans activists, and lefty lawyers. (I’m being unfair to Scotland where there are vanishingly small numbers of Tories.)
I think after the events of this weekend, the only redemptive thing this country has done since voting to leave the EU (an organisation we were ill suited for membership of), was to crush Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour. When I see how he and those who supported him excuse or glorify in the murders and abductions of civilians, I think we dodged a bomb, rather than a bullet.
The question is how many millions will be won over by the Ersatz Iron Lady Rachel and her speech today. Slick and commanding at first look. But actually a deeply contradictory almost crazy Eton Mess – lots of tory soundbite and sugary icky leftie instinct. So Labour want to unlock 50bn… from private sector! Capitalists are now their chosen engine of growth. But hang on – Ed’s Net Zero is a degrowth strategy! Factories are nasty stinky things. Will she really overturn all the EU friendly regulations & laws that have crushed growth for 2 decades? Didnt Labour just vote in Lords to back the crazed Development Nutrient Laws? How can she engineer a boom in housebuilding to a target of 70%,? I am not sure a bigger minimum wage, more equality acts (i.e more Birminghams), Red Angela giving our nasty striking unions yet more powers to strike, the huge cheers given to attacks on the Overseas Rich, Non Doms and private schools will convince investors that her party is truly committed to wealth creation and the massive de-regulation and scaling back of the State required.
A depressing, but increasingly accurate portrayal of life in modern Britain for many. The cancellation of the northern leg of HS2 in its entirety as well as the default cancellation of the Old Oak Common to Euston part of the line shows where we are. The fact that we, the country who bought mass railway transit to the planet, can’t even build a new line is the height of embarrassing.
Unfortunately everything we were once pioneers or world leaders at is seemingly beyond our means or a joke. Whether that be our universities, Police, infrastructure, public broadcasting, our political system or even public welfare. We can’t even stop people coming in by dinghy despite a 23 mile barrier of sea. I wish I could say this was an outsiders doing, but as a Nationalist Spanish General stated during one siege in their civil war during the 1930’s, their fifth column was already inside the city. The UK is in the exact same position as those defenders now.
Absolutely. A couple of years ago, I went home to York to visit my family and took the Transpennine Express from Manchester to York. It was an utter nightmare, the worst train journey I’ve ever had anywhere in the world. I stumbled out the train in search of the bus to Hull and passed what – in my teenage years – was the Railtrack building.
Standing in the drizzle waiting for the bus and attempting to process the dismal rail experience, I happened to look up and see a plaque on the side of the building which informed me of how York used to be the very epicentre of rail innovation.
As moments go, this was quite unmatched in terms of pathos and tragedy. Not even turning my head to look at the Minster and the city walls could cheer me up after that!
I had a similar experience only last night! Took the train to visit some friends in Blackpool, standing room only from Preston onwards.
The return train i was booked on was cancelled, but the 22.22 from Blackpool was still viable – until it was cancelled with less than 30 minutes notice, potentially leaving me (in my 60s) stranded. Very luckily, and by the skin of my teeth, i managed to google a journey that ended up with a bus caught with 30 seconds to spare in Bolton, still an hour from home. At least i made it into my own bed instead of total desolation. How can they do this to people?
As a postscript, i received an email this morning offering me a £4 refund, not even half the cost of the return journey.
I flat out refuse to go on British public transport on trips home these days apart from local buses which are still OK.
It’s unreliable, expensive and often a complete nightmare. No thanks. I fly into Leeds Bradford (also completely outdated not to mention chav central) and try and cadge a lift.
Sad to hear the transpennine continues to set the record for worst train “service” in the country. I’ve had far preferable rail journeys in Peru and early-noughties Bulgaria. Trying to get from Manchester to visit my parents in Hull was invariably a purgatory, endurable only thanks to the pull of family ties…
We no longer have political leaders, we have people in we’re who take surveys before deciding on any policy.
This piece, suffused with gloom, actually boils down to a plea for more government expenditure, i.e. yet more government borrowing; It cuts no ice with me.
Borrowing is fine when it’s used for investment. It only becomes a problem when it’s used for the day to day running of the country
That old canard … too easy to redefine current account expenditure as investment … too easy to cook that particular book.
Any business owner will tell you cash flow is king – if you’ve spent the cash on investment & can’t pay this weeks wages you will go bust – however worthy that investment was
As polling for Onward shows, “six in ten Gen Z’ers support the idea of running the UK with a ‘strong leader who doesn’t have to bother with parliament/elections’, compared to only 29 per cent of over-55s. Focus groups suggest this is borne out of apathy: ‘what has democracy done for us?’, they ask with a shrug.”
My partner and I are elder millennials and we also find ourselves having discussions where we dare to toy with the thought of life under that kind of strong leader. For us – brought up in a world where democracy was still delivering and the West was still firmly in the geopolitical driving seat – even saying this in the privacy of our own four walls feels naughty and dangerous somehow. But we’re just so sick of the current state of politics that other, risky ideas are starting to appeal.
I can relate. I’ve started sarcastically remarking to the centrists in my life (online and in the real world) on what a fine job the parties and institutions in question have done on things like standard of living, economy, health, housing etc. I just can’t take their views seriously anymore after them being dominant for 30 odd years with this as the result.
Would you welcome a Putin or a Kim Jong? Or an Ayatollah Khameini?
Willie Nelson!
Screaming Lord Sutch and his Monster Raving Loony Party!
“That kind of strong leader”
Ay, there’s the rub…exactly what kind of strong leader?
Oh dear, did someone steal Aris’s chocolate digestives? We’re not unique in the current set of economic circumstances, it’s a global phase and no doubt we’ll all emerge from it soon enough.
“Soon enough”. I was saying that thirty years ago.
Miss Roach stuck in a boarding house with uncongenial folk and bored witless, probably depressed. Meanwhile many people in most of Europe, west and east, and a good part of Asia are subjected to the most appalling treatment imaginable. She had the capacity and opportunity to be useful, and to share that meaningful existence with others, but seemingly lacked the wit or courage to act. Dear God, can’t we just stop whining and get on with it! (Apologies in advance, I haven’t read the book, just going on the précis provided; so my argument really is with the author of the article.)
An enjoyable read, but Mr Roussinos is being uncharacteristically naive about the purpose of conference policy pronouncements, He dismisses them as a “pantomime” because none can be implemented before the election. With the general election next year, the role of such polcy pronouncements is to give their canvassers something to say on the doorstep. E.g., unless the punter votes Tory, there is no prospect of Rwanda and every prospect of hyperwoke. The pantomime pronouncements are not going to win an election, but might save a few marginal seats for the Tories.
The WWII novels that Mr Roussinos quotes from are a bit selective. E.g., Mary Wesley’s Camomile Lawn gives the impression that WWII was just a catalyst for sexual liberation.
Labour a mandate for major change???? Aris come on! They do not want change! Labour seek a mandate simply to restore fully the authority of the ruling 30 Year Progressive State. They are for continuity in the way we govern..just a cleaner status quo ante, exorcising the failed counter revolution of 2016. Actual power is wielded by a permanent unelected hostile (dreadful,) Public Sector/Blob, the new EU and HR laws and vast devolved Regulatory Quangocracy – not our weedy systemically emasculated national Parliament. The peoples Brexit revolt and the Fake Wetwoke 13 Year Tories must be seen as an just an irritant or blip. If 1997 was our 1918 Moment, recent history is the 1920 Civil War. The EU/Blair Revolution wins. The Tories have not challenged or even dented the System, nor its new State ideologies like DEI and Net Zero. Boris with his Bailout socialism welfarism high tax and entitlement culture actually boosted the Progressive Order. Labour are still the Party of vindictive petty class war, the propertocrat Blob, union thugs, the broken bloated NHS, mass immigration….the grisly failed status quo merrily adopted by the idiot Fake Tories. Labour just offers a Business As Usual agenda, promising an acceleration of our immiseration and decline. The only change would be to the seating plan in the Palace of Westminster talking shop.
It’s an interesting conundrum that there are millions of people in the world who would give their right arm to reside in the UK.
Aris Roussinos. Not absolutely wrong about absolutely everything, but damn does he try.
And just think despite everything there are still millions of people who will go out and vote for this lot, and think our dire state has got nothing to do with austerity, Brexit and 13 years of complete fantasy and incompetence – it’s all the fault of ‘the boats’, the woke blob, trans activists, and lefty lawyers. (I’m being unfair to Scotland where there are vanishingly small numbers of Tories.)
another tiresome straw-man conservative voter you have built up there
I think after the events of this weekend, the only redemptive thing this country has done since voting to leave the EU (an organisation we were ill suited for membership of), was to crush Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour. When I see how he and those who supported him excuse or glorify in the murders and abductions of civilians, I think we dodged a bomb, rather than a bullet.
Even after a fall in the share of the vote in 2019, Tory vote in Scotland was 25%. Hardly ‘vanishingly small’ is it?
The question is how many millions will be won over by the Ersatz Iron Lady Rachel and her speech today. Slick and commanding at first look. But actually a deeply contradictory almost crazy Eton Mess – lots of tory soundbite and sugary icky leftie instinct. So Labour want to unlock 50bn… from private sector! Capitalists are now their chosen engine of growth. But hang on – Ed’s Net Zero is a degrowth strategy! Factories are nasty stinky things. Will she really overturn all the EU friendly regulations & laws that have crushed growth for 2 decades? Didnt Labour just vote in Lords to back the crazed Development Nutrient Laws? How can she engineer a boom in housebuilding to a target of 70%,? I am not sure a bigger minimum wage, more equality acts (i.e more Birminghams), Red Angela giving our nasty striking unions yet more powers to strike, the huge cheers given to attacks on the Overseas Rich, Non Doms and private schools will convince investors that her party is truly committed to wealth creation and the massive de-regulation and scaling back of the State required.