Saturday, July 14, 2012

Bastille Day finds France blowing €Billions on EU Glorification

I had hoped that in spite of completely mental taxation and spending policies the incoming socialist administration in France would at least have the common sense to halt the ridiculous massive spending on vainglorious rail improvement projects cutting mere minutes from journey times to Brussels, solely for the pride of the insane EU and its pampered Commissioners and employees. Not so!

Attending our commune's Mairie to complete the new five paged formalities regarding bonfires in our garden (President Hollande's plan to ease unemployment so far consists of hiring an extra 150,000 civil servants, so we can expect more of these,) we were given a broadsheet, twelve page, full colour presentation called LISEA Express, detailing the incredible waste of billions of €uros on the high-speed upgrade for the existing efficient and speedy rail link, between Tours and Bordeaux, known as LGV (Ligne Grande Vitesse) Tours Bordeaux. Visit the website here if you are interested or opposed to the similar HS2 in the UK!

France was lucky in that Britain pipped it to the post in getting the 2012 Olympics, so the French will be spared the ludicrous waste of taxpayers' money in the full face of the worst economic crisis the world has likely ever faced. In France, Renault and Peugeot this week announced car sales in France down around 15% in the second quarter, a truly shocking fall given the depressed start point from the 2007/2008 crisis effected levels. One Peugeot factory will be shut with 8,000 more job losses on top of the 6,500 previously announced.

Here are some of the dreadful statistics this free brochure boasts about in extolling the detail of this rail project, exceeded technologically, of course, while Queen Victoria sat upon England's throne:

Train speeds will rise from 230 km/hr to 320km/hr (Keeping civil servants from their desks as long as possible would likely yield greater taxpayer savings, ordinary folk will be flying with budget airlines):

No matter, the EU inspired railway line, designed to get Spanish and Portuguese fonctionaires to their Brussels desks some twenty minutes faster than previously, ignoring the fact that flying from Lisbon and Madrid would be quicker and cheaper AND that there will likely be no need for such journeys, given both countries might soon regain their independence from Brussels through economic necessity.

70 stream and 4 major river crossings:

14 crossings above or below existing rail tracks:

1,000 diversions of gas pipelines,telephone and fibre optic cables, 300 deviations of electricity power lines and moving 320 water mains.

3 million tons of ballast to be quarried and laid.

3,000 hectares of preventitive archaeology, etc., etc., etc.

Can one credit the supposed thought processes of those authorising and overseeing such waste, not just at a national level, where the lunacy of appointing civil servants to reduce unemployment now sits alongside the compulsory 35 hour week for extreme governmental absurdity?

At the back of the French administrative mind, I suspect lies the thought that much of the cash being blown away comes from others in the EU. Cameron should take note, criminal waste on such a grand scale will not be tolerated in England,  HS2 should be cancelled in the UK and concurrently Britain should freeze all EU budget contributions dedicated to the transport sector, failure to do so is an abdication of responsibility; Justine Greening the transport secretary should present that case.

Instead we get an announcement this moment on the BBC Radio 4 news at 8:00 that the rail line between London and Sheffield is to be electrified, funded by the EU as well? My foot, we are all broke! £500 million down the drain to keep Nick Clegg sweet, Sheffield holds his constituency, pork barrel spending at its worst!

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1 Comments:

Blogger Robert said...

I did not twigg the link to Clegg in the announcement of the electrification of the line to Sheffield. Has to be better value than HS2 though.

The link was very informative. I now know what a 'Grutier' is and will apply for the job. I could do it sitting down.

12:17 PM  

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