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Hello! This is SimonBlog. Can’t promise to be anything like as informative, clever, eloquent or professional as BenBlog but I will hopefully not be useless.

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What the UK High Speed Rail network should be

I think the UK needs six  high speed railway lines. HS1 - London to the Channel Tunnel (as now) HS2 - London to Birmingham, Holyhead, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds, to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stranraer/Cairnryan via Preston, and to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen via York and Newcastle HS3 - Liverpool to Hull (Northern Powerhouse Rail) HS4 - London to Fishguard Harbour and Plymouth (replacing the GWML) HS5 - Birmingham to Taunton via Bristol (link between HS2 and HS4) HS6 - London to Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds via Leicester (in case HS2 runs out of capacity, this would be a straight MML replacement) There seems little case for an ECML replacement south of York, but the electrification on that and to Cambridge, Ely and King's Lynn could definitely use some TLC.  Ben  is extremely insistent on that. Two caveats. (a) HS5 could probably be delivered by upgrading the existing line wth strategic bypasses. (b) HS6 is a fallback for if HS2 gets too full.
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A modest proposal

It has been suggested to me that if a police driver accidentally kills someone this deserves a long prison sentence and a £10 billion fine. I think this is unreasonable, not least because motoring is difficult and accidents, sometimes tragically fatal, happen, and motoring is much more dangerous and complicated than train driving or airliner flying. I therefore make a modest proposal, as follows: the road network will be divided into streets, on which pedestrians are allowed (with or without separate pavements but they will be allowed in the walkway) and motor-roads (on which pedestrians are not allowed) (motorways are unaffected and would continue as now) the speed limit on streets will be 20 mph or less  the speed limit on motor-roads will be as now alternative routes for pedestrians and cyclists, including free cycle lifts if necessary, will be provided to bypass motor-roads emergency services vehicles while using lights and sirens, and railed vehicles, will be exempt Driving at 20
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Repeating because it's so good

I'm repeating this because I love it. And adding a link. https://compactmag.com/.../why-anne-applebaum-shot-down.../ Why did Anne Applebaum declare something “not interesting” after previously publishing a rebuttal, and why was the session summarily ended? This is the relevant rebuttal, which makes me so disappointed that what Anne wrote a long essay about became "not interesting". Is it rather "this is embarassing me and I don't want to talk about it"? https://www.theatlantic.com/.../smears-against.../616824/ Why was first year student Daniel Schmidt so good at embarrassing the pros? And the same goes for his friend Chris Phillips. https://thechicagothinker.com/thinkers-christopher.../ How are these two right-wing students able to embarrass the rest? Dan made the point that "keeping your head down" helps in recruitment for elite firms, if I were recruiting I'd look for people like Chris and Dan. https://collegedissident.com/conservatives-aband
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