this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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UK Politics

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General Discussion for politics in the UK.
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The land cost alone for hs2 runs into the billions, it’s just very expensive to do.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Do you believe the land costs in France, Spain, Germany, China and Japan weren't expensive?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

China is not. The CCP can just seize the land and force you to accept a pittance in compensation.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago

I genuinely can't continue this conversation in good conscience given the fact that I don't have sources. I can only go off of some YouTube documentaries I watched once upon a time where the government made a valuation on some land, sent in some archeologists and rehoused residents taking them rural living conditions with an outhouse to newer houses with toilets. In each case I saw the government deemed the projects more valuable than the people's land/houses and time has proven them right as they have high speed rail and economic growth in all areas the rail network extends to and beyond.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You only mentioned china, where they don’t report on land costs because all land is state owned but yes I do believe land compensation is much less in china, not least because HS2 land compensation is significantly above market rate. Also; an authoritarian regime with only superficial regard for the health and well-being of their workers, that are paid almost nothing is certain to be cheaper. Suggesting otherwise is banal.

Edit to add Troll alert.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I’ve only got two decades of civil engineering experience in Europe china and now the uk to draw on. I can’t provide a source for the absence of Chinese reporting on land costs because you can’t prove a negative. Although it should be blatantly obvious that comparing the cost of building something in the uk to the cost in china is simply pointless. Here’s a link to a high speed train collision in china that killed a heap of people: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenzhou_train_collision And another one: https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/high-speed-train-derailment-china/ … and a link to construction labour deaths https://clb.org.hk/en/content/china’s-most-dangerous-industry-getting-more-dangerous

The point being that china has a very different equation when they go about doing things to here in the uk.

Frankly I shouldn’t have to do this for you.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're supposed to be providing sources about how the land was forcefully purchased at a low and unfair price. Not that trains derail.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As I stated, china don’t publish that information and it doesn’t take a genius to work it out. Troll.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When my beloved Arsenal built the Emirates, people said that they were low-balled. That claim is part and parcel with any forced possession. However asking you to prove that the valuations were low isn't asking a lot.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Obviously blocking you doesn’t work otherwise I wouldn’t see this nonsense. I’m not your personal Fucking google assistant.

If someone tells you it’s raining outside do you ask them to prove it or do you look out of the fucking window?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

You've never been challenged on things you say before?