Too fast

Reasons for creating a new high speed railway link from London to Manchester and possibly beyond are strongly being urged by those who think it will help the national economy. This hugely expensive plan is being vigorously opposed by those who say it will damage the environment, and uproot communities along the way. I read today that Chinese engineers believe that it would be 'easy' to build such a line, and they can't understand why there might be any opposition to it at all. There is a kind of inevitability behind any suggested project which is promoted on the grounds that it may make for greater economic success. There is a less strident body putting forward the view that faster is not necessarily better, and that the quality of British life does not depend on the frenzied demand for 'growth'. Speed is a false god. It is laughable to imagine that a journey from north to south of the United Kingdom could be accomplished 20 minutes or so faster by spending immense sums of money on rapid technology. What does the average person do with 20 minutes of spare time in either London or Manchester? It would be far more profitable to teach people in business, politics, the arts, etc, how to expedite their business more efficiently. Time spent in meetings of all kinds would be reduced if those taking part just got to the point, and business was properly marshalled. We are being held to ransom by procrastinators, and verbose ego-trippers. A national course on effective spoken precis would save us millions in unnecessary waffle, eliminate the need for fast trasport to get people to time-wasting events, and allow us more freedom to enjoy the slow, peaceful pace of what's left of this glorious country.