Speed

Our political masters (that includes you, Ms Greening) appear to think that we can only embrace the future by investing untold sums of money in a primal need to hurtle about the face of the earth at ever faster speeds. It is a fallacy, The real need is to discover better ways of working together using all the far cheaper means of communication. With all the gizmos now available to us we do not need to leave home, never mind the office, to attend fruitless meetings.The Bible holds no brief for high speed anything. It wants us to slow down. 'Lie down in green pastures' (Ps 23), 'Be still' (ps 46) 'Let us walk in the light of the Lord' (Isaiah 2.5). The greatest characters of Old and New Testaments pottered about the ancient world on camel, horse, or on foot. Their chief concern was not high speed rails, but proper shoes. A name from Isaiah (8.1) indicates the scorn in which the urge to move faster was held by the prophet. 'The Lord said to me, take a large scroll and write this name on it: 'Maher-shalal-hash-baz'. It's the longest name given to anybody throughout scripture. It is an HS2 slogan, which should be written on every 250mph ticket, for it means; 'Quick to the plunder; swift to the spoil'.