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Would you be using the term 'bonkers' if china, or Japan, or Norway were proposing something equivalent?
No , they have their fair share of long tunnels built for sound economic reasons. Maybe bonkers was the wrong word , but I just can't see what this tunnel might hope to achieve that's why I asked the question.

Admittedly if it could be completed in a few weeks it would be great . But by the time it is completed Scotland could be an independent foreign nation or a member of the the EU . And/or the EU could be a busted flush and in even les of a position to throw it's weight around than it is now. I would like someone who lives in Scotland or NI to say why they think a tunnel that will be in operation in around 2027 will be of help to them. Not the jobs created building it , but long term.

Then we have HS2 , the big (white) Elephant in the room to get on with.
 
I really don't see the economic case for a tunnel from NI to Scotland .. even the cross channel link has had to be heavily subsidised

however, as a symbol of the union of the UK, I can (just about) see the point
 
I really don't see the economic case for a tunnel from NI to Scotland .. even the cross channel link has had to be heavily subsidised

however, as a symbol of the union of the UK, I can (just about) see the point
Last time I read something on this, there were concerns about lots of dumped munitions in the strait between the two. That can’t be helpful.
 
On the tunnel, Boris loves a flagship project. As Mayor of London it was the Boris Bus, which turned out to be costly and ineffectual. Now it’s HS2. Next seems to be the Boris Burrow. Each project an order of magnitude (or two) bigger than the last! If he’s PM for too long we’ll probably end up with a space programme :crazy:

I’d understand the tunnel better if it could link to somewhere useful, but Stranraer is miles from anywhere.
 
On the tunnel, Boris loves a flagship project. As Mayor of London it was the Boris Bus, which turned out to be costly and ineffectual. Now it’s HS2. Next seems to be the Boris Burrow. Each project an order of magnitude (or two) bigger than the last! If he’s PM for too long we’ll probably end up with a space programme :crazy:

I’d understand the tunnel better if it could link to somewhere useful, but Stranraer is miles from anywhere.
I love the Boris bus .. fantastic design

I want one converted into a giant camper van
 
I love the Boris bus .. fantastic design

I want one converted into a giant camper van
I reckon in a few years a there’ll be a few of them being sold off cheap as surplus! When Routemasters were retired they were sold for under £10k a piece.

The problems with the Boris bus were drivetrain issues (new unproven design); ventilation (there’s almost none); and useless back door (designed for conductor-managed hop-on hop-off but then they ditched the conductors and closed the back doors).
 
As regards the tunnel between Scotland and NI, Norway are trying to get
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a floating tunnel.
 
I really don't see the economic case for a tunnel from NI to Scotland .. even the cross channel link has had to be heavily subsidised
The channel tunnel has been a commercial failure, and it's worth remembering that it was deliberately built through a chalk strata for reasons of stability and to lower costs.

I'm not a geologist, so I have no idea what the undersea rock is like twixt NI and Scotland, but if anyone saw the "Richard Hammond's Big" episode on the Brenner tunnel it gave an insight as to what the issues are like when tunnelling through a mixture of hard and unstable rock. And as with any major civil engineering project, costs quickly rise exponentially when you're undertaking a project with significant risks.

I honestly can't see there being a commercial case for a NI / Mainland tunnel, but there are fairly obvious political reasons.
 
And in the latest twist in Scotland, the (SNP stuffed) Inquiry into the Salmond affair yesterday voted 5-4 against publishing the former First Minister’s submission on the ministerial code, despite clarification from the Court last week that doing so would not breech any confidential information regarding the original complainants.

And in an excellent Monty Python moment, SNP MSP and member of the "Inquiry Committee" Maureen Watt proposed that it should go to the Corporate Body (SPCB) for a decision, but then voted against this proposal. Mind you, what a group that has responsibility for "the running of the Parliament including the financing of the Parliament and allocation of the budget, the staffing of the Parliament, accommodation and the use and security of Parliamentary facilities at Holyrood" has to do with the current FM's relationship with the ministerial code is not clear.

That bit of carpet that this matter continues to be swept under must be getting awfully lumpy. And this obfuscation and delaying tactics couldn't be anything to do with the pending elections in May, could they? Surely not?

They do say that fish rot from the head down...
 
Not sure if it was covered before but one of the benefits of Brexit is that we are getting vaccinated ahead of most of the world. The EU is way behind us because of their bureaucracy.
 
And in the latest twist in Scotland, the (SNP stuffed) Inquiry into the Salmond affair yesterday voted 5-4 against publishing the former First Minister’s submission on the ministerial code, despite clarification from the Court last week that doing so would not breech any confidential information regarding the original complainants.

And in an excellent Monty Python moment, SNP MSP and member of the "Inquiry Committee" Maureen Watt proposed that it should go to the Corporate Body (SPCB) for a decision, but then voted against this proposal. Mind you, what a group that has responsibility for "the running of the Parliament including the financing of the Parliament and allocation of the budget, the staffing of the Parliament, accommodation and the use and security of Parliamentary facilities at Holyrood" has to do with the current FM's relationship with the ministerial code is not clear.

That bit of carpet that this matter continues to be swept under must be getting awfully lumpy. And this obfuscation and delaying tactics couldn't be anything to do with the pending elections in May, could they? Surely not?

They do say that fish rot from the head down...
And yet SNP is polling high. Inexplicable.
 
Inexplicable.
Prejudice.

Scottish politics has been (for the want of a better term) tribal for years. In the days that Labour was the dominant party, you could have put up a garden gnome with a red rosette stuck on its chest and it would have been returned with a majority in most constituencies.
 
Prejudice.

Scottish politics has been (for the want of a better term) tribal for years. In the days that Labour was the dominant party, you could have put up a garden gnome with a red rosette stuck on its chest and it would have been returned with a majority in most constituencies.
Importantly the SNP gets the majority of the seats but not the majority of the votes. There seem to be quite a lot of voters that choose not to vote at all.
 
Compared to Scotland, NI never whines

It's a shame that the public image of Scotland is almost entirely represented in the media by Sturgeon and Blackford. In contrast whenever I've been in Scotland I've always found people to have on average better manners than English.
 

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