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i think it depends at what stage the projects are at. for example the UK's High Speed railway has seen so much money (and so much digging), that I think it's i
by kmlx 5y ago
i think it depends at what stage the projects are at.
for example the UK's High Speed railway has seen so much money (and so much digging), that I think it's impossible for the next government to simply cancel such a big project.
but what you're writing about can be seen across the western world. the French government recently announced a similar nuclear strategy. but their election is happening in a few days :)
the German government did a similar announcement (i forget the topic, wasn't nuclear of course), but they just pushed the date till after their next election :)
i think this is just an inherent issue with democracy. the more polarised the electorate/political parties or the more contentious the idea/project, the more unstable these kinds of commitments. less polarised electorate/parties/ideas = more chance of success. see Japan, Singapore, etc
ironically some non-democracies have been faring quite well. see UAE/Middle East. it does help some of these are flush with cash. easier when you've got unlimited cash and no elections to worry about (quirky fact: having no elections also means saving money).
- raesene9 5y agoI know all gov's to this to an extent, but I feel the current UK gov excels at it, including in high speed rail. A couple of examples :- - Scotland - NI bridge. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59368707 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59368707 - HS2 Eastern leg scrapped - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/nov/18/hs2-rail-leg-to-leeds-scrapped-grant-shapps-confirms https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/nov/18/hs2-rail-leg...
- tonyedgecombe 5y agoThat NI bridge concept was always a fantasy. With regards to HS2 I'm surprised the whole thing didn't get canned. I guess the sunk cost fallacy worked in its favour. It is a general problem though, every time I hear about some long term plan I want to know what they are doing this year and next.
- blitzar 5y ago> i think this is just an inherent issue with democracy I think it is actually an issue of government - Belgium for example seems to go long multi year periods of time without the sky falling in. The reality is that the lying dishonest corrupt party that isnt MY party is actually the exact same as MY party. Neither party actually do anything different and the whole political process is just theatre.