Friday, August 23, 2013
Hyperloop Metro Letter
This letter was in the Metro on Tuesday as their headline letter.
The bits in italics were edited out and in capitals put in and I have to say they improved the letter drastically. This is easily the best bit of editing I have ever seen in a letter of mine.
Congratulations, to the Metro for noticing the Hyperloop ultra fast rail proposal by Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX (Metro article Monday by the estimable Mr Gilliland). This, being both THOUGH twice as fast and 10 times cheaper than the HS2 rail project THE HYPERLOOP PROPOSAL has gone unnoticed by our traditional parties, though not by UKIP which opposed that waste of £80 billion. ONLY Christopher Monckton, UKIP's Scottish leader says HE'D "Let us continue to oppose the HS2 white elephant, but consider putting together a consortium to build a SUCH A SYSTEM subterranean X-rail system from Wembley yards to Falkirk: the heart of London to the heart of Scotland in under an hour". Meanwhile the SNP wish to waste over the £3 billion it was costed at years ago when the LabLibs wanted it, on the Glasgow/Edinburgh line. A far faster Hyperloop connection could be built in the time at a fraction of the cost, proving that Scottish engineering is still far more progressive than our outdated parties.
Considering that yesterday I was bitter about the refusal of the Scotsman and Herald to print my letters and suggestion that it was not because they are less effective than when I started but because they are moreso, I am very pleased that the Metro has rather confirmed this. Also pleased that the Metro readership vastly exceeds both of those papers put together and is probably easily the largest in Scotland.
Scotland can certainly do with having some part of our media that is freethinking and (as the articles of Ben Gililand show) technologically progressive.
On Wednesday there was a small, far from the headline space, reply saying that it wouldn't work because (1) it had been done before (2) it would cost far more than promised and (3) it was a new idea that hadn't been done before and that UKIP are "naïve" to think about it.
I have sent this reply. I would be surprised if it is published because the Metro doesn't really do long political discussions, but who knows.
Sir,
George (letter Thurs) if Elon Musk, the designer of Hyperloop can build a successful commercial spaceship and the Tesla car (recently confirmed as the world's safest) it would be a brave man who asserts he is wrong on this superfast rail. UKIP's proposal is to facilitate a commercial consortium to run it not to put in public money - so different from the other parties who want the taxpayer to fund their £80 BILLION HS2. Government's role would be to cut government regulatory costs. That these have grown out of control is shown by the fact that though the new Forth Crossing costs £2,300 million the last one cost £19.5 million, in today's money £320 m.
Bearing in mind that technological progress is a matter of learning to do more with less it is hardly surprising that Hyperloop is less than 1/10th of government run high speed rail.
The SNP's high speed Glasgow/Edinburgh link is intended to be in place by 2023 & HS2 (to Leeds not Scotland) by 2035. By the time they start they will be obsolete white elephants & the rest of the developed world will be using Hyperloops. Britain & even moreso, Scotland, suffers from a political class who neither understand nor like technology.
The bits in italics were edited out and in capitals put in and I have to say they improved the letter drastically. This is easily the best bit of editing I have ever seen in a letter of mine.
Congratulations, to the Metro for noticing the Hyperloop ultra fast rail proposal by Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX (Metro article Monday by the estimable Mr Gilliland). This, being both THOUGH twice as fast and 10 times cheaper than the HS2 rail project THE HYPERLOOP PROPOSAL has gone unnoticed by our traditional parties, though not by UKIP which opposed that waste of £80 billion. ONLY Christopher Monckton, UKIP's Scottish leader says HE'D "Let us continue to oppose the HS2 white elephant, but consider putting together a consortium to build a SUCH A SYSTEM subterranean X-rail system from Wembley yards to Falkirk: the heart of London to the heart of Scotland in under an hour". Meanwhile the SNP wish to waste over the £3 billion it was costed at years ago when the LabLibs wanted it, on the Glasgow/Edinburgh line. A far faster Hyperloop connection could be built in the time at a fraction of the cost, proving that Scottish engineering is still far more progressive than our outdated parties.
Considering that yesterday I was bitter about the refusal of the Scotsman and Herald to print my letters and suggestion that it was not because they are less effective than when I started but because they are moreso, I am very pleased that the Metro has rather confirmed this. Also pleased that the Metro readership vastly exceeds both of those papers put together and is probably easily the largest in Scotland.
Scotland can certainly do with having some part of our media that is freethinking and (as the articles of Ben Gililand show) technologically progressive.
On Wednesday there was a small, far from the headline space, reply saying that it wouldn't work because (1) it had been done before (2) it would cost far more than promised and (3) it was a new idea that hadn't been done before and that UKIP are "naïve" to think about it.
I have sent this reply. I would be surprised if it is published because the Metro doesn't really do long political discussions, but who knows.
Sir,
George (letter Thurs) if Elon Musk, the designer of Hyperloop can build a successful commercial spaceship and the Tesla car (recently confirmed as the world's safest) it would be a brave man who asserts he is wrong on this superfast rail. UKIP's proposal is to facilitate a commercial consortium to run it not to put in public money - so different from the other parties who want the taxpayer to fund their £80 BILLION HS2. Government's role would be to cut government regulatory costs. That these have grown out of control is shown by the fact that though the new Forth Crossing costs £2,300 million the last one cost £19.5 million, in today's money £320 m.
Bearing in mind that technological progress is a matter of learning to do more with less it is hardly surprising that Hyperloop is less than 1/10th of government run high speed rail.
The SNP's high speed Glasgow/Edinburgh link is intended to be in place by 2023 & HS2 (to Leeds not Scotland) by 2035. By the time they start they will be obsolete white elephants & the rest of the developed world will be using Hyperloops. Britain & even moreso, Scotland, suffers from a political class who neither understand nor like technology.
