from Hacker News

Britain Is a Dump [video]

by archy_ on 6/3/24, 10:40 PM with 5 comments

• by OliveMate on 6/4/24, 12:14 AM

  The title is too clickbait for my tastes and I found it a tad too dismissive – but a lot of what it touches on paints a clear image of why things here feel increasingly bleak, and that's without the multiple crises currently wracking the country. And the sad thing is that a simple change of government won't try to fix it until it's impossible to fix because of how rooted some of these issues are.

  A key example being HS2. How much taxpayers' money was wasted over HS2, buying up land & property over the last few decades only for it to be scrapped and for money to be spent on potholes instead[0]. Can't wait for people to cry out for high speed rail infrastructure in the next few decades for us to restart it, then scrap it when it becomes 'unaffordable'

  A factor that isn't mentioned regarding infrastructure is Technological/Infrastructure Lock-in. Britain was a pioneer in industrial infrastructure, but being a pioneer means that you make the mistakes others learn from and avoid – and replacing the obsolete with better technology takes time and money.

  [0] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/revealed-the-roads-being-...

• by blast on 6/4/24, 1:30 AM

  Last time we got punk rock, maybe something like that will come of it.

• by jschveibinz on 6/4/24, 2:20 AM

  Wow. Just wow. If even half of this is true I am at a loss.

• by boznz on 6/4/24, 2:55 AM

  On the bright-side, comedians have so much more material to work with these days.

• by heldrida on 6/5/24, 10:30 PM

  The author has a good sense of humour. So sad though! General elections happening soon, wonder what’ll happen next