HS2

I’m deeply sick of the vanity project called HS2. And today Simon Jenkins has a piece in The Guardian also decrying the project.

I’ve been saying this, or something like it, since the outset. This money could have been (and still could be) much better spent on upgrading the existing rail infrastructure across the whole country and likely at half the cost. Instead we have a Tory party (from recollection it was George Osborne) vanity project, which has conned every successive government, and for which IMO there was never a business case. It’s not too late to pull the plug and avoid an even greater waste of money and environmental destruction for something we don’t need.

Moreover we must be the laughing stock of the world when it takes us 30+ years to build a railway line.

I despair of this country!

#blog #currentAffairs #HS2 #railways #thoughts #zenmischief
HS2 is the wildest white elephant in British history. Please put it out of its misery

The government is in thrall to the sunk-cost fallacy. Scrap the project, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

The Guardian

"Quotes in May", my collection of recently encountered quotes, now on my blog ...

https://zenmischief.com/2026/05/quotes-in-may/

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Quotes in May | Zen Mischief

The answers to my May Quiz Questions on "People" are now on my blog ...

https://zenmischief.com/2026/05/may-quiz-answers-5/

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May Quiz Answers | Zen Mischief

May Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

People

  • Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize? Marie Curie
  • Who is often credited with creating the world’s first car? Karl Benz
  • The name of which British prince is often used to describe a pierced manhood? Albert
  • Who was married to John F Kenedy and was first lady from 1961 until 1963? Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
  • Name the author: He was born in Dublin in 1854, and died in Paris in 1900. Oscar Wilde
  • Although more well-known for his fiction and character creations, what famous author was also an ophthalmologist? He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh in the 1870s, was a determined supporter of compulsory vaccination, and partially based his most famous character on a former university teacher. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  • Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2025.

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    Today on my blog, this month's poem:

    "Song on a May Morning" by John Milton

    https://zenmischief.com/2026/05/this-months-poem-17/

    #poetry #May #blog #zenmischief

    This Month’s Poem | Zen Mischief

    Today on my Zen Mischief blog, this month's Self-Portrait: "Fat Boy and His Shadow" ...

    https://zenmischief.com/2026/05/may-self-portrait/

    #photography #selfportrait #peersonal #blog #zenmischief

    This day on my blog, my list of Ten Things for May. This year we're presenting a selection of words (of five or more letters) with a different ending each month. This month we have Words Ending in -tude.

    https://zenmischief.com/2026/05/ten-things-75/

    #language #words #tenthings #blog #zenmischief

    Ten Things | Zen Mischief

    Ten Things

    This year our Ten Things column will present a selection of words (of five or more letters) with a different ending each month. This month …

    Words Ending in -tude

  • desuetude
  • etude
  • verisimilitude
  • decrepitude
  • pulchritude
  • vicissitude
  • latitude
  • ineptitude
  • amplitude
  • magnitude
  • So how many of those words did you know? And how many do you use?

    #blog #language #tenthings #words #zenmischief

    This month's quote is now on my blog;

    "It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument."
    [William Gibbs McAdoo]

    https://zenmischief.com/2026/05/this-months-quote-28/

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    This Month’s Quote


    It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.

    William Gibbs McAdoo

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