You don’t have the money nor the armies of civil servants, nor access to all the details when you’re not in government.

Probably the best that they can do for anything this complex is headline policies and high level plans.

Now they are in power it’s probably only 10–20% about having the right policy and 80–90% about execution being competent, consistent, and quick.

They need to be given time to do the right thing, but not too much time.

The opposition always have 100% access to all Government spending. It is publicly published. It’s pathetic Westminster politics and Parliamentary privilege that allows both sides to make lies like ‘it’s worse than we thought’.

> [you don't have] access to all the details when you’re not in government

When I wrote this I was not talking about accounting details, though I am not sure whether all of those details are really publicly available once you get down into the delivery organisations and projects that inevitably get set up for something like HS2.

What I was getting at is that this kind of project is hugely complex, and develops fast both as delivery progresses (or doesn't) and as decisions are made. Anyone who can't be in the room for those decisions and isn't managing the relationships and receiving the day to day reports is going to be at a big disadvantage if they are trying to make major changes.

You can stand on the sidelines and set how you would do things differently, but I don't think you can credibly turn up with a detailed plan that's ready to go on day one for something like this.

Agreed. Cabinet (and other) meeting details are generally private, and an FoI request rarely gets anything that's not redacted. There is a vast amount of information in the public domain regarding HS2, and 'vast' is the problem to both the last Government and this one.

Which single person can read and be fully clued up a modern UK infrastructure project? Our infrastructure planning needs an overhaul.

The Lower Thames Crossing is worse than HS2, far worse, and it's not much more than 10 miles.

https://www.cityam.com/lower-thames-crossing-planning-applic...

You can think about it, but then have to deal with the reality of finances etc once actually in power. Back seat driving is a different game.

You can think about it for the past 10 years but since your thinking is reactionary to the incumbent government (who had a propensity for random decisions!), you might as well have the most basic of plans until you've got a chance to sit down and ponder without interference.

They were. Corbyn announced a nationalisation plan in 2015. But Labour is not a monolith, and Starmer has decided to distance himself from anything that smells vaguely Corbynish.

They were busy trying to set themselves on fire and seeing what is going on, they are still at it (Starmer just suspended seven Labour MPs). Britain could use a long-term plan for transportation. It really doesn't know what it wants, cancelled HS2, allows property developers build on airfields, and every time there is an inexpensive way to run a train track they dig a ditch or a tunnel instead.