HOW NOT TO RUN A COUNTRY, BY THE UK GOVERNMENT

I opened the Telegraph to discover that there are ministers, including the Welsh Secretary, a Cabinet Minister, who have pledged to vote against the high-speed railway, the route of which is due to run through some of England’s finest countryside. (Scotland isn’t getting a high speed railway; we have to manage with diesel trains, so no need for any Scottish Tory MP (Mr Muddle) to worry about our countryside.

Cameron has said that the route between London and Birmingham hasn’t been finalized yet, but it is known that, because they expect to have trains that will travel about twice or three times the speed that the UK is used to, the lines will have to be quite straight, and the gradients quite low. (I’ve been on TGVs in France that went up through the mountains and round corners, but that is France and this will be in England.)

The great laugh is that the work is not due to begin until 2017, by which time the rest of the continent will doubtless be travelling at 350 mph, and this government will be in opposition, so their resignations won’t matter diddly! The price tag at present is some £17 billion , so you can just imagine what it will be by the time they get around to doing it... I’ll take offers over 40 billion, and 5 years late.

One of the great problems is that they intend to run up to 18 trains an hour on the line (that should be a laugh), through the back gardens of rich people who live in that area, and that is causing some Tories consternation. Strangely the Speaker has also said that he will campaign against it. I wouldn’t have thought Sally Bercow would be in the least interested in rich people’s woes. (As an aside, did anyone see the stupid woman on “Have I got News for You?” What a fool they made of her.)

Anyway, I turn to the Observer and I discover that there’s a split in the Cabinet over the fact that that silly little man Gove, who has yet to get a single thing right since he was appointed, has slashed £160+ million from schools sports spending in England, just as England is about to hold the Olympics, and one of the conditions on which that was won was that there would be a sporting legacy for the population. And in the same week that Cameron is flying out to Zurich to put his weight (!) behind England’s bid to get the World Cup in 2018. The word that comes to mind here is “Duh”.

The Observer says: “Gove's decision to end all ring-fenced funding for sport – which would threaten most after-school clubs and severely reduce the number of trained PE teachers and sports coaches – has also caused dismay among MPs, leading athletes and the teaching establishment. Many sports co-ordinators have already been told they will not have a job after the end of the financial year in March.

Well, that makes sense. Sport is their priority, but they’re getting rid of most of their sports co-ordinators.

Clegg seems to feel that the liberals haven’t been consulted over this, particularly as it seems the Tories are intending carry on with Labour's policy and sell off school sports facilities. Lunitics and Asylum are the words tend to come to mind here.

Thank heavens have our own government and are spared a fair percentage of the incompetence of this bunch of amateurs.

Pics: Top, (1) Cheryl Gillan, the Welsh Secretary with a constituency in England; (2) What trains in other countries look like; (3) The high speed rail link route, even with binoculars you won't be able to see Scotland, still we have horses and carts, what more should we expect?

Bottom: (1) The towering intellect that is Michael Gove (pause for laughter); (2) A sight that will soon be as rare as spinsters cycling to church on Sunday mornings, or the sound of cork on willow (oh sorry, got carried away and misty eyed about John Major there), yes, lads having a kick around after school. (They'll probably still do it, but it will be other lads that they will kick around instead of a ball!)

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