[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by Chris

I'd point out that spending on HS2 is going to run at the rate of less than £2 billion per year, which is rather less than the total amount the Government spends across all departments (£710 billion this year alone).

Part of the problem we have here is that people either can't, or won't, stretch their minds to consider that we're talking about long-term investment spending, over an extended period of time, and not splurging a vast amount of unbudgeted cash right here and now. Some also don't seem to be able to hear the word 'billion' without immediately thinking 'massive waste'. The fact is, our national budget is chopped up by the billion and it won't be many years before the total runs well past a trillion. In terms of the budget of one of the biggest economies in the world - which we are - a billion is not a vast sum.

I would agree!