In 2018, just to transport 4.7million tonnes of Russian coal was equivalent to a whopping 130 jumbo jets whizzing, non-stop, around the globe for a year.
At John Lewis where I was a new MD, we decided to put our trust in technology – to build a business model for the future.
Investors should create new homes – in an economies-of-scale dozen at a time, and lease a whole care package to local authorities.
Here, the recovery of our automotive and construction sectors is crucial – firms in the region directly employ around 46,500 people.
Hopefully it will be crisis averted, and we’ll have a bit more time to fix the hole. But sooner or later, difficult choices on tax and spending are coming.
In the second piece of our mini-series, our guest author says that a switch to the scheme would most likely leave the average motorist better-off.
An estuary airport was touted as his big idea on flight capacity during his time as Mayor of London. There’s nobody to stop him now.
The Transport Secretary insists the Manifesto pledge to lower debt over this Parliament will be honoured.
And we shall not see a new Leader of the Opposition at Prime Minister’s Questions until 22nd April.
“We can consign the next generation to overcrowding, standing up in the carriageways or we can have the guts to take a decision.”
That’s why last week I launched my transport plan for the West Midlands – an ambitious, 20-year vision of how our constituent boroughs will be linked in the coming decades.
“The North of England needs new rail lines that go East-West and North-South.”
Ministers have been asked to push the Government’s priorities – tackling crime, funding the NHS, “levelling up”. How can these be effected without faster growth?
Would the Government have the bottle for planning, childcare and police overhauls – and will Downing Street sign up to this plan anyway?
To paraphrase Burke, they owe their Party, as much as their electors, the benefit of their independent, locally-informed judgement.