BRFR Cake Stop 'breaking news' miscellany

[BoldonLad]

We are still paying for that even if it is 100% cancelled today.
I read a report saying that it will cost more to cancel and make good than to continue as currently planned.

Quite. My point being it is good(?) example of where Taxes are wasted/squandered.

 

[BoldonLad]

Cancelling it won't solve the problem of under-capacity on the railways.

Whichever way you slice it, it's a monumental cock-up of historical proportions. In essence, it seems that if there's been a chance to screw up any step of the process, no matter how large or small, the opportunity to screw it up has been taken with skill and enthusiasm.

Different times, and different terrain, but the original Paris-Lyon TGV construction cost under £4bn adjusted for inflation.

Seems like a good reason to keep Governament as far as possible from just about anything. 😊

 

[Pblakeney]

Quite. My point being it is good(?) example of where Taxes are wasted/squandered.

The idea was good and solid. The implementation was as a bad as bad can be.
As with every major infrastructure development in this country whether public or private. Overdue, over budget, reduced scope...

 

[Pross]

The idea was good and solid. The implementation was as a bad as bad can be.
As with every major infrastructure development in this country whether public or private. Overdue, over budget, reduced scope...

2012 Olympics disagrees (although there's some doubt on budget, I guess it depends which budget you compare it to). Private schemes are often within budget and programme. The problem with budgets is you are trying to work out the cost of something about 10 years or more before it will be built.

 

[Pblakeney]

2012 Olympics disagrees (although there's some doubt on budget, I guess it depends which budget you compare it to). Private schemes are often within budget and programme. The problem with budgets is you are trying to work out the cost of something about 10 years or more before it will be built.

Hmmm. AI would seem to disagree and I can't be bothered checking. One for the AI Fails thread?
"No, the 2012 Olympics were not a financial success; they significantly exceeded their budget, costing around $18 billion instead of the planned $5 billion. Overall, the Olympics have historically been a financial burden for host cities."

 

[Pross]

Hmmm. AI would seem to disagree and I can't be bothered checking. One for the AI Fails thread?
"No, the 2012 Olympics were not a financial success; they significantly exceeded their budget, costing around $18 billion instead of the planned $5 billion. Overall, the Olympics have historically been a financial burden for host cities."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/20041426 the official verdict. As I said, it depends what you count as the budget - the initial budget in the bid was way smaller than the approved budget in 2007. As someone who has to do cost estimates on significantly smaller schemes I can understand the challenges but it does amaze me how optimistic a lot of initial budgets are. I guess they are looking to make a scheme appear attractive but they must realise that at some point they are going to have egg on their faces. Occasionally you get massive, unexpected uplifts such as in 2020 with the impacts of the pandemic and Brexit creating huge inflation in construction and the first thing clients seem to do is strip out any contingency but even allowing for that initial budgets seem to bear no resemblance to reality.

 

[Pblakeney]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/20041426 the official verdict. As I said, it depends what you count as the budget - the initial budget in the bid was way smaller than the approved budget in 2007. As someone who has to do cost estimates on significantly smaller schemes I can understand the challenges but it does amaze me how optimistic a lot of initial budgets are. I guess they are looking to make a scheme appear attractive but they must realise that at some point they are going to have egg on their faces. Occasionally you get massive, unexpected uplifts such as in 2020 with the impacts of the pandemic and Brexit creating huge inflation in construction and the first thing clients seem to do is strip out any contingency but even allowing for that initial budgets seem to bear no resemblance to reality.

I cannot disagree with any of that.
Sort of underlines my original point though.

 

[briantrumpet]

Have we done Jeff Bezos's penis substitute explosion?

 

[Psamathe]

All these billionaires making rockets that blow-up and them expecting people to ride to the Moon, then Mars in them.

Reminds me of a rubbish Bruce Willis film when Mr Willis and his "crew" were in the rocket capsule waiting to be launched into space and one said along the lines of "remember we are on top of a rocket made of 100,000 parts all built and put together by the lowest bidder".

Very true of today's carbon burning billionaires who rather than spend improving life for so many waste their billions playing macho superhero not realising we're laughing at them.

 

[Pblakeney]

Reminds me of a rubbish Bruce Willis film when Mr Willis and his "crew" were in the rocket capsule...

I still enjoy watching Armageddon now and again. Don't care if it is rubbish, or of other people's opinions.

 

[briantrumpet]

Haha. Number of taxes in European countries. Those who remember Surrey Commuter from Bike Radar might remember his proposal for a 20% tax on all income (IIRC), no allowances. Just the one tax. I think he might find an interested audience in France.

 

[briantrumpet]

Seems to hold for home fibre connections too. I can confirm that each time my French mobile tariff changes, it gets cheaper. I now get 300Gb for 9.80€ a month. It's about a tenth of that via Giffgaff here.

 

[Psamathe]

Seems to hold for home fibre connections too. I can confirm that each time my French mobile tariff changes, it gets cheaper. I now get 300Gb for 9.80€ a month. It's about a tenth of that via Giffgaff here.

I pay not a lot more (not a lot more than €9.80) for my UK mobile but unlimited calls, unlimited data and unlimited texts incl. EU (and some others) roaming. That said, roaming in EU I am limited to 50GB/month but still unlimited calls and texts.
Edit: my UK subscription is SIM only, no bundled phone.

 

[First Aspect]

Seems to hold for home fibre connections too. I can confirm that each time my French mobile tariff changes, it gets cheaper. I now get 300Gb for 9.80€ a month. It's about a tenth of that via Giffgaff here.

View attachment 15436

Is that comparing like with like? I'm paying about £15 a month for more than I will ever use, but it is SIM only.

My impression of the market here is that consumers like new shiny things that do exactly what their old battered thing did, but more expensively.

Since no one can actually afford to buy the new shiny thing, the UK market is still dominated by deals that include the phone (and which people accidentally carry on paying for for a few months after the phone has already been covered).

I bet there are relatively fewer people in Europe like me, and most likely you, who put up with an old handset (mine is 6 years old).

 

[briantrumpet]

Is that comparing like with like? I'm paying about £15 a month for more than I will ever use, but it is SIM only.

My impression of the market here is that consumers like new shiny things that do exactly what their old battered thing did, but more expensively.

Since no one can actually afford to buy the new shiny thing, the UK market is still dominated by deals that include the phone (and which people accidentally carry on paying for for a few months after the phone has already been covered).

I bet there are relatively fewer people in Europe like me, and most likely you, who put up with an old handset (mine is 6 years old).

Dunno. I'm just wondering if the graph is comparing apples & oranges, as the price steps look more like home fibre connections rather than SIM-only deals. Those baked-in price rises really get my goat.