This page was last edited at 1320 GMT London Monday 11 August 2008
1305 GMT 1405 UK London Monday 11 august 2008: KHOODEELAAR! told you so! That EVERY single one of the peddlers of CRASSrail has been crass. The facts have been confused, misleading, inaccurate, untrue, plainly wrong. Earlier today, we pointed out on the London Times newspaper web site that they had stated ‘Crossrail’ as the £30 Billion line.. That is almost twice the cost that the other agencies promoting the CRASSly conceived line were quoting... Now, at lunchtime in London, the ‘reputed’, the over-reputed, the brainwashing Lloyds ‘insurance’ outfit, one of the biggest-amount of money-grabbing outfits, is reporting on its web site that the ‘Crossrail Bill’ is still awaiting ‘Royal Assent’. Why is this significant? Because if the Lloyds ‘newscaster’ cannot get the basic fact about the ‘Crossrail hole package’ right then they cannot get anything else fright. And if Lloyds can’t gte the facts right about Crassrail then others peddling the same cannot get it right either. And this shows that the theme about Crossrail is crass. That everything about it is shoddy. That the sums are shoddy. The costs are shoddy. the cost-benefit is emphatically shoddy. The forecast is shoddy. The projection is shoddy. The projected costs and the projected benefits are shoddy. The costs to the public are being understated and the benefits to the public are being overstated.... To think that Lloyds have not even cottoned don to the formal fact that the CRASS Bill HAS got the ‘royal assent’ [on 22 July 2008] shows that Lloyds are going to ignore the key facts when it comes to producing ‘insurance’. Lloyds are reporting that they have got 10 years insurance contract on Crossrail! When they are doing so, they can’t even tell whether they are referring to a Bill or an Act......
[To be continued]
The Timesonline piece Monday 11 August 2008 [below] includes KHOODEELAAR! Organiser Muhammad Haque's comments pointing out the Times statement that Crossrail is a £30Billion line.
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From The Times
August 11, 2008
Young people must train or pour concrete, says CBI chief
Alexandra Frean
British workers may be reduced to “pouring the concrete” while foreign engineers and scientists lead an industrial renaissance in Britain, the head of the CBI gives warning today.
In the next two decades Britain will rebuild a third of its power generators, host the 2012 Olympics, complete the £30billion London Crossrail line and rebuild or remodel every secondary school. Yet, unless action is taken to train young people as engineers and scientists, British workers may have only manual jobs, Richard Lambert, the Director-General of the CBI, said.
“The question is whether our fellow citizens will do more than just pour concrete,” he said. “There are big opportunities to be grasped.”
He said that bright children should be entered automatically for triple science at GCSE, covering physics, chemistry and biology. He also called on the Government to offer £1,000 a year to science, technology, engineering and maths graduates.
RELATED LINKS
Vocational courses double in popularity
Reforms will boost vocational training
HAVE YOUR SAY
Qualified accountant
Dull job, no foreign competition, high salary, redundancies rare. Popular degree.
Technical engineering
Interesting job, loads of foreign competition, low salary, redundancies common, unpopular degree.
Discuss….
Nigel, Aylesbury,
Economics provides an answer to shortages. Pay your engineers and scientists more. When parents see that these professions pay more than plumbers they will guide their children in the necessary direction. Problem solved.
Fred, Horsham,
My daughter did the sciences and couldn't get a job. Presumably she would have had to move to London, away from friends and family, to get a job. In the north sciences get you a Mcjob. We need work up north too or the entire country will be living in the south-east.
judy, Liverpool, England
Having worked for a concretor in Brisbane I can tell you that you can make a very good living from a 3 day week pouring and laying concrete.
Although you'll need an apprenticeship/traineeship and a Cert 3 in "Concrety things" to do so!
Take heed and get a trade!!!!!!!!!
Ex Barrow Slave, Brisbane, Australia
Your 'acknowledgement' of the cost of Crossrail as "the £30billion London Crossrail line" is significant. As is the CBI man's incredible hype about 'science'. If ANYTHING exposes the intellectual bankruptcy and emptiness of the CBI, this must be it.
'Crossrail' is not sustainable educationally.
Muhammad Haque, London, UK
What he fails to mention is these foriegn workers will come at a fraction of the cost, therefore earning the fat cat bosses even more money.
These people do not give a stuff about the British worker, they only care for thier bank balance!
Pete, St Albans, England
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The LLOYDS.com piece, dated 11 August 2008, which states that the 'Crossrail Bill' is YET to get 'Royal Assent
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Crossrail risk on track for Lloyd’s
11 August 2008
Crossrail is scheduled to open for services in 2017.
The London Crossrail project is one of the largest and most challenging construction schemes in Europe and the risks which are associated with it are as varied as the route the track will take. And at a cost of £15.9bn, it is quite simply the most ambitious addition to the British railways network in decades.
Lloyd’s broker Heath Lambert has been awarded a ten year contract to develop and place the insurance programme for the scheme.
The Parliamentary Bill for the project is expected to receive Royal Assent in the coming months and Crossrail will run from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. In all it will require 22 km of new twin-bore tunnels to be constructed under Central London, with nine new stations at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel, Isle of Dogs and Woolwich.
The countdown to the construction has already started with preparatory works due to begin next year and main construction commencing in 2010. Crossrail is scheduled to open for services in 2017.
Mike Hawkes, Executive Director for Transportation at Heath Lambert, explains that the traditional risks which face such a scheme are accompanied by some unusual others.
“It is a huge and exciting project and with tenders already being sent out for the contractors and designers our work has already started.”
He adds that the project presents three core risks in terms of size and scale.
“The first is the tunnels,” explains Hawkes. “There will be three tunnels to be bored and with tunnelling there are always risks and challenges especially when you consider that these will be in the heart of a major city.
“The second is the fact that as part of the project there will be nine new stations constructed and some of those stations will be deep underground. In effect each station will have a core ‘box’ and the risks for the station construction are a considerable part of the project.
“Lastly is the rolling stock. The trains which will operate on the line are being built specially and they will be stored in preparation for the service to begin. It leaves us with a major accumulation issue should they be damaged or destroyed by fire or explosion prior to coming into service.”
However the fact that the scheme is cutting through the heart of London will also present additional risks.
Given the history of the city, the insurance programme also has to protect against the possibility that the tunnelling and construction work will be halted should they unearth areas of specific archaeological importance given the fact that settlers have occupied the London area for over two thousand years.
“The history aspect is a risk but we are also in a situation where the route will go close to existing London Underground tunnels and stations and there is the risk of impacting on their operation if there is any problems,” says Hawkes. “The other factor is that the Crossrail project will be well underway by the time London hosts the 2012 Olympics and areas such as the movement of earth from the tunnels may need to be handled carefully given the fact that the city will want to look pristine for the games.”
Hawkes adds that the risks would find themselves placed in London.
“It is fair to say that Lloyd’s and the rest of the London market will assume much of the risk,” he adds. “The major markets for these risks are in London and we would assume that they will be keen to play a part on the programme.”
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Last updated on 11 Aug 2008
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