The questionable sanity of HS2

I  don't like the idea of HS2. I know that investing in infrastructure work is recognized as being a great way to push out of a recession, and I don't deny that. I'm not sure that a high speed link between London and Birmingham is the best use of the money - after all there are far more congested public transport links getting INTO cities rather than between them that should probably be sorted out first.


But what triggered this post is that I've just seen it rumored that the contract for HS2 is likely to go to an American company. If that's true, everybody needs to oppose it. What the hell is the point in spending an obscene amount of money we don't have, supposedly to boost the economy, when the economy that is being boosted is not ours, but America's.


That's not protectionism. If we have the skills and resources to do it ourselves then that is what we should do, and save ourselves another embarrassment like the Siemens/Bombardier debacle where £1.4billion worth of rolling stock that could have been built in the UK is now being built by Germany. I mean, when was the last time you heard of Germany, or the USA, offering us $1 billion plus contracts for anything.


Thoughts?