The problem with banking IMHO is that it can pick up and move anywhere where there is an Intermong link - why should it stay in one of the most expensive and overtaxed countries in the world? The bloody Spanish own most of the banks anyway don't they...?
And I think you have a simplistic view on the Engineering - it isn't just about cutting a few minutes from journey, it is potentially much more than that.
Imagine if we had a vision of where we wanted to be in twenty or thirty years... Perhaps a modern, integrated transport system with high speed trains, perhaps a major force in nuclear power or fusion. The bloody new line won't be built for twenty years anyway...
Then you sit down and ask 'what do we need to achieve this?'.
Well, you need people with skills in Engineering, maths and science obviously. So you close down all the BSc courses in 'Trisha', media studies and 'Beckham' and instead open new places in maths, physics, Engineering, software science. You start to train the graduates that we'll need to achieve major engineering and science projects and you fund companies that are researching science and engineering.
You could use the money that we've pissed-away on failing banks for instance.
It won't happen overnight but in time you wiull have actually achieved a skilled, trained workforce than can actually deishn and build products that the company and the world needs. Not just a bunch of hooray Henries pissing champagne up the wall and gambling everybodies cash on the latest high risk venture on Bogata or wherever...
Imagine, instead of just riding on high speed trains we might even be able to sell some to the Krouts!
