Expensive Contracts with a Gun

Hi Everyone

Fortunately, as we approach middle age, we have some great holiday memories both with our children and then on our own in later years. Five of those holidays involved American road trips, usually involving cruising along for mile after mile, listening to country and western music. Not that country and western music had any particular appeal to us, but it seems it fit with cruising through a small part of that vast country perfectly. I suppose those trips resulted in probably about fifteen thousand miles of driving and any number of planned or unplanned stops along the way. I cannot remember, at any point, a feeling of danger or even a moment where we felt uncomfortable, except for one planned stop when we felt it better to keep driving. On another occasion, we drove fifty miles between two towns in Arizona and did not encounter a single house. On many occasions, we noted how far apart and how isolated many people's homes were. All this Rubbish is leading to yet another horrific shooting incident this week, with many small children either killed or badly injured by some deranged individual who was reportedly carrying three guns, a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. Trump has expressed “deep condolences” and said that the US flag would be flown at half mast as a mark of respect to the victims. I bet that was some comfort to the children and families involved. What he repeatedly does not say is that surely the gun laws need serious reform. In a vast country with many remote locations, I can understand people having a gun, under strict licensing conditions, in their homes. What I cannot comprehend is seeing guns openly on sale in a shopping mall and why anyone would need multiple firearms and, worse still high powered repeater guns. Of course, we too have our sad incidents and people who live in remote places, but thankfully, we make it as difficult as possible to ensure that some individual with evil intent is not able to acquire deadly weapons. I know that the American Constitution protects the right for people to possess firearms. That was ratified in 1791. I think that one or two things might have changed since then !!  

Back in the 1890s I was a Project Manager on a number of new buildings. A typical contract would in the region of £500,000 with a six or eight month completion time. If you apply inflation to those contracts, they would each today cost about £1.70M and for that you would get a new modern well equipped building. This week, a twelve month contract was completed to pedestrianise the front of our city centre railway station and to make it an attractive gateway for people visiting the city. You will note that I used the words ‘city centre’ when describing the location. In reality, what is perceived to be the city centre is 2 miles away. Like many stations in the UK, they were built in the late 1800s so the building is attractive but now drab and dated. We are told that this contract which covers about 200 yards of road has cost £29M. Yes you read it correctly £29M. Now I know that some major drainage work was done, but if you look at the finished project, you would think that no more than £3m had been spent. The Hotel opposite the station entrance, which was built at the same time as the station building and was probably the leading hotel in the city up to the 1960s is now seriously in need of repair and is full of immigrants awaiting their applications to be assessed. Neither of these two building were part of the contract and a building adjacent to the hotel is unoccupied with weeds growing everywhere. At the back of the station is a large car park used by most people travelling by train, (not the main entrance) with poor access from the adjacent road network, a poorly maintained access road, vehicle entrance barriers that do not currently work, and a building facade that would not attract anyone to the city. Only taxis and buses are allowed along  the new pedestrianised section of road, and if a private car or other vehicle uses the road, they are caught on camera and the driver will have a fine of £50. Now I have an idea. If you divide £29M by the £50 fine and assume that about 50 people get fined each week then in 233 years' time, all the money spent would be recovered, assuming, of course, that there will be no inflation in the next 233 years.

Just a thought :

Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank and he can rob the world. 

Only bad people need guns.

The road to success is always under construction.

Brian