Morning:
8°c
The Government has known for at least five years that when Eurostar moved its operations to St Pancras the terminal at Waterloo would be available for domestic use.
Eurostar moved two years ago. Given that one of the chief problems affecting rail services in the South-East is the lack of capacity, it might have been thought that ministers would have jumped at the opportunity to use the spare platforms.
They did not. Instead, as this paper reveals, the taxpayer is spending £2 million a year simply to maintain the facilities intact.
It will be another four or five years before the five platforms will actually be used, notwithstanding a promise from ministers that one of them would be functioning by last December.
This is a scandal, a damning instance of the Government's priorities. Network Rail has said that it will take £54 million to convert the terminal.
But as this paper has pointed out on Crossrail, spending on transport infrastructure in the South-East is not dead money.
It makes the City - still the engine of the economy - more accessible, it makes London a more attractive place for international business, it diminishes the delays that make life for the commuters who use Waterloo station so difficult.
In short, spending on expanding station capacity is productive investment, something that Gordon Brown as Chancellor professed to understand.
Granted, public finances are straitened just now but this was not the case two years ago.
A sensible government would have had plans in place to ensure that work started forthwith on converting the terminal. Instead, we are spending millions to mothball it.
For the Government, obsessed by an impending election, it may be difficult to focus on the long-term needs of the capital but Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, appears to take the issue seriously. He must expedite this matter for the sake of London.
Jobs for the British
The Prime Minister has given himself a tough job: to persuade us that immigration is a good thing while announcing measures to ensure that British job-seekers get a head start over overseas candidates.
He says the Government's points system is being tightened and that there will be curbs on recruiting overseas engineers and NHS consultants; employers would have to prove that there is no British worker available for some vacancies.
In London, the benefits as well as the costs of high-level immigration are very apparent: it is hard, for instance, to see how the service and construction sectors could function at all without East Europeans.
But employers have been quite open about their reasons for taking on these individuals; they have, say organisations such as the CBI and the Institute of Directors, a work ethic and skills that local employees lack.
This may well change now that nearly a million young people are jobless but it is still worth asking whether British workers are willing and able to take jobs such as hotel and catering work, fruitpicking and engineering.
By all means, let the Prime Minister favour British workers - though he cannot discriminate against EU citizens - but he should acknowledge that the skills shortage in Britain is at least partly his fault.
Smart traffic lights
A trial in Camden of smart traffic lights, which reward drivers who keep within a 20mph speed limit by ensuring they meet only green lights while penalising speeders sounds too good to be true.
Mind you, the chance of being able to drive at 20mph at rush hour would be a fine thing.
