China’s high speed trains cruise quietly, steady as a rock, at speeds of 380 kph.
Five years ago, China had not a single mile of high speed rail track.
Today, it has more than the whole of Europe.
Next year, it will have more high speed track than the rest of the world put together.
While China races ahead, full of possibility, aspiration, the future, our thoughts turn to what we can’t do.
Investments we’re too mean to make, retirements we do not want to fund, schools we don’t want to build, scalebacks, cutbacks, clawbacks.
Ambition is thwarted, artistry is squandered, skills are sacrificed at the altar of punitive, mean-spirited ideology. We are, as the government would have us believe, bankrupt – but not so much financially as emotionally, intellectually.
It’s not just that we need a strategy for growth – and boy, do we need that – it’s that we need a growth of strategy.
Where is the vision for our country? Where is the inspiration? What do we have, who do we look to, to rekindle our collective pride, to galvanise our collective efforts, to set the national heart beating? We are a nation in need of a life coach, in need of affirmation, in need of belief, in need of an idea.
Talk us up, remind us what we can do, take us on a journey, open our eyes, excite us.
Oh, the track we could build.
