In reply to Lord of Starkness:
"At one time it was the industrial heartlands of the Midlands and North that created much of this nations wealth."
British industry has never had the "worth paying for high quality" approach, or not for many years. That's why heavy industry, manufacturing in particular, has survived in Germany. Without that, it'd all have gone to the cheapest bidder in China etc. That's globalisation, and there's no avoiding it.
Our economy now is about knowledge, design and service. And the benefit of that is that we are on the edge of wide-scale home-working being viable. Fancy living in the outer Hebrides and doing an IT job technically based in London? Might work now. I presently do an IT contract for a Swiss company based mainly in the UK.
We're also entering a phase where small business can have global reach - easily. That changes things again.
As for the GWML, it'll get fixed when the weather has died down and the trains will run again. A big chunk of it is being electrified. Apart from reinstatement of the diversionary route via Okehampton, what do you see as necessary and viable?
Neil