I was going to write about something else today, but I came across this little item while I was researching the original one - and it annoyed me. It annoyed me because these people just do not see the Bigger picture.

I'm talking about the "Stop the HS2" campaign, and in particular this stupid little song that has been produced for the campaign (see picture to your left). From what I could tell from the words of the song, it was about a little oak tree that is scheduled to be removed to make way for HS2 (god knows where they found this little tree), and how we should stand up and save England (because it will all be concreted over if we don't).

God it makes you sick, doesn't it.

When are these people going to realise that there is a much bigger picture involved here, rather than just their little patch of yard, or a tree. If we stopped to protect every tree that stopped in our way, we would never have left the caves or survived the first winter.

With our increasing decent into Peak Oil, we're going to have to make a start on creating an infrastructure that can cope with the loss of our dependence on oil. We have no real choice really.

The current railway infrastructure will not be able to cope with the demands that we will have to place on it when the time comes. Parts of it can barely cope now. Nearly all of it is based on a Victorian technology, at a time when they didn't think we would need to use it as much as we do now. And no amount of platform lengthening and adding extra carriages will make a difference.

HS2 is a massive start. Not only does it create a new railway infrastructure, but it creates space on the existing infrastructure for more services to cope with traffic not generated by the express services using HS2. Along with more options to transfer freight from the roads to the railway.

With reduced journey times on HS2, it will reduce our continued dependence on internal flights. Sooner or later we're going to have to stop flying anyway, and having HS2 means we can link up all other parts of the UK with HS1, Eurotunnel, and all the way through Europe. With the rate that new lines are being built across the channel, this won't take long (weird enough, other countries in Europe don't have this problem building new lines).

And let's not forget the financial and employment benefits that this new line will bring. And at this time in our country's future, we need that. Without it, we might as well revert to the dark ages and become a third world country.

Yes it will mean disruption for some people, and we may lose a few trees in the process. But HS2 is the big start - A big start to a much bigger picture.