Thread by @shaunjlawson

I'm reproducing a rather excellent comment from The Guardian. If you've ever wondered why vanity project is Boris Johnson's middle name - and why his 'bridge' from Scotland to Northern Ireland is his latest hare-brained wheeze - here's your answer. It's important.

It's easy enough to make fun of Johnson's long series of vanity projects. But while we laugh, we ought not to forget they have a perfectly serious purpose, in terms of which they are strikingly successful.

Consider the Irish Sea bridge. It has a concealed purpose.

People ought to be widely aware of this.

It is technically feasible. Using technology proven in the offshore oil industry, it could be built by constructing a series of over 20 towers, many over 100 feet high, floating them out and sinking them on-site...

... then linking their tops with a roadway.

But saying it could be done is not at all the same thing as saying it is a viable project. It would be immensely expensive. It would never pay for itself.

Also there are real problems which would almost certainly mean it came out well over budget, that is if construction ever begins at all, which I doubt. The site is some of the most difficult water around the UK coast.

The whole Irish Sea funnels through that narrow channel every flood and ebb tide, producing a powerful tide rip. Given a south-going ebb tide opposed by a gale blowing up from the south-west, the sea fairly stands up.

Plus there's all sorts of WW2 munitions dumped in the deep bit of the channel. These, if disturbed by construction works, will be picked up by the tidal scour and start to come ashore. There’s all sorts of nasty stuff down there best left undisturbed.

So it is a safe bet this bridge will never be built. Indeed, it is doubtful if there is any serious intention that it should be built. It has another purpose altogether.

As the Garden Bridge has shown, it is possible for very large sums of public money to be spent without anything being built at all. This is the real purpose of this project.

This bridge is the Garden Bridge over again, but on a much larger scale.

Feasibility studies, engineers' reports, design briefs, PR consultancy, you name it. They all soak up cash.

This money will mostly go to firms in the construction industries, some of whom are well-known supporters of the Tory Party.

It is reasonably likely that in return for such lavish gifts of public money, they will kick some back into Tory Party coffers. Some may even benefit Johnson personally. There is still a question mark over payment for that fifteen grand holiday he recently took.

In one of John le Carre's books, a character says the problem with Britain is systemic corruption. The latest Boris bridge looks like more of the same; a money-funnel designed to pour many million pounds of public money into private Tory pockets.

In those terms the Garden Bridge was a highly successful project. This one will repeat the formula bigger, better and even more profitably.

Johnson’s track record of projects shows he has refined his technique.

The Emirates cable car with its four lonely regular users was an initial pilot study. Unfortunately, it necessitated building the thing, then seeing how few people used it. Bricks and mortar, dust and cement, steel and welding; all very messy.

The Garden Bridge never made it out of the realms of the imagination. This was a much neater piece of looting. Now the technique is perfected, it can be used again here, but on a much larger scale.

The surprising thing is that despite all the components of this three-card trick being right out in the open, comparatively few people seem to put them together and understand the picture they make.

While they are unlikely to construct a bridge, they do very effectively construct a Tory money-funnel. This was almost certainly the plan right from the start.

If the Labour Party tried a version of this scam (perhaps something on a smaller scale mounted via one of the large local authorities they control), we would never hear the last of it. The press would descend like a flock of vultures.

But don’t expect our corporate media to “speak truth to power” about this latest ingenious Tory wheeze. What is deliberately left unsaid can be propaganda just as much as what is said.

/COMMENT ENDS

My view: the correspondent is 100% right. Those of us familiar with FIFA-gate knew it was all about kickbacks for FIFA executives from chosen construction companies. This sort of stuff is how the Tories dominate and where they get their money from: in plain sight.

And there are far, far, far too many vested interests which benefit for it ever to be exposed. This cuts right across so much of British industry: construction, engineering, consultancy, PR. What even IS "PR" and much of "consultancy" in any case? It's a vapid ruse.

That so many apparent incompetents have risen to the top of British politics and many British professions is not a coincidence. They all know exactly what they're doing; the only thing that matters is their gravy train.

'Welfare' in Britain means CORPORATE welfare. Never-ending government handouts buying their support: returned with all sorts of grotesque largesse. While the poor are punished, the disabled die and the homeless starve.

Remember: Britain is the most corrupt country in the world. Source? The world's leading expert on the mafia.

Countries do not become the leading financial centre on the planet or, for centuries, the most powerful nation on the planet without being corrupt. VERY corrupt.

The Tories really are all in it together. They always have been and always will be.

cc: @OborneTweets