Tunnel vision: now PM sets his sights on a roundabout under the Isle of Man

[Emrys]

4. Someone on Twitter with a functioning memory has pointed out

that Leeds for Europe posted a spoof on its Facebook page last year that bears a more than passing similarity to Johnson's scheme:



In fact, within the bounds of the current lunacy, some of the landfalls make more sense (though, like Johnson's, they don't take into account the lack of infrastructure links at those landfalls). Though it's off the bottom of the map, it looks like it took in Holyhead, meaning that Wales wasn't mysteriously missing out.

Now, the following may be pure fantasy, as there's no indication the tweeter, Nick Tolhurst, has any real inside knowledge despite the fact he has a large following, but we might as well pile fantasy on fantasy (it resembles some of the "insider" leaks about the Trump administration over the years):

+UPDATE+

Civil Service increasingly despairing of "Johnson's ability to focus on everyday govt" as he floats ever more stranger ideas - the latest a "giant roundabout under Isle of Man to connect UK countries via interconnecting tunnels" - as part of his "patriotic Union" plan.

2/ Story starting to (partially) seep out now..

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tunnel-vision-now-pm-sets-his-sights-on-a-roundabout-under-the-isle-of-man-cg9523lxp

3/ Civil service increasingly told to present information in "short easily understandable answers" and to research ever ever more fantastical ideas & "notions" the Prime Minister throws at them at short notice.

4/ Tasked by Boris Johnson to find a way this could work officials have suggested 4 tunnels, starting from Larne, Stranraer, Liverpool & Heysham could be routed via a roundabout at the Isle of Man.

Civil Service staff have termed the scheme "Boris Junction".

5/ It is understood Boris insisted on research for this plan after officials informed him that his previous idea - a direct tunnel from Stranraer to Larne - would be impossible due to the almost 2million tonnes of army munitions dumped in Beauforts Dyke over the last 80 years.

6/ Boris Johnson has become increasingly impatient with his officialls for "not thinking big" & "hindering his plans".

Civil servants have been trying to eliminate the plan from publication, but it looks likely Boris may get his way and open feasibility study announced soon.

7/ Civil servants "afraid to challenge" ideas from the PM on feasibility grounds as Boris Johnson views doubts on these as inherently linked to a defeatist attitude on Brexit and "that we are in danger of not believing in ourselves, not believing in Britain.’

8/ A good graphic on this from the Times.

Apart from the insanity, what strikes me most is the 2 costly tunnels to England when one would do - given the short distance between Heysham & Liverpool.

The only conclusion I can draw is that Boris wanted the symmetry of 4 tunnels.



9/ At this stage its perhaps worth recalling that one of the reasons the PM started floating the tunnel idea was that trade in one of biggest routes (after Dover-France) - the Dublin-Holyhead route - was heavily impacted.

Yet neither Dublin nor Wales are included in this.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1363480576808869891.html