There seems to be a correlation between the degree of political centralisation in a country, and the patterns of its railways, and roads.

Germany has a decentralised form of local government, delegates authority and budgetary spending outwards, and has a grid-like network of railways dating back to before the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. During the American Civil War in 1867, the Union territories to the north had a much more versatile network grid of railways, whereas the Confederate territories has a much less helpful pattern of railways.

In both wars, the army with the network grid of railways won.

The French railway system similarly radiates outwards from Paris. Such a network was a major handicap when conducting a war along a frontier, which soon lead to the siege of Paris in 1870.

The British railway system is less a grid, and more a series of spokes radiating outwards from the capital city of London. Britain has an extremely centralised structure of state spending, with 90% of local spending dictated from Whitehall at the centre.

This makes Britain’s public spending much less responsive to the true local needs, as known and recognised by those in each part of the country. In the city of Salisbury in 1997, over 90% of the population wanted a bypass; but central government over-ruled them. That much-needed by-pass has still not been built.

This centralised approach has the effect of spending money far less effectively, since typically a lobbying group in London will carry more weight than hundreds of councillors and leading businesspeople in each county. This is how £33m was spent in Somerset on a bird sanctuary (due to impressive lobbying by the RSPB), and only £3m on flood prevention measures; the priorities of the local people were the other way round, but to no avail.

The same mindset causes the government to commit to HS2, costing between £110bn to £170bn, radiating outwards from London in a spoke-like fashion. Whereas for £7bn, every premises in the nation could have FTTP broadband, which would make far more sense, and unleash far more productivity and economic activity than HS2 ever could. This is what the Rural Economy and the parts of Left-Behind Britain in the north of England keep going on about – but the Westminster Bubble has tin ears.

So visit the Netherlands and see their excellent Grid Network of highways. Consider how a true grid of motorways all over Britain would unlock so much more economic potential, rather than the M25 hub + motorway spoke layout. And maybe even decentralised decision-making and public spending.