London Banter - View Single Post - CrossRail or CrossConnections? Guns or butter?

Arthur Figgis · April 13th 04, 10:29 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 17:13:18 +0930, (Aidan Stanger)
wrote:

Michael Bell wrote:

Guns or butter? Crossrail or cross-connections?

In the run-up to the first world war, Germans were asked to choose
between "Guns or butter", that is, between war and home comforts. They were
asked to choose guns, but at least they were told that they had a choice.
The people of London are now being asked to choose "guns" in the form of the
Crossrail project, without being told that "butter" is also a choice.

A very interesting analogy, but a very inaccurate one! Crossrail is
nothing like "guns" which only brought misery. If small improvements to
London's transport network are butter, Crossrail is pastry!

missing the point

In January 1936 Goebbels said [something in German to the effect of]
"We can do without butter, but, despite all our love of peace, not
without arms. One cannot shoot with butter, but with guns." Later the
same year Goering said "Preparedness makes us powerful. Butter merely
makes us fat".

So it is WWII, not WWI (unless anyone has an earlier cite?). And the
people in charge of 1930s Germany weren't renowned for offering people
much of a choice...

/missing the point
--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK