One of the more surprising artefacts in the Louisiana State Museum has nothing to do with Cajun food or Bourbon Street.

It is namely a submarine, and not just any old submarine but a 20 foot long Confederate submarine, the “Bayou St. Jean”, that was discovered at the bottom of the confluence with nearby Lake Pontchartrain in 1878, and for many years resided in Jackson Square in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Just imagine being inside that contraption hand-cranking the propeller and generally being shot at!

The Confederates had a lot to answer for. Amongst others, the futuristic vision of Jules Verne in his “Journey to the Moon” was that a post-American Civil War gun club came up with a high-capacity cannon that would shoot a man-carrying projectile to the moon.

A total of 5.5 million dollars was needed to finance the (fictional) scheme, which let’s face it was a lot of money at the time for “right idea, but really poor execution”.

In last week’s media debate on HS2, one suggestion was that instead of a new rail link from London to Birmingham and beyond, the funds earmarked for the £50 billion project (give or take a billion or so) should instead be used to purchase a fleet of 70,000 helicopters to ferry passengers from London to Birmingham and back.

One assumes that was somewhat in jest, but demonstrates the scorn that has been heaped upon Government’s “dodgy numbers”.

And it is entirely untrue (as some commentators in the media would have it) to say that businesses up and down the country are absolutely convinced that this is a really important infrastructure project, and are supportive of HS2.

A snap poll of Dorset Chamber members came out with a clear “No”. And that’s not about nimbyism, or environmental considerations, or the vague promise of jobs.

It’s more about appropriateness, affordability, the balance between expenditure in the North and South, and certainly does not find much favour here in the South West which has been seriously starved of rail investment for many decades.

So whether it’s a giant sewer for London (as recently reported), submarines, lunar exploration, or high speed / high capacity rail transport, opinion will remain divided on a topic as hot as a beignet.