white elephant

He added: "The only way that the government can afford this white elephant would be to take money from all the other nations and regions in the UK."

During a debate in the House of Lords, Conservative peer Lord Forsyth called the project a "complete white elephant and a disaster".

Costing £250m, it was substantially cheaper than Supertram but critics said it lacked ambition, while others branded it a costly white elephant, noting that nowhere else in the UK had built a new trolleybus line.

At the end of his storyline, there’s a disorienting creative decision that nearly addresses the white elephant in the room: the question of who belongs in this community.

London had to be mindful, not only of the public nature of the costs and the desire to not have white elephants, but of the promises that were made to inspire a generation.