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How Christmas could come early for Ed Davey – politicalbetting.com
How Christmas could come early for Ed Davey – politicalbetting.com
** EXCLUSIVE **Rishi Sunak does not rule out Nigel Farage joining the Tory Party, saying the party is a “broad church”https://t.co/0papBkz6IA
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And yet Avanti see the need for a train between Euston and Manchester every 20 minutes.
Let's see what gets announced for Northern Poorhouse Rail. New line through Bradford? Hmm.
(*If such a thing exists. Edit: as MexicanPete already notes)
Oh, sorry, that position is already taken.
"there is something disturbing about a regime that is too ridiculous to trust with power yet is too powerful to be written off with ridicule."
That's why it taps in all the key northern cities into Heathrow and London, or should have done: the connectivity* opens up far more options for them for global trade.
(*forget all the economically moronic bullshit you hear about sucking in even more investment and workers into London - the exact opposite is true - and you can test it through the counter-argument that on that basis you'd tear up the M40, M6, M1 and WCML, which I think we'd all agree would be insane)
‘Coronavirus’ - Grant Sharps today
@BBCr4today
‘There’s no doubt whatsoever major projects such as HS2 should continue despite reduction in travel caused by coronavirus’
-Grant Shapps Transport Sec, July 2021
An hour of Alastair Campbell & Rory Stewart interviewing our greatest prime minister since Gordon Brown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5Q5__rx67M
NEW: Mayor of West Midlands Andy Street has cancelled a planned trip abroad today to stick around for the PM’s speech. Unclear whether he’ll listen in hall. When asked if he will resign his spox: “We intend to listen to PM speech and respond accordingly”
Andy Street resigning would indeed be a surprise announcement during Richi's speech...
Basically combine HS2 and NPR to a single core route...
And to do that I would also move Parliament to Bradford
However even the possibility of linking Farage to the Conservatives will be used by the LDs in bluewall target seats. Links to Farage may help the Conservatives in redwall Leave seats but they would not help the Conservatives in bluewall Remain seats
I don't have a view on this, but your last paragraph is quite unpersuasive.
Good job Sunak, Baverman, et al have nothing to do with Conservatism.
I pointed this out on this site a decade ago and speculated that it would be cancelled once the London-Birmingham commuter line had been completed.
Though I didn't expect the greed and incompetence in HS2 to reach the level it has.
And having a focus on northern cities will seldom impress people in northern towns.
Northerners might resent London but what they really tend to dislike is the place 20 miles away doing better than they are.
I believe Cameron once said "I knew Yorkshiremen hated the rest of the world but I didn't realise they hated each other even more."
If you measure transport by the costs your inclination might be to stop people moving around so much. That's not all we should be looking at, it's the benefits that matter as much, good transport unlocks opportunities.
Generally transport infrastructure in the UK always gets used, even if it costs a lot and takes ages to deliver. If we ever do fully build HS2 I'd expect it to be heavily used.
It's defence of the country Mr Shapps, not defence of the Tory Party.
Newcastle-Sunderland
Norfolk-Suffolk
Devon-Cornwall
Jersey-Guernsey
It seems to be a regular pattern only varying by the strength of the dislike.
The end state being aimed for is that the whole of Britain is more-or-less a suburb of London, and thereby part of London's economic success.
https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/transport/the-wider-economic-benefits-of-transport/recent-evolution-of-research-into-the-wider-economic-benefit-of-transport-infrastructure-investments_9789282101834-3-en#page1
Looking at the French TGV lines:
"Generally such services cannot be shown to have had a major impact on the net redistribution of economic activity between Paris and the provincial cities, or on the overall rate of growth of these cities"
So £180 billion for no signifiant change in the rate of growth of the North.
And almost as many cabinet posts for Shapps.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/04/tory-mayor-andy-street-considering-quitting-over-rishi-sunak-hs2-u-turn
That this can be the case suggests how poorly government has managed the project.
...Street has met the prime minister more than once in the last two weeks as he pushed to save the scheme, including persuading some of the project’s largest contractors to offer to slash their own costs. The mayor said on Tuesday: “The prime minister and I spoke last week about the difficulty, and I understand his difficulty and I said I would help him find a solution.”..
And is there a reason why it couldn't have been built from both ends simultaneously ?
Whereas, he says, "The Labour Party have set out their stall: to do and say as little as possible and hope no one notices. It is about power for the sake of power."
So, OK, some good messages here that could work... It just seems odd to pair messages about long-term planning over short term advantage at the same time as you cancel a long-term plan. It seems odd to criticise Labour as wanting to do and say as little as possible when you are doing and saying as little as possible.
If I wanted to be part of London's 'economic success' I would move there.
But I don't want to be part of London's unaffordability, inequality or congestion.
London appeals to some and I genuinely wish them well but the things which work well there are often different to what is needed in other places with other people.
Michael Green is party chairman.
All the same, it does seem a missed opportunity not to try to get Street on board with whatever the new 'plan' is. Perhaps it's all choreographed, and he'll be publicly 'thrilled' with Sunak's speech.
He might stick around to argue the West Midlands' case at the top table. But if Birmingham–Manchester is cancelled despite his entreaties, that clearly counts for nothing.
He might stick around to get re-elected. Nope. The Conservatives have cratered so much that Street has a better chance of being re-elected as an independent.
He might stick around in the hope of a Westminster career. Also nope. A Braverman-led Tory party after the next election is not going to be a welcoming place for the likes of Street.
He might stick around to be the Conservative "king over the water" like Andy Burnham during the Corbyn years. That one's almost plausible. Except that Burnham never became king.
I reckon he'll quit. At which point we'll see what the floor of the Conservative vote actually is.
Perhaps Dura did get that pony trekking invite.
1. Commit to reverse the decision. In which case they're then committing to cutting all the extra spending/reversing all the tax cuts, that Sunak will promise the saved money will be used for.
2. Commit to reinstate HS2, without reversing the extra spending/tax cuts, in which case they can be attacked for extra borrowing or plans to increase taxes.
3. Do nothing. In which case, what is the point of them?
It's small beans compared to the hole the Tories have dug for themselves. They've spent thirteen years spending money on HS2, and *now* they're deciding to bin it?
If Tory members alone had the final say then Badenoch or Braverman would be favourite to lead the Conservatives in Opposition but they don't, Tory MPs choose the final 2 and the likes Barclay and Tugendhat therefore have much better chances of reaching that last 2 and becoming leader
I'm getting to the point where all the Treasury needs to go on a basic finance course -
This is capital expenditure
This is ongoing monthly / annual income and expenditure.