What we're getting is Northern Powerhouse Rail schemes reannounced, and the money 'saved' from scrapping HS2 north being spent on it. There's nothing much new, and vast savings for the treasury.
@OGH, I love you to bits, but if you aren't the editor of the article you shouldn't be credited as the author in the heading. Ever since the site was refreshed from the old green "winning here" version, non-PB authors (other than Cyclefree) have been credited wrongly in the heading.
The author is listed at the bottom, as it always is when it is a guest contribution.
It's the accreditation at the top I was referring to. For example the following links exist
Excellent announcement from Rishi on a whole range of new transport schemes in the North and Midlands, electrification of North Wales line and improved links between Scotland + NI funded by scrapping of final leg of HS2
Just think how much more he could have funded if they hadn't pissed away billions on the white elephant leg of HS2 from London to Brum.
"You can't have both" - so instead of £96bn for the Midlands and North, £36bn gets spread across the whole country. Wonder where the bulk of that will be spent?
Excellent announcement from Rishi on a whole range of new transport schemes in the North and Midlands, electrification of North Wales line and improved links between Scotland + NI funded by scrapping of final leg of HS2
What we're getting is Northern Powerhouse Rail schemes reannounced, and the money 'saved' from scrapping HS2 north being spent on it. There's nothing much new, and vast savings for the treasury.
The other point, of course, is that any additional schemes are, for now, vapourware. Casino can no doubt advise on the sort of timescales before they become a reality.
Excellent announcement from Rishi on a whole range of new transport schemes in the North and Midlands, electrification of North Wales line and improved links between Scotland + NI funded by scrapping of final leg of HS2
He should have just done both. After splurging paying for the energy bills of the middle class a year ago, what's an extra few tens of billions?
@OGH, I love you to bits, but if you aren't the editor of the article you shouldn't be credited as the author in the heading. Ever since the site was refreshed from the old green "winning here" version, non-PB authors (other than Cyclefree) have been credited wrongly in the heading.
The author is listed at the bottom, as it always is when it is a guest contribution.
It's the accreditation at the top I was referring to. For example the following links exist
Long list of transport projects that will never happen.
I'm pretty sure that a fair number of them were already promised, so these aren't new projects, what's happened is the funding has been shifted from HS2 rather than having to raise new funds.
I'll be very surprised if transport genuinely gets the full amount "saved" by the cancellation.
What we're getting is Northern Powerhouse Rail schemes reannounced, and the money 'saved' from scrapping HS2 north being spent on it. There's nothing much new, and vast savings for the treasury.
The other point, of course, is that any additional schemes are, for now, vapourware. Casino can no doubt advise on the sort of timescales before they become a reality.
Yep it’s either projects that are already funded or pipe dreams that will disappear quietly in a year or so
"You can't have both" - so instead of £96bn for the Midlands and North, £36bn gets spread across the whole country. Wonder where the bulk of that will be spent?
What we're getting is Northern Powerhouse Rail schemes reannounced, and the money 'saved' from scrapping HS2 north being spent on it. There's nothing much new, and vast savings for the treasury.
"You can't have both" - so instead of £96bn for the Midlands and North, £36bn gets spread across the whole country. Wonder where the bulk of that will be spent?
£2 bus fare being kept: instinctually that seems a good idea, but I wonder how it has affected ridership...
That's a huge con / negative in lots of places...as its £2 max per journey / for a single, all that has happened is returns / day tickets have gone up significantly. And of course most people need a return, as they need to get back from where they were going.
If you really want to help out / incentivise bus travel, you need to be capping the returns / day tickets as well.
What we're getting is Northern Powerhouse Rail schemes reannounced, and the money 'saved' from scrapping HS2 north being spent on it. There's nothing much new, and vast savings for the treasury.
Yes, there was £96bn earmarked in the IRP for NPR and HS2. This is just the former without the latter. Except that the former will be missing a big section where it had to run on HS2 rails between Manchester and Manchester Airport.
But I don't think they even mean that. I think we're talking Hope Valley upgrade, things of that scale.
What we're getting is Northern Powerhouse Rail schemes reannounced, and the money 'saved' from scrapping HS2 north being spent on it. There's nothing much new, and vast savings for the treasury.
Yes, there was £96bn earmarked in the IRP for NPR and HS2. This is just the former without the latter. Except that the former will be missing a big section where it had to run on HS2 rails between Manchester and Manchester Airport.
But I don't think they even mean that. I think we're talking Hope Valley upgrade, things of that scale.
Blatant sleight of hand and tbh I don't think they'll get away with it.
What we're getting is Northern Powerhouse Rail schemes reannounced, and the money 'saved' from scrapping HS2 north being spent on it. There's nothing much new, and vast savings for the treasury.
The other point, of course, is that any additional schemes are, for now, vapourware. Casino can no doubt advise on the sort of timescales before they become a reality.
Yep it’s either projects that are already funded or pipe dreams that will disappear quietly in a year or so
Sone projects can be done fairly quickly and cheaply given political will; see the Okehampton reopening (a year or two), or the Northumberland line (three to five years depending on when you set the 'start' date).
But these are the low-hanging fruit, and others require much more time and money.
Long list of transport projects that will never happen.
I'm pretty sure that a fair number of them were already promised, so these aren't new projects, what's happened is the funding has been shifted from HS2 rather than having to raise new funds.
I'll be very surprised if transport genuinely gets the full amount "saved" by the cancellation.
Of course it won't; that's the point of not being able to afford it!
"You can't have both" - so instead of £96bn for the Midlands and North, £36bn gets spread across the whole country. Wonder where the bulk of that will be spent?
Crossrail 3 for London.
Well crossrail 2 is now cheaper now the significant part of the Euston works are in the HS2 costs
Rediverting all the HS2 cash into other transport projects draws some of the sting but, and it's a crucial but, a lot of contractors/suppliers will now be sceptical about government consistency and commitment to these new projects.
So they will demand more certainty, and take less risk in the contracts, which means they will be more expensive.
BBC have helpfully listed what Sunak has announced - these are: - Protect the £12bn to link up Manchester and Liverpool as planned - this won't be with high-speed rail - Build the Midlands Rail Hub, connecting 50 stations - Help Andy Street extend the West Midlands Metro - Build the Leeds tram, electrify the North Wales main line - Upgrade the A1, the A2, the A5, the M6… - Connect our Union with the A75 boosting links between Scotland and Northern Ireland - Fund the Shipley bypass, the Blyth relief road and deliver 70 other road schemes - Resurface roads across the country - Bring back the Don Valley line - Upgrade the energy coast line between Carlisle, Workington and Barrow
This, I would suggest, amount to even less than I'd feared.
£2 bus fare being kept: instinctually that seems a good idea, but I wonder how it has affected ridership...
That's a huge con / negative in lots of places...as its £2 max per journey / for a single, all that has happened is returns / day tickets have gone up significantly. And of course most people need a return, as they need to get back from where they were going.
If you really want to help out / incentivise bus travel, you need to be capping the returns / day tickets as well.
OT, I could see Sunak losing ground and Starmer gaining ground during the course of an election campaign. The public see Starmer as a bit of a blank sheet of paper, he's really not that well known, so a campaign with him more in the forefront along with a fairly presentable shadow cabinet might boost favourability. He isn't inspirational but generally comes across as less wooden in practice than his reputation.
The public at least until recently saw Sunak as a dull but safe pair of hands. A election campaign may well show up his petulance and irritation at being asked difficult questions. We've already seen a bit of this during conference.
Some friends of mine know Starmer well and say that in private he is charming, relaxed and very humorous, very different from his public image. They find it a bit frustrating that he does not show that side of himself though I can see why he does not.
Sunak - like a a lot of people in the City - is not used to being challenged and has not had a lot of experience of this in politics. It shows. It's a mark of inexperience. I know that we don't want geriatrics in power as in the US but too many of our politicians are put in senior positions too early: Sunak is one such and has not been able to learn from his mistakes, possibly because he has been dazzled by his early PR coups during Covid.
To be honest, I don't know how anybody, let alone young people could afford to smoke ciggies. Obviously vapes are "cool", but I imagine the fact the Chinese imported ones are dirt cheap is also a factor. Also, the amount of nicotine you get by repeated puffing on a vape ends up far more than trying to get through cigarettes, but like downgrading from drinking spirits to Carling larger.
BBC have helpfully listed what Sunak has announced - these are: - Protect the £12bn to link up Manchester and Liverpool as planned - this won't be with high-speed rail - Build the Midlands Rail Hub, connecting 50 stations - Help Andy Street extend the West Midlands Metro - Build the Leeds tram, electrify the North Wales main line - Upgrade the A1, the A2, the A5, the M6… - Connect our Union with the A75 boosting links between Scotland and Northern Ireland - Fund the Shipley bypass, the Blyth relief road and deliver 70 other road schemes - Resurface roads across the country - Bring back the Don Valley line - Upgrade the energy coast line between Carlisle, Workington and Barrow
This, I would suggest, amount to even less than I'd feared.
I assume the Don Valley line will terminate at Stocksbridge and the Woodhead Tunnel won't be reopened.
OT, I could see Sunak losing ground and Starmer gaining ground during the course of an election campaign. The public see Starmer as a bit of a blank sheet of paper, he's really not that well known, so a campaign with him more in the forefront along with a fairly presentable shadow cabinet might boost favourability. He isn't inspirational but generally comes across as less wooden in practice than his reputation.
The public at least until recently saw Sunak as a dull but safe pair of hands. A election campaign may well show up his petulance and irritation at being asked difficult questions. We've already seen a bit of this during conference.
Some friends of mine know Starmer well and say that in private he is charming, relaxed and very humorous, very different from his public image. They find it a bit frustrating that he does not show that side of himself though I can see why he does not.
Sunak - like a a lot of people in the City - is not used to being challenged and has not had a lot of experience of this in politics. It shows. It's a mark of inexperience. I know that we don't want geriatrics in power as in the US but too many of our politicians are put in senior positions too early: Sunak is one such and has not been able to learn from his mistakes, possibly because he has been dazzled by his early PR coups during Covid.
Is it the case that Labour, with all that caution, hedging, don't know and mystery they show, have a far more developed programme for government than the Tories do.
Where are they going to build thousands of new homes at Euston?!
Overlooking your pied de terre.
If he means putting all the tracks in a tunnel and building on that then I’m actually fine with it. The tracks are ugly. Build on top - it does make sense (and it’s the only way you could conjure 1000s of new hones at Euston)
BBC have helpfully listed what Sunak has announced - these are: - Protect the £12bn to link up Manchester and Liverpool as planned - this won't be with high-speed rail - Build the Midlands Rail Hub, connecting 50 stations - Help Andy Street extend the West Midlands Metro - Build the Leeds tram, electrify the North Wales main line - Upgrade the A1, the A2, the A5, the M6… - Connect our Union with the A75 boosting links between Scotland and Northern Ireland - Fund the Shipley bypass, the Blyth relief road and deliver 70 other road schemes - Resurface roads across the country - Bring back the Don Valley line - Upgrade the energy coast line between Carlisle, Workington and Barrow
This, I would suggest, amount to even less than I'd feared.
I assume the Don Valley line will terminate at Stocksbridge and the Woodhead Tunnel won't be reopened.
Yeah my thoughts too. I'll be surprised if we get an extra trans-pennine line.
BBC have helpfully listed what Sunak has announced - these are: - Protect the £12bn to link up Manchester and Liverpool as planned - this won't be with high-speed rail - Build the Midlands Rail Hub, connecting 50 stations - Help Andy Street extend the West Midlands Metro - Build the Leeds tram, electrify the North Wales main line - Upgrade the A1, the A2, the A5, the M6… - Connect our Union with the A75 boosting links between Scotland and Northern Ireland - Fund the Shipley bypass, the Blyth relief road and deliver 70 other road schemes - Resurface roads across the country - Bring back the Don Valley line - Upgrade the energy coast line between Carlisle, Workington and Barrow
This, I would suggest, amount to even less than I'd feared.
I assume the Don Valley line will terminate at Stocksbridge and the Woodhead Tunnel won't be reopened.
Zero chance of Woodhead being reopened, for various reasons.
If it's to be done, do it properly. A new line across the Pennines.
Raising smoking age year on year is a very good policy. Well done Rishi.
When did we put New Labour back in No 10?
Unfortunately, there is a distinct trend in British Conservatism - quite possibly, class-based - where some Conservatives are basically a bit embarrassed to be so (which is why they detest the members, who really do believe it, so much) and address this guilt by trying to ape New Labour on social justice and social policy, giving them some cover in their social circles, and otherwise using their government roles largely for themselves and their own careers.
He [Sunak] says once flights start regularly to Rwanda, the boats will stop coming.
Hitler in the bunker hoping that a broken army will rescue him.
Actually, on this I feel the Government look perilously close to a solution. To the extent that the conspiracist in me has wondered if they're 'bigging up' the migrant crisis in order to solve it with a flourish before the election. I too am convinced that a few flights to Rwanda will be all it takes. And they won't need much capacity in Rwanda because no bugger will stay there - anyone unfortunate enough to end up there will abscond and go back home.
Raising smoking age year on year is a very good policy. Well done Rishi.
When did we put New Labour back in No 10?
Unfortunately, there is a distinct trend in British Conservatism - quite possibly, class-based - where some Conservatives are basically a bit embarrassed to be so (which is why they detest the members, who really do believe it, so much) and address this guilt by trying to ape New Labour on social justice and social policy, giving them some cover in their social circles, and otherwise using their government roles largely for themselves and their own careers.
I doubt Rishi has been embarrassed into this measure. I suspect he thinks it’s a jolly good idea.
BBC have helpfully listed what Sunak has announced - these are: - Protect the £12bn to link up Manchester and Liverpool as planned - this won't be with high-speed rail - Build the Midlands Rail Hub, connecting 50 stations - Help Andy Street extend the West Midlands Metro - Build the Leeds tram, electrify the North Wales main line - Upgrade the A1, the A2, the A5, the M6… - Connect our Union with the A75 boosting links between Scotland and Northern Ireland - Fund the Shipley bypass, the Blyth relief road and deliver 70 other road schemes - Resurface roads across the country - Bring back the Don Valley line - Upgrade the energy coast line between Carlisle, Workington and Barrow
This, I would suggest, amount to even less than I'd feared.
I assume the Don Valley line will terminate at Stocksbridge and the Woodhead Tunnel won't be reopened.
Yeah my thoughts too. I'll be surprised if we get an extra trans-pennine line.
Well, Sunak has made clear he is anti-trans, so presumably not.
How many MPs went through the care system as children?
From the top of my head, Esther McVey was fostered; different thing again, but Gove was adopted; not sure what age.
From the other side of the fence Edward Timpson grew up in a family that (commendably) fostered many children, so understands the system better than most might,
My understanding is that, after studying the Prime Minister’s dreadful polling numbers in recent months, Sunak’s close advisers called the exiled Cummings in from the cold. According to a source who works inside No. 10, the advice from Cummings was bracing: shifting the public’s perceptions of Sunak would be incredibly difficult. He made clear that only very big, very noisy moves would have any chance of persuading people that Sunak is an agent of change. No. 10 needed to pick some big public fights; the more blowback from former prime ministers and big business figures the better. Or, as one insider characterised Cummings’s advice: “Do mental stuff that proves you’re not the Establishment.”
Comments
Casino can no doubt advise on the sort of timescales before they become a reality.
*Waves from Australia*
I'll be very surprised if transport genuinely gets the full amount "saved" by the cancellation.
Put that on every poster, every advert, every leaflet from now until the election
Well, that always goes well and is proven to be a vote-winner.
If you really want to help out / incentivise bus travel, you need to be capping the returns / day tickets as well.
But I don't think they even mean that. I think we're talking Hope Valley upgrade, things of that scale.
Will he take on obesity too?
Pass me the Woodbines.
( To be fair, I agree with him here)
But these are the low-hanging fruit, and others require much more time and money.
Nice GBNews segment with Liam Halligan and Scarlet Maguire providing a little balance on HS2 curtailment.
https://youtu.be/c6hv4uVzRac?si=C8plOjzUnic8D2Au
So they will demand more certainty, and take less risk in the contracts, which means they will be more expensive.
No-one is believing his shell game on northern rail infrastructure, and the rest is a mish-mash.
I guess there’s a rabbit-from-a-hat coming?
Which just shows the tories are all over the place. She PM a year ago.
- Protect the £12bn to link up Manchester and Liverpool as planned - this won't be with high-speed rail
- Build the Midlands Rail Hub, connecting 50 stations
- Help Andy Street extend the West Midlands Metro
- Build the Leeds tram, electrify the North Wales main line
- Upgrade the A1, the A2, the A5, the M6…
- Connect our Union with the A75 boosting links between Scotland and Northern Ireland
- Fund the Shipley bypass, the Blyth relief road and deliver 70 other road schemes
- Resurface roads across the country
- Bring back the Don Valley line
- Upgrade the energy coast line between Carlisle, Workington and Barrow
This, I would suggest, amount to even less than I'd feared.
In any case, the first man is Charles III, and the first lady is his consort.
Invasion of Russia, reintroduction of capital punishment, or strafing the boats.
Good god.
It’s not even populist, I doubt anyone cares.
What are their actual ideas?
Although there’s been so much speculation and commentary already, I’m not sure anyone has the energy now to follow up the detail.
Hitler in the bunker hoping that a broken army will rescue him.
Rishi and IDS, two peas in a pod.
If it's to be done, do it properly. A new line across the Pennines.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/04/man-killed-by-dog-believed-to-be-xl-bully-near-sunderland
How many more will we tolerate? Man had his throat ripped out
Muzzle them NOW by LAW and cull them all by Christmas
And the biggest cheer of the day.
But IDS showed moments of genuine empathy and conviction, which I think Sunak can’t do.
They’re both crap.
How many MPs went through the care system as children?
This is presumably why Akshata Murty did the introduction to his speech shortly before Sunak leads his party to an epochal defeat.
I suspect he thinks it’s a jolly good idea.
At least, not right now.
From the other side of the fence Edward Timpson grew up in a family that (commendably) fostered many children, so understands the system better than most might,
Wait. At the start of his speech he was saying politics had been broken for 30 years. Now apparently the last 13 years are ok?
None of this makes any sense.
My understanding is that, after studying the Prime Minister’s dreadful polling numbers in recent months, Sunak’s close advisers called the exiled Cummings in from the cold. According to a source who works inside No. 10, the advice from Cummings was bracing: shifting the public’s perceptions of Sunak would be incredibly difficult. He made clear that only very big, very noisy moves would have any chance of persuading people that Sunak is an agent of change. No. 10 needed to pick some big public fights; the more blowback from former prime ministers and big business figures the better. Or, as one insider characterised Cummings’s advice: “Do mental stuff that proves you’re not the Establishment.”
https://unherd.com/2023/10/the-brutal-death-of-manchester-toryism/