Tory Party conference – live: Agenda blown off track by HS2 furore as Sunak ‘won’t be rushed into decision’

14 comments

1. It would be a complete farce if we end up spending billions for the edge of London to Birmingham slightly faster.

   We’ve started it, so build it in full.

2. The moment he is in the helicopter leaving manchester it will be announced.

3. He’ll have had longer to make a decision about a fucking railway line based on solid figures than the general public had to make a decision on brexit based on 99.9% bullshit. What a twat.

4. Sunak needs to piss or get off the pot. This flip-flopping and vacillating is exactly what he accuses Keir Starmer of and the irony isn’t lost on me. Does Sunak actually *make* decisions?

5. I’m guessing that he will announce it is going ahead. That will be his big announcement “we are going to do what we said we were going to do”

6. He could turn a negative into a positive by saying it’s quite a boon for the people of Acton who will be able to zip up to the Bullring to do their shopping.

7. Even if you agreed HS2 was a waste of money, how he has handled this has been dreadful.

   Just the last few weeks of uncertainty alone has probably added a couple of billion to the cost, while at the same time chipping away at the economic benefits.

8. “Won’t be rushed into a decision” translates into he will cancel it.

9. Won’t be rushed into a decision = wait until next week to announce it is cancelled to avoid a picture of the Northern mayors plus half of Manchester turning up outside the door and protesting.

10. This Tory conf is through the looking glass, with the fringe moving to the centre and the extremists exerting control. Meanwhile even covering it like it was a standard Tory conference means the news media normalises this Qanon-ification play.

11. HS1 was built for £6 billion through about 68 miles of densely populated Kent, Essex and London with large sections of tunnels.

    While inflation will be a factor it’s still incredibly that it might come at something like 1/5th to 1/10th the cost per mile of what should be a broadly similar project. I know property prices have sky rocketed but that is only a fraction of the HS2 costs.

    >The cost of construction was £6.84 billion. At £51 million per mile, this was higher than other projects in many other countries

    [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Speed_1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Speed_1)

    HS2 may end up about 120 miles at £60 billion plus. Honestly I think we are owed an explanation for what has gone on. This is really a huge huge issue for the UK, why can we not build infrastructure. We urgently need much of the transport and energy system rebuilt for decarbonisation. We cannot do it with this level of cost and delay.

12. They should’ve just taken it all underground for this cost.

13. It’s like someone with toothache saying they won’t be rushed to dentist. Cowardice.

14. Sunak is not very good at this. The Tory Conference seems to be stuck in this infighting and u-turning.