[Boiler]

Thought: HS2 is enshrined in an Act of Parliament, to wit https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2021/2/contents

Doesn't that mean it has to go before parliament to bin it?

Elsewhere, someone actually wondered if Sunak was in the right party, suggesting that he could see a Labour politician saying what he said.

[Abernathy]

Phil Moorhouse’s assessment.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Very expensive flip-flops for Ricky Shortpants, please.

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/no ... e-27848664

The Government has U-turned on its commitment to reopen the Leamside railway line, just 24 hours after making the massive announcement.

A restoration of the mothballed line, which runs from Pelaw in Gateshead to Tursdale in County Durham, was included in initial announcements about the ‘Network North’ programme revealed by Rishi Sunak on Wednesday. The Prime Minister pledged to invest in hundreds of transport projects around the North and Midlands, using £36bn he says will be saved by scrapping the northern leg of HS2.

But, just a day later, all reference to reopening the Leamside Line has been removed from the Network North website and the promise seemingly abandoned. Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Thursday lunchtime, roads minister Richard Holden confirmed that the Government was simply “committed to looking into” the Leamside Line project.

You want more? Ok.

[Tubby Isaacs]

So all the trains carry on going down the East Coast Mainline and Cross Country lines then. Great.

[Boiler]

I hope this is wrong.

If anyone ever needed an ice pick...

[Youngian]

I hope this is wrong.

Why? Cummings is a flaming kamikaze who is one of the main reasons the Tories are where they now are.

[mattomac]

Well looking at this you’d assume they have someone terrible advising them.

[Yug]

I couldn't decide which bits to highlight, so here's the whole thing...

Life moves fast when you’re Rishi Sunak. On Tuesday, he insisted he was not going to be bounced into making a quick decision on HS2. Within 24 hours he was standing up at Conservative party conference heralding a new transport network.

Not only did he scrap HS2 north of Birmingham, dismissing it as “the ultimate example of the old consensus”, but he had somehow found time to sign off a 40-page prospectus for Network North. Subtitle: Transforming British Transport.

Though no one could possibly believe the document was actually drawn up during a conference all-nighter, it did bear all the hallmarks of something rustled up in a hurry. And some of the things Sunak has said since have illustrated a significant lack of understanding of the realities of transport in the north of England and/or a forgetfulness around what he or his predecessors had already announced.

Here are 10 dodgy bits in and around the Network North announcement:

1 – The front-page map of the prospectus seems to relocate Manchester to Preston.

2 – It says new funding to Greater Manchester could mean the Metrolink tram network being extended to Manchester airport. The airport link opened in 2014.

3 – Labour analysis of Sunak’s promises found 85% had already been promised or committed to during the Conservatives’ 13-year reign.

4 – In a promotional video to promote Network North, Sunak said he would quadruple the number of trains between Sheffield and Leeds. As the travel journalist Simon Calder pointed out, there are already five an hour each way, and so Sunak appeared to be promising 20 trains an hour – one every three minutes – which would essentially turn the route into a tube line. Great news for God’s own county! Alas, it seems the prime minister failed to read the small print of Network North, which promised to increase the number of fast trains between these two Yorkshire cities to three or four an hour.

5 – After Sunak’s speech on Wednesday, the government issued a list of projects to which it was committed. One of these read: “The Leamside line, closed in 1964, will also be reopened.” Come Thursday morning, the promise to reinstate the 21-mile route in County Durham had mysteriously disappeared from the Network North prospectus. The transport minister Richard Holden told the local democracy reporting service the government was now only “committed to looking into it”.

6 – Sunak has a very elastic definition of the “north”, with Network North promising to improve rail connections to Plymouth, which is 250 miles from Crewe – the Cheshire town that many people see as the gateway to the north of England.

7 – Speaking of Crewe, it went from being a key hub on HS2 to being probably the biggest loser of the cancellation debacle. This once great railway town is mentioned only in passing in Network North, when there is talk of £1bn investment in the north Wales main line, which starts in Crewe.

8 – There is little in Network North about creating new capacity on the chockablock west coast main line north of Birmingham, particularly the Castlefield corridor into Manchester, which is classed by Network Rail as “officially congested”. According to Craig Browne, the deputy leader of Cheshire East council, “the rail journey from Crewe to Manchester on the west coast main line is mostly two tracks [one in each direction], which means you can only go at the speed of the slowest train.” HS2 was supposed to take the fastest intercity services off the main line, freeing up space for far more local stopping services.

9 – Bristol – which is north of Devon and Cornwall and not a lot else in England – also had its opportunities snatched away with a quick swipe of the delete key. On Wednesday, government documents promised “£100m for a mass transit system for Bristol to revolutionise travel in and around Bristol”. On Thursday, that pledge had vanished. It appeared to have been replaced with a broader pledge to give the West of England combined authority £100m, which it could spend on various things in their region.

10 – Network North committed to upgrading the A259 from Bognor Regis to that well-known northern city of Southampton, but on Thursday ministers admitted they actually meant Littlehampton, 45 miles away.

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... nouncement

It is plain that the stupid fucking lying cunt, and the stupid fucking cunts in supporting roles, have zero clue.

[RandomElement]

I couldn't decide which bits to highlight, so here's the whole thing...

Life moves fast when you’re Rishi Sunak. On Tuesday, he insisted he was not going to be bounced into making a quick decision on HS2. Within 24 hours he was standing up at Conservative party conference heralding a new transport network.

Not only did he scrap HS2 north of Birmingham, dismissing it as “the ultimate example of the old consensus”, but he had somehow found time to sign off a 40-page prospectus for Network North. Subtitle: Transforming British Transport.

Though no one could possibly believe the document was actually drawn up during a conference all-nighter, it did bear all the hallmarks of something rustled up in a hurry. And some of the things Sunak has said since have illustrated a significant lack of understanding of the realities of transport in the north of England and/or a forgetfulness around what he or his predecessors had already announced.

Here are 10 dodgy bits in and around the Network North announcement:

1 – The front-page map of the prospectus seems to relocate Manchester to Preston.

2 – It says new funding to Greater Manchester could mean the Metrolink tram network being extended to Manchester airport. The airport link opened in 2014.

3 – Labour analysis of Sunak’s promises found 85% had already been promised or committed to during the Conservatives’ 13-year reign.

4 – In a promotional video to promote Network North, Sunak said he would quadruple the number of trains between Sheffield and Leeds. As the travel journalist Simon Calder pointed out, there are already five an hour each way, and so Sunak appeared to be promising 20 trains an hour – one every three minutes – which would essentially turn the route into a tube line. Great news for God’s own county! Alas, it seems the prime minister failed to read the small print of Network North, which promised to increase the number of fast trains between these two Yorkshire cities to three or four an hour.

5 – After Sunak’s speech on Wednesday, the government issued a list of projects to which it was committed. One of these read: “The Leamside line, closed in 1964, will also be reopened.” Come Thursday morning, the promise to reinstate the 21-mile route in County Durham had mysteriously disappeared from the Network North prospectus. The transport minister Richard Holden told the local democracy reporting service the government was now only “committed to looking into it”.

6 – Sunak has a very elastic definition of the “north”, with Network North promising to improve rail connections to Plymouth, which is 250 miles from Crewe – the Cheshire town that many people see as the gateway to the north of England.

7 – Speaking of Crewe, it went from being a key hub on HS2 to being probably the biggest loser of the cancellation debacle. This once great railway town is mentioned only in passing in Network North, when there is talk of £1bn investment in the north Wales main line, which starts in Crewe.

8 – There is little in Network North about creating new capacity on the chockablock west coast main line north of Birmingham, particularly the Castlefield corridor into Manchester, which is classed by Network Rail as “officially congested”. According to Craig Browne, the deputy leader of Cheshire East council, “the rail journey from Crewe to Manchester on the west coast main line is mostly two tracks [one in each direction], which means you can only go at the speed of the slowest train.” HS2 was supposed to take the fastest intercity services off the main line, freeing up space for far more local stopping services.

9 – Bristol – which is north of Devon and Cornwall and not a lot else in England – also had its opportunities snatched away with a quick swipe of the delete key. On Wednesday, government documents promised “£100m for a mass transit system for Bristol to revolutionise travel in and around Bristol”. On Thursday, that pledge had vanished. It appeared to have been replaced with a broader pledge to give the West of England combined authority £100m, which it could spend on various things in their region.

10 – Network North committed to upgrading the A259 from Bognor Regis to that well-known northern city of Southampton, but on Thursday ministers admitted they actually meant Littlehampton, 45 miles away.

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... nouncement

It is plain that the stupid fucking lying cunt, and the stupid fucking cunts in supporting roles, have zero clue.

The A259 doesn't even go to Southampton. It starts North of Hayling Island at Emsworth. The money would be better spent upgrading the A27 East of Chichester which has a lot of roundabouts and runs parallel to the A259 only a few miles away.
The money would be even better spent upgrading the Southampton to Brighton Line which really slow.

[davidjay]

If this lot don't get their arses kicked from here to there and back again at the next election we need to look at repealing the Reform Act because people clearly can't be trusted with the vote.

[Bones McCoy]

If this lot don't get their arses kicked from here to there and back again at the next election we need look at repealing the Reform Act because people clearly can't be trusted with the vote.

I was thinking the same as their conference progressed.
Anything short of a Conservative defeat says something extremely ugly about the mindset of this nation.

[Boiler]

Just look away from this particular echo chamber to any place that allows political discussion across all parties.

It is not nice.

[Abernathy]

I hope this is wrong.

Why? Cummings is a flaming kamikaze who is one of the main reasons the Tories are where they now are.

Actually, I find it quite plausible that Sunak may well have turned to Cummings for ideas on how to fight the coming election.

Cummings specialises in division. In setting voter against voter. His record bears this out: the 2016 referendum Leave campaign. The 2019 election campaign. Both of these were about setting up demons and mobilising and exploiting hatred and/or fear/distaste against them.

I think that what Cummings may have advised Sunak is that his only route to success, or at any rate to avoiding total meltdown, at the election is to try to establish a number of dividing lines, or "wedge issues" between the Tories and Labour. Sunak, in despair at having nothing else in the bag, has seized on this as a drowning man seizes a lifebelt.

Hence, we have Sunak now propagating a series of those wedge issues: Soft-pedalling on progress toward milestones to achieve net zero . A new license to drill in the North Sea Rosebank oil field. The supposed "war on motorists". A fucking meat tax, for pity's sake. And the most outrageous of all, the abandonment of the northern phase of the HS2 project.

It's the only club in Sunak's bag. And I think it's completely plausible that it was Cummings that put it there.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Poisoning the well also seems Cummingsesque.

[Boiler]

Yes, further to that redistribution of monies from HS2:

upload_2023-10-6_10-31-12.png (252.61 KiB) Viewed 3301 times

"East Anglia" was published on the 4th of October and "East of England" was the revised document published on the 5th of October.


Wasn't it also Cummings who used the phrase "salting the Earth so nothing grows" in one of his tedious Substacks?

[mattomac]

Just look away from this particular echo chamber to any place that allows political discussion across all parties.

It is not nice.

Empty vessels.

It's like Tory Mps going around saying there is no desire for Starmer, why would you say that to a Tory on the doorstep, if I was emailing my local MP Ed Davey, I'd try and be as none committal as possible on what I really thought as a Labour member but I know he can do stuff for me.

The only people giving them the time of day currently are their core vote and people who know it's good to waste the time of a canvasser.

Anyone else will be saying "no thanks" or enter into a rant, they aren't in the middle of it going to go "oh yeah your great and I hate Starmer but this this and this...but".

Though one who was parroting that was Dorries and we know she hasn't canvassed in about 2 years.

[Abernathy]

Though one who was parroting that was Dorries and we know she hasn't canvassed ever.

FTFY.

[Yug]

I'm not sure whether this is satire or Nostrodamus-style prediction

HS2 – model of a shrinking railway. The Stephen Collins cartoon...

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... ns-cartoon

[Andy McDandy]

Last time I saw a Tory canvasser was 2015 in my mum's constituency of Stourbridge. He shoved a leaflet through the door and ran as I came to open it.

I recognised him too - he was a local councillor and father of a guy I was with at school. I remember him frequently ranting about black and Asian people and sending them back.

Must say, he could move for a 70 year old.

[satnav]

Whilst still refusing to be interviewed by Channel 4 news and Andrew Neil, Sunak did find time today to appear on This Morning to be quizzed by those two hard nosed political journalists, Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary.