IT is looking increasingly likely that the Conservative government will scrap the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the high speed railway HS2. In November 2021, the government in Westminster scrapped the eastern leg of the new rail line, which would have connected Leeds with London. If the western leg to Manchester is also scrapped, the line will terminate in Birmingham, making the entire project, which has already cost an estimated £40 billion, essentially useless.
The original budget for the entire project – including the now-cancelled connection to Leeds and the link to Manchester – was set at £30 billion when it was first proposed in 2010. If the line to Manchester still goes ahead, the cost of the line could reach as much as £100 billion – over three times the originally projected cost.
READ MORE: ITV report claims removal of peak rail fares in Scotland 'funded by UK Government'
The connection from Old Oak Common in north west London to Euston was paused by ministers earlier this year. If this connection is cancelled along with the line to Manchester, the Conservatives will have spent £40 billion of public money on a railway line from Birmingham to an outer suburb of North London, forcing passengers to change on to local trains or the London Underground in order to complete their journey into central London, a journey which takes over half an hour. This would negate any advantage gained by a faster journey time into Birmingham – and add the hassle of changing trains.
A trip from Euston to Birmingham on HS2 is expected to take 52 minutes, compared to the one hour and 21 minutes it currently takes. If the Oak Common to Euston link is not finished, the trip will still take about an hour and twenty minutes, thus rendering the entire project a useless waste of £40 billion.
These figures put the Scottish media's obsession with the ferries into perspective.
The Tory Party conference
Since the Conservative Party conference is currently taking place in Manchester in, irony of ironies, a venue converted from an abandoned train station, Sunak and his ministers are loath to announce the cancellation of the Manchester line while they are still in the city. Perhaps we should expect an announcement when they are safely back in London, which the train-phobic Sunak can reach from Manchester in about an hour by his favourite mode of transport: private helicopter.
If this ruinously expensive farce proves anything, it's that Scotland can never expect anything in terms of public transport infrastructure from the Westminster government.
If what is, from a Scottish point of view, the far southern edge of the North of England can't get a high speed railway line of the kind that are proliferating all over Europe, Scotland has no chance at all. With Westminster, we are always going to remain at the far end of a run down branch line.
Labour's petulant politics
Following intense criticism of its decision to close down dozens of leisure centres, Labour-controlled North Lanarkshire council has done a U-turn. Labour, of course, blamed the SNP for the decision to close down the centres, proving yet again that for the Labour Party the primary function of the devolution settlement is to act as a mechanism for transferring the blame for Conservative budget cuts onto the SNP-led Scottish Government.
Labour constantly demands that the Scottish Government spend extra money out of its fixed budget in order to mitigate the damage caused by Conservative government decisions, but never says which other parts of the Scottish Government budget should be cut back in order to find the money.
Then, when the inevitable cuts are made, Labour whine about SNP cuts – as though the SNP were responsible for the total size of the Scottish budget. They imply that the SNP is cutting budgets for ideological reasons and not because it is being forced to do so – because it's a Tory government at Westminster which sets the Scottish block grant and the devolution settlement which puts severe limits on the ability of the Scottish Government to raise its own funds.
It's the politics of childish petulance.
Conservative conspiracies
If you needed further evidence that the Conservatives cannot be trusted with either public transport or the environment, look no further than the woeful performance of Scottish Tory MP Andrew Bowie during an interview with BBC journalist Evan Davis on BBC Radio 4's PM programme on Monday evening.
Bowie (above) described the concept of 15-minute cities – proposals that urban development should aim to make necessary shops and services available within a 15-minute walk, bicycle ride, or public transport trip of the great majority of residents – as a "sinister" development, apparently referencing a widespread right-wing conspiracy theory.
Bowie said of the concept: "I think people are worried that this is an infringement on their liberties, on their freedoms, on their ability to choose where they go to access services, to access what they need."
A responsible politician should be debunking such arrant nonsense, not lending it credence. But then this is Andrew Bowie we are talking about here.
The concept of 15-minute cities is not about imposing anything on anyone, it's about the priorities which urban planning authorities should bear in mind when considering future developments. It’s about how cities should aim to reduce the dependency on cars, with the pollution and congestion that they bring, and instead strive to create more pleasant and livable spaces.
Bowie coming out with this conspiracy theory guff is a sign of just how far down the rabbit hole of extreme right-wing delusion the Tory party has gone.
This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.
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