Great Western Coffee Shop

From Conservative Home (https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2018/07/gove-floats-scrapping-hs2-because-he-believes-it-to-be-a-policy-with-a-growing-appeal.html)

Good idea.

Hmmm. 'Local transport links in the Midlands and the North'.  When will any politician realise that there are equally large pockets of under investment in the South West.  >:(

What is the proportion of marginal constituencies in each of the areas though?  Much of the South West remains as Tory heartland, and it has been suggested that the only question asked by the faithful down here when asked to jump to support a party policy is "how high".  Looking to capture more influence and votes to return to an overall Tory majority ... the Midlands and the North are likely to be the most productive areas, as the South West is already in the bag apart from isolated pockets.

And the WCML is full, while the GWML is not.

The GWML, as the name implies, is not a local transport link. Meanwhile Bristol has a public transport infrastructure that would make a banana republic blush; and vast swathes of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall are still in a post-Beeching state of shock fifty-five years on. Yes there is some investment in this area, and it is welcome, but even that has been cut back; and at Portishead the simplest reopening with a watertight business case makes glacial progress.

Trouble is, given that it's Gove we're talking about, I suspect what he really has in mind is to scrap HS2 and not spent the money on anything at all..!

Swindon is marginal perhaps we should push for Swindon to Didcot 4 track now!

The point being is that a strategic link to the north is worth far more in GDP than any local transport links are in total, for the same expenditure

The only way we'll know that for sure is to build it and find out; until then that's an opinion, not a fact.

Another opinion is that HS2 will only serve to accelerate the process of hoovering up all the talent from The North, and that by investing in local links in the regions you could actually grow them to the point where they can make their own decisions and spend their own money, without the need to go careening down to London with a begging bowl every time they need five bob to mend a pothole.

So the lack of capacity to stop any services at Royal Wootton Bassett to the east of the junction that we've been told about, and the lack of paths from Swindon to Foxhall, are porkies we have been fed to help kick ideas into the long grass are they?   No capacity issues even when Crossrail is fully up and running between Paddington and Reading?

We're talking long distance here. I don't think HS2 will be stopping locally?....

Yes, we're talking about the merits of a non-stop line to the North versus local links, be they in the North or elsewhere. You say:


...which seems to imply that you think adding capacity to the WCML is a higher priority than adding capacity to the GWML - but we are blurring distinctions here because HS2 is supposed to free capacity on the WCML for more local traffic. In the end, and perhaps inevitably, we're just heading towards the same old debate about whether HS2's billions could be better spent elsewhere...

Yes, I think that's where others are trying to take this, agreed.

And I haven't yet seen any argument that tops the GDP argument...which this amount of monetary spend must involve, if only to stand a chance of recouping the investment.

|A similar argument to Plymouth's demand for a sub-3 hour journey time - to attract London0-ites to do business in the SW really, for those in the north overall, not just a small town in one county as mentioned above. THat amount of money has to be spent strategically, not on (n)imby projects.

I guess Gove's trying to appeal not only to marginals in the North and Midlands but to rural constituencies along the path who fear $house price cancer.

Personally, I feel that Gove knows that his idea of Brexit is going top lose the country so many £billions that he's trying to recoup some of these £billions and actually, when it comes down to the local investment(s), it/they won't actually happen.....

I think you've hit the nail very squarely on the head.

When there are marginal seats to be won.


The Gove cove, along with others, has to find £350 million per week from next March from somewhere.


I shall lend my name to your campaign! I was wondering what to do now Filton Bank is in the bag.

FT, N!


About the long and short of the matter, for sure.  That, or he's looking for a stick to beat the Prime Minister with again, before the proper time. He could buy BoJo off with postponement cancellation of the third runway at Heathrow, but he would win a few more friends with HS2, however many billions have been spent on it so far. Like new nuclear power stations, GWR electrification, Portishead railway, Channel Tunnel, and a whole lot more, it will get done one day, because it is needed, but the longer it gets put off, the more it will cost.

From politicians' point of view, the longer these projects get put off, the longer their building or cancellation can be used as electoral promises.  :o

HS2 isn't being put off - only yesterday, further progress was being made on stage 2A in parliament

More than that, shovels have hit dirt, just like at Hinkley C. It's happening, although of those two projects, HS2 is the better understood technology.

I am not convinced that HS2 will be built and just as a reminder didn't they start building the channel tunnel in 1974 and then stopped in 1975? And yes I know it was built 20 years later but that was a completely different project.
Anyway I believe that Gove is just angling to be the next leader of the Conservative Party as a lot of the party membership are against the project.

Or is he looking beyond that to be next Prime Minister?

Work on the Channel Tunnel actually began in 1875. An earlier plan, which produced an Act  of Parliament in 1802, was abandoned because of fear of Napoleon mounting an invasion.

And when the time comes, I am sure the Gove cove will reluctantly throw his hat into the ring, as soon as he has shafted BoJo.

Don't forget the 1880 attempt at a channel tunnel.

There is a lot of traction in the HS2 project; site clearance has commenced and the project will move quickly into the digging big holes and placing structure in the ground.

A lot of jobs Nationally involved in the supply of marital, equipment, labour etc will be lost if it stops, this alone could impact on the very constituencies Gove says he would spend some money.

You leave my marital equipment out of this!

;D  I so dislike auto spell checker

I thought it was spill chucker.

Well, if the oik joins the bumbling blond buffoon to oust Mrs May then HS2 scale back or cancellation, along with Heathrow 3rd runway being nixed, become much more likely.

It just depends in which direction Gove decides to micturate at the campsite.

My guess is all over BoJo, whether he is in the tent or not.