Sunak kills the Northern Powerhouse.

All this is happening at a Conference where many members have already left for home seeing Sunak as an irrelevance.

If they had started up north they would never contemplate stopping HS2. They would have reach London whatever the cost. Just goes to show how the Conservatives view ‘the north’

Well I suppose he is. All eyes are now turned to the right wing populists behaving like overgrown school children. They are behaving as if they are already in opposition and are beginning to say the sort of outrageous stuff that they would normally never dare if they were part of a disciplined government.

I suppose this is what the future Tory party is going to look like. Trumpian, populist and divisive.

True MrsKen. I am still shocked by what Thatcher did to the North, and now this.

The New Aristocracy Whitewave. And an Aristocracy needs surfs. It appears he will looks out on the beautiful Pickering and sees "his" country. He certainly doesn't see it as the country of those for whom the North is, and always will be "home".

MrsKen33 is saying something we hear frequently here in ‘the north’. If HS2 had started in Manchester, there is no doubt it would have continued to London, no matter the cost.

Thatcher began the destruction of town and villages that built the Industrial Revolution. Mines, ship building, engineering factories all closed down with no attempt to rebuild with our infrastructures and create jobs.

Our public transport links are inadequate and expensive. I’d have much preferred HS2 not to have happened with the money invested in improving, modernising our rail and bus routes. To pull the plug on the Manchester link though, at this late stage is infuriating, insulting and wrong

Apparently this is to "flush out Labour", who still have about a year to wait for an election, so are holding their manifesto promises close to their chest. Sunak knows he is not safe, as we see from the dire polls.

Sunak will talk about 30 years of inertia. That's 30 years of five Conservative Prime Minister’s an two Labour one's.

It seems real "Leveling Up" in the Midlands and the North is to be sacrificed to the great god "Power".

And!

According to Sunak people in the North are second class citizens. He has demolished levelling up by cancelling HS2 to Manchester.
I hope the people in the north remember this when they go to vote at the next GE.

Not much has been said by the Liverpool and Manchester Mayors who are usually vociferous on behalf of their areas.
Do they know something we don't?
For years some people in the north have been shouting for better links between the Northern Cities West ,East and the towns that people commute from into these cities. Might these links be expanding and improved?

Iam64

MrsKen33 is saying something we hear frequently here in ‘the north’. If HS2 had started in Manchester, there is no doubt it would have continued to London, no matter the cost.

Thatcher began the destruction of town and villages that built the Industrial Revolution. Mines, ship building, engineering factories all closed down with no attempt to rebuild with our infrastructures and create jobs.

Our public transport links are inadequate and expensive. I’d have much preferred HS2 not to have happened with the money invested in improving, modernising our rail and bus routes. To pull the plug on the Manchester link though, at this late stage is infuriating, insulting and wrong

Great post Iam. I imagine many are feeling the same this morning.

Instead of pouring endless billions of money into the big black hs2 hole, they are going to spend on existing minor transport up north. I would rather that for my taxes any day and perhaps they can add on the sw while they are at it. It is the right thing to stop the hs2 money pit

I don’t know why anyone is really surprised. Right from the outset we were firm in our belief up here that it would never happen and guess what? The plans for anything east of Manchester were nebulous to say the least, and no surprise when they crashed and burned fairly early in the proceedings.

Greyduster

I don’t know why anyone is really surprised. Right from the outset we were firm in our belief up here that it would never happen and guess what? The plans for anything east of Manchester were nebulous to say the least, and no surprise when they crashed and burned fairly early in the proceedings.

I'm not sure anyone is surprised.

Having spent many an evening standing at Leeds station for a Liverpool train that either arrived full,not on time or not at all for my onward journey to Hull [the forgotten City] I hope the money is spent up north.
I wholly agree with Iam64.

The outrageous costs of HS2 arose from setting to high a speed requirement which required very straight track and too many tunnels to avoid upsetting Tory voters in the shires. £394m/mile for HS2 compared with about £40m/mile for the latest French TGV track.

karmalady

Instead of pouring endless billions of money into the big black hs2 hole, they are going to spend on existing minor transport up north. I would rather that for my taxes any day and perhaps they can add on the sw while they are at it. It is the right thing to stop the hs2 money pit

That is never going to happen.

HS2 was appalling planned and appalling managed. The east/west infrastructure was premised on thecHS2.

The problem is entitling the Tories hands.

DaisyAnneReturns

Greyduster

I don’t know why anyone is really surprised. Right from the outset we were firm in our belief up here that it would never happen and guess what? The plans for anything east of Manchester were nebulous to say the least, and no surprise when they crashed and burned fairly early in the proceedings.

I'm not sure anyone is surprised.

Why just east of Manchester? Services in, and to and from Wales are abysmal too, unless you want to travel from Cardiff to London. It’s a joke for the government to talk about levelling up.

Levelling up - another Tory failure.

Bella23

Having spent many an evening standing at Leeds station for a Liverpool train that either arrived full,not on time or not at all for my onward journey to Hull [the forgotten City] I hope the money is spent up north.
I wholly agree with Iam64.

Getting to Hull has been a problem since the 1960s.
No one ever thinks about East-West travel. It's all North-South.

That said up here in the NE we've long stopped expecting an improvement in services. We've started to take the contrary view. It's nice up here let's keep it that way and stop them southerners finding out about what they are missing. {Mind some of them keep turning up for holidays now. I blame Robson Green!)

I wonder what he'll do with all the money that he's "saved"?

What's the betting that we're about to see some blatant pork-barrelling- very generous grants and subsidies to every "red wall" constituency they won in 2019 for a start?

They should restart in the North, sort out all those links because if they stop the project now the money will just disappear..

I am so glad.

Now, please, can they scrap the bit from London to Birmingham?

All the ancient woodland, and other parts of the natural environment being dug up just to subtract a few minutes from the journey time.

Sunak's reasons for scrapping it don't gel with my reasons for never wanting it started in the first place, but I am so pleased that he has. Good for him.

I wonder what Labour would do with the London to Birmingham bit of HS2? They are staying remarkably quiet about this.

Your glad the Northern Powerhouse will be killed off Cabowich?