Sunak kills the Northern Powerhouse.

Oreo

I listened to what Sunak had to say about HS2 today and what money would be used for instead in helping northern places.
I think I’ve changed my mind about HS2 now as long as the money’s spent well connecting northern towns and cities, also improved buses in rural areas.HS2 shouldn’t even have been started, the money could have been better spent locally from the start.They have to start doing things really soon tho or nobody will believe it’ll ever happen.

Of course it should never have been started but whom do we have to thank for that? Partygate Johnson. He of the Garden Bridge, the airport on the Thames estuary and the bridge or tunnel to Northern Ireland.

I listened to what Sunak had to say about HS2 today and what money would be used for instead in helping northern places.
I think I’ve changed my mind about HS2 now as long as the money’s spent well connecting northern towns and cities, also improved buses in rural areas.HS2 shouldn’t even have been started, the money could have been better spent locally from the start.They have to start doing things really soon tho or nobody will believe it’ll ever happen.

Glorianny

I suspect Freya (^NE bottom half^) is somewhere is the Middlesborough/ Teeside area where transport links are abysmal. In fact from Hull northwards there's no real infrastructure, things don't improve until you get to Newcastle.

No even lower, so low down the chain, not many people have heard of it. Still we're doing a grand job with the wind powerhouse, but still no direct links to anywhere. Oh a direct link to Schipol, used by many business people. HS2 would have come nowhere near here. Our MP has been fighting for years to get a direct link to London, without any success.No I will not be voting Tory because of this. In fact there is nothing to choose between either of the two main parties anymore.

DH tells me that there will be £10.6 billion to pay in HS2 cancellation fees. This, he says, was in The Times.

Casdon

Iam64

Freya5

AGAA4

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.

Manchester is a main station hub. It will not lose out due to cancelling HS2. Look how many trains travel the country from there. Unlike us, the very much forgotten NE, bottom half,that no one bothers about, we would have had no difference with that train. We can't even get a straight through to London, let alone anywhere else. Manchester even destroyed our direct link to the airport. So sorry if I shed no tears over this.

Divide and rule alive and well then, set one region against another despite so many shared concerns
How did ‘Manchester’ destroy your link to (which) airport

There’s a direct train from Newcastle to London Freya5, which takes the same time to get there as it does from Manchester.

It puzzled me, Casdon, because I the East Coast main line does frequent direct trains daily from London to Edinburgh, and the reverse, stopping at many places on the way, including York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. I've travelled in both directions many, many times over 40+ years.

P.S This is a nationalised line and gives great satisfaction...

MaizieD

^We can't even get a straight through to London, let alone anywhere else.^

Well, that's odd, Freya. I've lived in the NE for almost 40 years and I've always been able to get a train straight through to London, or Edinburgh, come to that.

Whereas travelling across country is not quite so simple.

I think Freya might mean the Eart Riding and Humberside which I referred to in another post. You could not get a straight train from Hull to York, Newcastle or Edinburgh when I lived there.

Casdon, exactly, it’s a pity to set northern regions against each other. We’re all facing the impact of austerity and lack of investment

Glorianny

I suspect Freya (^NE bottom half^) is somewhere is the Middlesborough/ Teeside area where transport links are abysmal. In fact from Hull northwards there's no real infrastructure, things don't improve until you get to Newcastle.

Much like Wrexham, Chester etc. if that’s the case Glorianny. Everybody thinks their issues are worse than for other people, when the reality is pretty dire for the majority in the north, and in Wales.

I suspect Freya (^NE bottom half^) is somewhere is the Middlesborough/ Teeside area where transport links are abysmal. In fact from Hull northwards there's no real infrastructure, things don't improve until you get to Newcastle.

Agree with WW2 it’s all unicorns; pie in the sky; flying pigs. Like Johnson’s 40 new hospitals! Sunak knows he can promise billions of £s of new rail infrastructure in the North … because he knows he’ll never deliver it. We’ll have to put up with a year of this gaslighting before the General Election!

Whitewavemark2

I do like the idea of the smoking plan though. People like Mogg, Truss etc will be appalled.

I hope Labour pick that up and run with it.

I only heard the end of his speech. Did he say anything about vaping? There’s no point stopping smoking if people are just going to vape, and vaping draws in young people that would never have smoked cigarettes.

Iam64

Freya5

AGAA4

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.

Manchester is a main station hub. It will not lose out due to cancelling HS2. Look how many trains travel the country from there. Unlike us, the very much forgotten NE, bottom half,that no one bothers about, we would have had no difference with that train. We can't even get a straight through to London, let alone anywhere else. Manchester even destroyed our direct link to the airport. So sorry if I shed no tears over this.

Divide and rule alive and well then, set one region against another despite so many shared concerns
How did ‘Manchester’ destroy your link to (which) airport

There’s a direct train from Newcastle to London Freya5, which takes the same time to get there as it does from Manchester.

Apparently there is no plan for the Sunak’s announcement re the north infrastructure.

It isn’t going to happen.

People have also mentioned that the housing crises has had zero mention.

It's just disgraceful, after all the disruption, another broken promise, a job half done. Who could really believe that 'the money' will be spent on local improvements? Half a job isn't cost effective. So, now we can get to Birmingham fast - but who wants to?

Sunak gave the speech of his life. Starmer will need to up his game or the GE will be much closer fought than the polls presently suggest.

DaisyAnneReturns

Your glad the Northern Powerhouse will be killed off Cabowich?

I don't think it will be killed off at all, whatever the Northern Powerhouse actually means. I'm just so pleased that this part of the white elephant has been abandoned, and hope the rest of it is, too.

There is going to be a lot of money poured into improving east/west links in the North, which is where it is really needed (and HS2 was never going to solve that problem). I just wanted a major overhaul of existing trains and their infrastructure, not yet more destruction of our precious natural landscape.

I don't want to see a worsening North/South divide (I am a Northerner, after all) but HS2 was not the instrument to solve this dilemma and I am just so damned happy Sunak has seen sense at last. I was getting very annoyed with him this week for keeping everyone dangling, though.

No announcement into a proper look at where it's gone so far.

so it's now been cancelled.. bet the money saved doesn't go anywhere near the North

millennials

I think he's just lost the millennial.

I do like the idea of the smoking plan though. People like Mogg, Truss etc will be appalled.

I hope Labour pick that up and run with it.

He enunciated well.

Quote from a Tory MP.

“The only thing worse than a white elephant, is half a one”

It is all unicorns of course.

How can you trust a government to deliver anything when they don’t complete anything they’ve promised, from roads to rail to new hospitals to protecting our borders.

Nothing Sunak has announced today will come to fruition.

Freya5

AGAA4

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.

Manchester is a main station hub. It will not lose out due to cancelling HS2. Look how many trains travel the country from there. Unlike us, the very much forgotten NE, bottom half,that no one bothers about, we would have had no difference with that train. We can't even get a straight through to London, let alone anywhere else. Manchester even destroyed our direct link to the airport. So sorry if I shed no tears over this.

Divide and rule alive and well then, set one region against another despite so many shared concerns
How did ‘Manchester’ destroy your link to (which) airport