Tories Come Off The Rails

[douglas9401]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66998692

 

Good luck you gritty northern lot, now get that red wall sorted.

[jno]

rail plans dropped - South cut off

[barry1010]

I'm very disappointed by this decision - the new line wasn't really about shaving a few minutes off the journey but to increase capacity, especially for freight.  

Once again it is the south that benefits from the billions already spent. 

[10ClarionSt]

I think it was a waste of public money. What was the planned outcome? Cut 20 minutes off a Manchester to London journey? Is it really worth all that money just for that? 

However, I'm not at all surprised that a Tory govt would do this. This is an insult to the North. Sunak just lost all the red wall seats and more besides.

[Zacs-Master]

There will be people who's house values would...........

sorry, I lost my train of thought. 

[Canary42]

The Runaway Train (Tory version)

 

T'was in the year of '23 
on that old High Speed 2 line, 
When the winter wind was blowin' shrill, 
The Tories were froze, 
the winds were rough, 
the funds they weren’t enough,
And Number 10 came 
roaring down the hill. 

The runaway train came down 
the track and she blew, 
The runaway train came down 
the track and she blew, 
The runaway train came 
down the track, 
her whistle wide and her throttle back, 
And she blew, blew, blew, blew, blew. 

Young Rishi said the train must halt and she blew, 
Young Rishi said the train must halt and she blew, 
Young Rishi said the train must halt, 
he said it was all someone else’s fault, 
And she blew, blew, blew, blew, blew. 

The fireman said 
he rang the bell and she blew, 
The fireman said 
he rang the bell and she blew, 
The fireman said 
he rang the bell,
but Rishi said 
“he couldn’t tell”, 
And she blew, blew, blew, blew, blew. 

The Tories got an awful fright and she blew, 
The Tories got an awful fright and she blew, 
The Tories got an awful fright, 
they got so scared they went all white, 
And she blew, blew, blew, blew, blew. 

The Press all said there'd be a wreck and she blew, 
The Press all said there'd be a wreck and she blew, 
The Press all said there'd be a wreck and 
they felt the chills run down their neck, 
And she blew, blew, blew, blew, blew. 

The runaway train went over the hill and she blew, 
The runaway train went over the hill and she blew, 
The runaway train 
went off the track
and  the last we heard 
it was all the fault of Sunak, 
'Cos he's Blue Blue Blue Blue Blue.

With acknowledgement and apologies to; Ian J Watts/Mike Wilbury

 

[naomi24]

The people in the north have rather more than a rail line to consider when they next go to the polling station.

[ichkeria]

It would be hard to overstate just what a bad look this is for the Tories north of Birmingham.

Announced in Manchester of all places without any local consultation. 
And the BBC knew about it before many ministers including the hapless Michelle Donallan.

Have the conservatives given up? Suella Braverman's speech sounded like a bid to be leader of the opposition, where she can continue to rant from the other benches without actually having to do anything.

Maybe the Tories gave up when they made Lee Anderson chairman: he comes across as a character actor playing Mr Nasty

[Zacs-Master]

Let's wait and see what tax benefits the cancellation will bring, for there will surely be some promised. 

[ichkeria]

People are funny though: if you promise something in three manifestos and then you take it away, it can be a hard thing to sell, regardless of any possible compensations. Because the headline is still "Tories abandon northern rail link" and you can be sure it'll be milked to death on the doorsteps.

[Zacs-Master]

The GenPub don't think that deeply, Ich. They see jam tomorrow and that's as deep as their political awareness goes. 

[THECORBYLOON]

ZACS, I think TORATORATORA would say they would not be promises.

 

They might be, aims, endeavours, objectives, goals, ambitions, hopes, dreams, wishes, desires etc but not promises.

[douglas9401]

Man of the match so far TCL. 😉

[Zacs-Master]

'Promises' is what the seething masses will hear, tho. 

[ichkeria]

I think if it is in a manifesto three times that constitutes a promise. You don't need to think that deeply when your local labour candidate is reminding you about them, either.

They don't televise these conferences any more do they? I think the Conservatives should be grateful for that :-)

 

[mushroom25]

// Once again it is the south that benefits from the billions already spent. //

i'm not sure that even the south will benefit, unless what's left of the scheme is larger than what MSM are portraying this morning. what the press are saying we're left with, is a shuttle line between Ealing and Aston in Birmingham, with pretty much no useful connections outside that network. anyone using HS2 to travel north of Birmingham will need to take a 20mn walk from Curzon Street to New Street, there to change to a massively overcrowded crosscountry train to Manchester (they already run full and standing end-to-end, all day, every day).

[Zacs-Master]

I blame Beeching

[douglas9401]

The levelling down project continues apace.

What next? Oxen carts and open sewers?

[naomi24]

//They don't televise these conferences any more do they? //

 

Do they not?  BBC Parliament seems to be doing something.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0081m9v

[jourdain2]

I love jno's answer - there was once a newsppaper headline about 'fog in the Channel - Europe cut off!' wasn't there?

Well, I'm a Northerner.  I never wanted HS2 in the 1st place - if it  had to happen it should have  started in Leeds & gone to Brum.

 We sometimes go for a walk along bits of the old Hull to York railway line - axed by Beeching I believe. No direct Hull to Leeds rail-link that I know of.

The main A64 Leeds to York to coast is almost all single carriageway past York (and a lot of it York to Leeds as well) and you end up trapped behind tractors and with huge back-ups where the few miles of dual carriageway end.

Also, what about Newcastle?  Should be high-speed Newcastle/Leeds/Brum/London really.

Don't get me started on York/Leeds/Manchester/Liverpool  trains -- - massively overcrowded and erratic.

If there are proposals to sort out the East - West links then I don't think the Red Wall will be upset.

 

 

[ichkeria]

Four years ago this December the Conservatives were celebrating an 80 seat majority and Boris Johnson appeared to be the king of all he surveyed politically. Full of Big Ideas and Promises.

I know an 80 seat majority isn't quite the 170 Blair landslide majority of 1997, and there has been the aftermath of Brexit, a pandemic and a war in Europe in the years since, but if you were a schoolteacher marking the last four years there wouldn't be too many A pluses handed out.