Few people, if anyone at all, voted in the Scottish referendum based on their view of HS2 – and we wouldn’t have asked them to.
However, it was clear in the run-up to the vote, and in the comments on twitter afterwards, that a number of Scottish voters view HS2 as an English project that they are having to pay for.
Stop buying luxury goods folks we have to pay for HS2 & London Sewers. We had earmarked it for welfare & bedroomtax help but that’s doomed.
— John (@RadioGuyGlasgow) September 19, 2014
But it’s not just Scottish voters who are angry about having to pay for HS2.
From the West Country
Can we have #indyref 4whole UK 2gain independence from London instead? HS2 hammer blow 4 #Devon & #Cornwall economy | http://t.co/ASSNylIk2q
— Jill (@Eglantine99) September 19, 2014
to East Anglia
@David_Cameron All we want in East ANGLIA is to have fast broadband, 3G and control! Give Norfolk/Suffolk their own money please. No to #HS2
— Darren Lewittino (@DarrenLewitt) September 19, 2014
people object to paying for a high speed train that not only goes nowhere near them, but will cause their local economies to shrink.
Spin started early Friday morning with Hague walking back on funding for Scotland. Peter and Paul were back. Cameron’s statement was to try the sideshow in the English. By evening Milliband being deemed the least effective. Brown and Darling and Murphy out shining others on presentation. The Queen rounded off the day with a lets be friends for Scotland and the Scottish. Constitution change had become the media and political focus to May 2015. Well time for the many people along the HS2 route to request a Scottish form of democracy with a referendum not the expropriation by 600 MPs for over 6 Million people but accountable for all the millions of road users. Cameron and Clegg continue the side shows whilst the Union is failing each week to be able to cope with demands on the roads and some rail services. HS2 simply not the transport solution to the English needs for better resilience and capacities. Coalition has no money and wants everyone to be nudged into another sideshow with the media and MPs boring the British whilst the nation stagnates.