Despite the fact it’s only Tuesday there seems little chance anyone will come out with anything as supremely idiotic as the Hs2 Action Alliance have managed to do with this tweet!

Devoid of all fact & knowledge of the steel industry, it’s a superb example of the intellectual bankruptcy of the anti Hs2 campaign.

The Thai owned Redcar plant is our last steelworks? That will come as a shock to Indian owned Tata Steel and their workers who are busy making steel at Scunthorpe in North Lincolnshire and Port Talbot in South Wales. Not to mention their plants in Tostre, Llanwern, Shotton, Rotherham, Stocksbridge, Motherwell and Teeside…

Then again, what do a few privileged Chiltern Nimbys (because that’s who Hs2aa are) know about the steel industry? Or anywhere outside their own little bubble in Bucks for that matter.

Apparently, according to what everyone believes these brand new steel rails being installed at Watford Junction were NOT made by TATA steel at Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire (where all UK steel rails are made) because according the HS2AA the plant doesn’t exist!

Roping in Redcar to their campaign to Stophs2 is breathtakingly hypocritical of them as one of the reasons the plant is being mothballed is a lack of orders for the steel it produces. A situation that could be vastly improved when the construction of Hs2 begins as the project will be using enormous quantities of steel products. If you really want to help UK steel producers, the last thing you want to do is cancel the largest construction project in the UK & Europe.

Their other claim that “Osborne offers £11bn to China” is equally idiotic & dishonest. China hasn’t been offered anything more than the opportunity to bid for Hs2 contracts – just like everyone else. There’s no guarantees the Chinese will even bid – never mind win. There’s also the inconvenient fact EU rules forbid what Hs2aa claim . But hey, why let the facts get in the way of a bit of good old fashioned scaremongering eh?

What this rubbish shows is how desperate anti Hs2 campaigners have become. All pretense of reasoned argument has been dropped in a last ditch attempt to lash out at a project they know they can’t stop. Still, they will provide one useful lesson for future campaigners. Don’t run a media campaign that’s based on bullshit.

2023 Update.

Hardly unexpected, but it wasn’t the British steel industry that collapsed it was Chiltern Nimby group HS2aa! This was one of their last tweets as the group gave up completely in June 2016. Meanwhile, UK steel plants and factories around the country have been kept busy providing materials used in the construction of HS2 which began in earnest in 2020.

As for the Chinese building HS2, that was bullshit too. The Chinese have no involvement in any HS2 construction contracts. They are one of several bidders for a (£300m) contract for the overhead wire installation on HS2 phase 1 but that contract has yet to be awarded.

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