It’s been hilarious to watch the remaining Hs2 antis fawning over Jacob Rees-Mogg MP. today. How did he become their latest poster boy? Well, Hs2 antis have been swooning over him since he appeared on BBC’s ‘Question Time’ last night. When questioned about public sector pay and where the money for increases could come from he said “HS2 would not be my priority for spending”

Antis immediately took to Twitter to praise him, suggesting that he would scrap Hs2.  Poor Penny Gaines from StopHs2 must have been in a paroxysm of delight. She watches the programme religiously, ready to tweet at any critical mention of HS2. She’s had thin gruel for some time now, so she was off like a rocket! Here’s some of the comments.

So, is Mogg a hardline anti Hs2 campaigner? No. He’s a backbench Tory who’ll say anything as he knows he’s never going to be in any position of influence or have to carry through what he says. He can just make stuff up to suit whatever his audience is at the time. What none of them bothered to do was check his voting record on Hs2, because if they did, they’d find he voted FOR not against building HS2 as this piece from the Evening Standard points out.

Mogg’s words are carefully chosen, but meaningless. It would not be ‘his priority’? Well, as it’s not his decision, who gives a stuff about his ‘priorities’? They no more matter than the ordinary man in the street. It’s not as if there’s going to be another vote on Hs2 phase 1 anyway, it’s a done deal and it’s being built. His constituency is NE Somerset, nowhere near Hs2. So the idea that a man who has a record for voting with his party 94% of the time is suddenly going to rebel when it comes to Phase 2 of Hs2 is about as likely as me winning the lottery.

Poor Hs2 antis, they’re desperate for any good news, but yet again, they’ve been had.

UPDATE: 5th February 2018.

My 2017 prediction that Mogg wouldn’t vote against his party (or Hs2) was proved to be correct. On January 30th the bill for building phase 2a of Hs2 got its second reading. Mogg voted for the bill, making fools out of both Hs2 antis and the Guido Fawkes blog, who published this rubbish last year.