The widespread derision that greeted Sunak’s plan to fool people that by scrapping phase 2 of HS2 he suddenly had £36bn to spend on some wonderful and well-thought out new initiatives wasn’t what he was expecting. But when you’re as out of touch with the real world as multi-millionaire Sunak is – that’s not really that surprising.

Some sections of the media, both right and left, smelled a rat and – aided by people on Twitter who did the digging for them a slew of stories appeared, illustrating that some of these projects already existed whilst others were ones that had been sitting on drawing boards for years, were already in the pipeline or had already been rejected/cancelled by previous Tory PMs – the ‘new’ Bradford station being a classic example.

Useless Transport Minister Mark Harper and his sidekick Hugh Merriman were trotted out with Yorkshire leaders to pretend that there was suddenly £2bn to spend on a new station at Bradford. In truth it was no more than a cheap PR stunt which local leaders allowed themselves to be dragged into. There is no £2bn. There are no costed plans for such a station. there’s no planning permission, no land acquisition, no public enquiry or any of the other formalities required before anything actually happens. There’s more chance of me winning the lottery than anything remotely useful happening before the next general election, but the fiction has to be maintained in the hope of keeping a few Tory votes. For Bradford, it’s always ‘jam tomorrow’.

Harper managed to look even more stupid yesterday. After a number of impossible schemes in the ‘Network North’ report were pulled from the official website, Harper claimed in an interview that the schemes that had disappeared weren’t real commitments to do things (no shit!) they were just ‘examples’ of what could be done – with money that doesn’t exist! That’s not what Sunak had said, but then everything Sunak had said was a lie anyway.

I keep banging on about this but it’s important to understand why the £36bn claim is such an outrageous lie.

HS2 phase 2 was due to be constructed between 2023 and 2035, with services starting between then and 2041. That meant spending would be spread out over nearly two decades with peaks and troughs during that time depending on the intensity of construction or fit-out work. There is NO pot of money sat in the Treasury labelled “for HS2” that’s just waiting to be spent on other things. The vast majority of the money hasn’t even been properly budgeted for or even borrowed yet! Governments borrow money depending on the needs of regular spending reviews. Right now, that money doesn’t exist. You don’t borrow money needed in 2033 in 2023 (never mind money needed even later) as you haven’t even worked out how much you’ll actually need. All you really have is a forecast. They’re projections, not actual costings – or cash.

There is no £36bn. It’s a projection, a possible future budget, not real money in the here and now.

Sadly, a lot of the public have no idea of the reality here, and part of that blame lies with the media, who are woeful at telling people the truth. There’s a number of reasons for that. Part is laziness, part’s pressure to churn out stuff and damn the truth – and part is deliberate misinformation from ‘client’ journalists who’re really just mouthpieces for the Government – and say what they’re told to. Especially if the outlet they work for happens to be one owned by certain millionare media ‘tycoons’ who use their ownership of newspapers and TV channels to further their own personal/political agendas. That said, some journo’s working on left of centre outlets aren’t averse to spinning a story to fit a misguided ‘green’ agenda.

The end result is the same. Joe Public is woefully misinformed on subjects like HS2 – either by accident or design.

Here’s an example from today. A newspaper from those well-known ‘Northern’ counties – Devon and Cornwall – published this piece on the Camelford by-pass, entitled ‘Camelford bypass set to benefit from HS2 cancellation funding”

Wow! Camelford is going to get a new bypass now, eh? No. Of course not. A local Cllr put the story right on Twitter.

Wait! What? There’s *already* an outline business case?

Yes. It was originally submitted in 2019 and refined in 2022. It’s been sitting on civil servants/ministers desks since then. And is doesn’t need money from HS2 either. The ‘Atlantic Highway Camelford Improvement’ is eligible for money from an existing budget, as the report mentions:

“The Department for Transport (DfT) has made the A39 a part of the Major Road Network. This means we can apply for funding from the current 5-year national roads programme (2020 – 2025)”.

You’re being lied to – again.

This is classic delay tactics by Ministers. Want to make it like like you’re doing something whilst you’re actually doing nothing? Simple, just commission another study or ‘review’ and kick the can even further down the road. Plus, it means no-one actually has to pony-up the money they don’t have and just lied about! Plus, remember the small print of page 24 of that piece of crap ‘Network North’ Sunak laughably claims is a plan;

“As usual, individual projects referenced in this document will be subject to the approval of business cases“.

I’m going to end on a slightly brighter note. Labour have opened their conference in Liverpool and some of the ideas they’re putting forward are going to make a few Tories nervous (and hopefully, criminals).

Firstly, Labour have said that when they form the next Governement they’ll appoint a Covid corruption commissioner to claw back some of the £bns that went missing on dodgy PPE and unworkable systems like ‘track and trace’.

Secondly, they’ll revisit the planning laws. Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged to “rebuild Britain”, including by speeding up the planning process for key infrastructure projects – such as railways, including HS2 and whatever survives from the mess the Tories call ‘Network North’. Plus, a motion calling for the HS2 high speed rail line to be built in full was backed by Labour delegates.

Labour are starting to look like a party preparing to take power, which is excellent news. Maybe the future’s not so gloomy after all…

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