Daily Express - 23.08.2019

12 Daily Express Friday, August 23, 2019

DX1ST

SMOOTH

RUNNING: But

the new train is

causing a strain

Here’s how to put

HS2 on track to

benefit the North

One Canada Square, London E14 5AP

Tel: 020 8612 7000 (outside UK: +44 20 8612 7000)

Sickening treatment of

war heroes has to stop

Great start for Boris

F

ORCING almost a million Armed

Forces veterans to pay to watch TV

because of the BBC’s decision to scrap

the free licence for over-75s is truly

sickening.

If there is one group of people who have

served their country, put their lives on the

line for our freedoms and are owed a debt

of gratitude by this country, it is the people

who served in the Armed Forces.

It is believed that more than 100,000 of

these distinguished citizens are in their 90s.

The idea that these people should now be

taxed to fund the millionaire lifestyles of

BBC presenters such as Gary Lineker is a

national disgrace.

It is not too late for the BBC to see sense

and seek other savings or for the

Government to work with the national

broadcaster to find a solution to this

problem.

If things continue to head in the way the

BBC has laid out, then we could see elderly

people who fought for this country being

hauled before the courts because they have

failed to pay this £154.50 tax.

Such an outcome could destroy the

nation’s confidence in the BBC. So it is in

everybody’s interests to sort this out.

W

HAT a great week this has been for

Boris Johnson. The new Prime

Minister has successfully reached

out to Europe’s two most powerful

politicians – Germany’s Chancellor Angela

Merkel and France’s President Emmanuel

Macron.

It is clear that his approach of replacing

the Northern Ireland backstop with

alternative arrangements is the correct one.

And, while there is still some hesitancy in

the words of Merkel and Macron, we can

see from their comments that finally

common sense is beginning to prevail.

The threat of a no deal in the end is far

more damaging for the EU than it is for

Britain and both these seasoned

international leaders must realise that.

Time is short but there can be some

optimism that a deal can still be done

whether it is in the next 30 days or not.

One thing we know is that the EU prefers

last-minute deals. Mr Johnson’s hardline

tactic of showing Britain is ready for no

deal is the only thing that will change

minds in Brussels.

Heir’s no airs and graces

T

HERE has been much said about

royals and flights after the criticism of

the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and

their four private jets in 11 days. So

how refreshing to see the future King,

Prince William, and his family take a £

Flybe flight to jet off on their holiday.

Such moves provide a much-needed

common touch for the Royal Family and set

a great example.

‘Imagine a new golden triangle for

our transport infrastructure’

Patrick O’Flynn

Political commentator

A

S A longstanding

opponent of the HS

scheme to whizz busi-

ness executives down

to London from the

north of England frac-

tionally quicker than is possible

at present, I was cheered by the

announcement this week of an

independent review into the

£100billion project.

But it didn’t take long to

work out that this review is

most unlikely to result in Boris

Johnson and his Transport

Secretary Grant Shapps pulling

the plug on the whole shebang.

For a start, it is going to be

chaired by Douglas Oakervee, a

highly respected civil engineer

who just happens to be the

former chairman of HS2 Ltd.

For Mr Oakervee to conclude

that HS2 is not worth pursuing

would be tantamount to asking

someone to accept that the

cause he spent years of his life

promoting passionately was a

load of old baloney.

M

R SHAPPS gave the

game away rather

when he was pressed

by interviewers to confirm that

the review could result in a

pulling of the plug, repeatedly

avoiding saying so, relying

instead on the assertion that the

Government “wants to build

great infrastructure”.

So what is going on? There

are two possibilities. One is that

Boris Johnson has decided that

just dangling the idea that he

might scrap HS2 will be very

helpful for his prospects in an

early election – both in Tory-

held seats north-west of

London that are up in arms

about the environmental impact

and in Labour-held marginals

across the North where people

might imagine the money saved

would be ploughed into

transport schemes in their own

localities instead.

Having a review in progress

will also enable Mr Johnson to

avoid making a firm declaration

either way when it comes to a

Tory manifesto. However, there

is a more hopeful scenario. It

isn’t that the review really will

recommend abandoning the

scheme. Rather, it is of a recon-

figuring its delivery.

At the moment, a high-speed

track from London Euston to

Birmingham is scheduled to be

the first phase, with routes

going on from Birmingham to

the North-west and to Yorkshire

being labelled as Phase 2a and

Phase 2b respectively.

But if the Prime Minister is

serious about his administration

rebalancing the British econ-

omy then it cannot be right for

by far our biggest new transport

infrastructure scheme to be so

London-focused. Instead, the

review could reverse the phas-

ing, thereby delivering faster

journeys not primarily to the

capital, but from Birmingham

to Manchester and Birmingham

to Leeds. The Birmingham to

London bit could be kicked into

longer grass.

Suddenly Mr Johnson would

have a scheme that connected

the Northern Powerhouse to

the Midlands Engine and given

his flair for communication a

terrific “retail offer” for voters

in dozens of marginal seats.

Now determined critics

would still argue – with some

justification – that in fact the

enormous HS2 budget would

be far better spent on scores of

less eye-catching local infra-

structure schemes including

better bus services.

But a desire to be less eye-

catching is not really a Boris

Johnson trait and as a totemic

signal that the Conservatives

are throwing off their Home

Counties blinkers, a reversal of

the sequencing of HS2 would

take some beating.

If the review were to post-

pone the Birmingham to

London section for a significant

period, then funds could also be

switched into cracking on with

a proposed new high-speed line

between Manchester and

Leeds, an idea hitherto referred

to as “HS3”.

I

MAGINE a new golden

triangle for transport

infrastructure, with

Birmingham at the southern tip

and Manchester and Leeds the

northern base. Not only would

it have a large economic impact,

but a large political impact too.

Boris Johnson made his name

as a politician by converting

London, generally viewed as “a

Labour city”, to the Tory cause

when he was elected as mayor.

As Prime Minister he may well

seek to repeat the trick on a

much grander scale by tilting

several former Labour heart-

lands decisively in a

Conservative direction. If he

succeeds, he may even finally

earn forgiveness for the Tories

being seen to have abandoned

local heavy industry and put

almost nothing in its place dur-

ing the get-rich-quick 1980s.

And while the metropolitan

trendies of London were easily

wooed back to the Labour

cause within a few years, the

same is less likely to be true of

areas that feel Labour no longer

speaks for them at all.