Boris Johnson failed to stand up to Treasury over rail promises - Yorkshire Post Letters

From: Nigel Davies, West London.

Amol Rajan had a high quality series about inequality in the UK on BBC Radio 4 earlier this year.

What we are seeing with the Integrated Rail Plan is inequality in action.

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Beyond south Nottingham, to Chesterfield heading north right up to Sheffield, through Yorkshire (including East Yorkshire) and right across the North-East of England there will be barely any new investment.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a visit to the Network Rail hub at Gascoigne Wood, near Selby, North Yorkshire, on Thursday. Picture: Ian Forsyth/PA.Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a visit to the Network Rail hub at Gascoigne Wood, near Selby, North Yorkshire, on Thursday. Picture: Ian Forsyth/PA.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a visit to the Network Rail hub at Gascoigne Wood, near Selby, North Yorkshire, on Thursday. Picture: Ian Forsyth/PA.

In contrast London and the South-East have a new airport in Birmingham with a 38 minutes journey on HS2 to London with over £40bn in investment. No need for a third runway at Heathrow.

The Government whipped the House of Lords against a commitment to build the HS2 Eastern leg in February 2021 with the Birmingham to Crewe HS2 Bill, yet still subsequently claimed that it was going to build it. This is levelling up in reverse.

If funds are short, it is wrong to make cuts to regions which have been deprived of funding for decades. Austerity was meant to have ended. Meanwhile £8bn is about to be spent on the Lower Thames Tunnel between Essex and Kent, a similar amount of the “half-baked savings” about to be cut from investment in Yorkshire. To make it worse, a patronising “study” into how to get HS2 to Leeds. Enough really is enough.

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Once again the UK Treasury has shown its disdain for too many regions of the UK, with its London and Home Counties bias.

Boris Johnson has failed to keep promises, to stand up to the Treasury, and the tide has turned.

From: Keith Punshon, Willow Bridge Lane, Dalton, Thirsk.

The historic folly of the Tory Government throwing away its majority having reasserted its fundamental belief that civilisation ends north of Watford Junction can only lead to the Starmers measuring the curtains to No 10 whilst Sir Keir writes his application to rejoin the EU and abandon Sterling.

Downgrading levelling up rail to save money condemns the Midlands and the North to suffer economic damage.

When will they learn that short term-ism destroys hope?

From: Alec Allen, Brampton Road, Wombwell, Barnsley.

So this project (HS2) has now been cancelled.

So much for government promises. The North are used to getting the crumbs from the Southern table, now we are going to get even these except yet more promises.