High-speed rail isn’t about North versus South — it’s about wasting taxpayers’ cash

Yesterday the campaign for high-speed rail, endorsed by the Government, made clear the way they want to frame the debate over the new line. They want to make it about Northerners vs. Southerners. Their adverts featuring a bowler-hatted caricature putting the integrity of his lawn above jobs in the North went up on buses in Manchester. By the evening, it was already clear that their strategy — which Tim Montgomerie has described as “backwards-looking” — was backfiring as the BBC went from house to house in Ruislip talking to locals who said, “I don’t wear a bowler hat, and I don’t imagine that many people around here do”.
 
Today the TPA has launched three new videos looking at the real clash of interests in the debate over HS2. It isn’t between North and South but between the ordinary commuters, motorists and taxpayers who will lose out and a fortunate minority who will get a faster journey. Most