Northern voters turn against HS2

When George Osborne first announced his plans for high speed rail, I was all for it. I’ve spent too much of my life on broken-down trains between Inverkeithing and London – and, like many Scots, resented the way that most transport money seemed to be spent in the imperial capital. As I say in my Telegraph column today, the key to staying happy about HS2 is not to think about it much further: don’t contemplate the costs, don’t ask if transport can be helped in other ways. This is what Westminster is doing: all its parties have signed up to the project. They won’t have a proper debate about it.

We at The Spectator did out bit last night, with yet another highly successful debate on HS2. We had Nigel Farage vs Matthew Parris – and the debate nearly didn’t go ahead as we struggled to find an independent transport expert to speak with Matthew for HS2.