How depressed should one be about the HS2 go-ahead? The cost is stupefying. The offering to the north — considered so important politically — seems to be unappealing to plenty of northerners and, like a parody of British railway late arrivals, won’t reach its destination until the mid-2030s. Worse, perhaps, is the sense, especially when seen in conjunction with the Huawei go-ahead, that the government is already trapped by the past. It reminds me of Theresa May’s decision to review the Hinkley Point C programme and then let it go ahead after all. In that case, as in that of Huawei, the government reluctantly concluded it could not get out of a troubling China deal sealed in the Cameron/Osborne era. In the case both of HS2 and Hinkley Point, the radical views of the most important political advisers — Dominic Cummings today and Nick Timothy then — were overruled by entrenched interests. Who really rejoices in these decisions? Who can say with clarion conviction that they are much good for the country?
Meanwhile, I try to plan a rail journey from making a speech in Oxford to making a speech in Hull. It seems to take a minimum of five and a half hours and to involve going via London. Some of the times also require changes at Wakefield and Leeds en route. Even after more than £100 billion will have been spent and more than a decade has passed, it is far from clear that all such disconnections will have been improved.
It is obviously true that Sinn Fein’s success in the Irish Republic will increase nationalist pressure for a united Ireland. It does not automatically follow, however, that such pressure will make a united Ireland more likely.
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