Wednesday, February 07, 2024
Those Tory own goals
Logging onto the Guardian website this morning I was astonished to find not one but three potential Tory own goals in the news pages.
The first and most expensive in terms of public expenditure was the verdict by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee that the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2 has raised “urgent unanswered questions” and the government does not yet understand how the £67bn high-speed railway will now function.
The paper says that the cross-party committee has concluded that the remaining London-Birmingham line will be “very poor value for money” with costs now forecast to significantly outweigh the benefits.
The first and most expensive in terms of public expenditure was the verdict by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee that the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2 has raised “urgent unanswered questions” and the government does not yet understand how the £67bn high-speed railway will now function.
The paper says that the cross-party committee has concluded that the remaining London-Birmingham line will be “very poor value for money” with costs now forecast to significantly outweigh the benefits.
They added that the many ramifications of the decision to cancel the northern leg of HS2 remain unknown, including the impact on other promised rail schemes and how land compulsorily bought to build north of Birmingham would be disposed of.
“Crucially, the Department [for Transport] does not yet understand how HS2 will operate as a functioning railway following recent changes”, they say.
The second news item reports that the UK minister responsible for the building of new pylons has been quietly reshuffled after it emerged he had campaigned against the structures in his own constituency:
The energy minister Andrew Bowie had been in charge of energy networks, including building pylons, since he took up his post in February 2023.
In July he wrote on the blog he runs for constituents in West Aberdeen that concerns among locals about new pylons were “a priority of mine”. He met local anti-pylon campaigners on multiple occasions.
In December the brief was passed to the climate minister Graham Stuart. No announcement was made but a change has been made on the government website.
And then there is the very damaging doctors' strikes in England, which is adding to pressure on the NHS. If, like me, you are wondering why the government has not got around a table with unions and settled this dispute then the Guardian has the answer.
The paper says that Rishi Sunak has been accused of personally holding up a deal to end doctors’ strikes in England despite warnings from the health department and NHS England that waiting lists will continue to soar unless the industrial dispute is resolved:
Sources told the Guardian it had been made “abundantly and repeatedly” clear to the prime minister that there would be no progress on his pledge to drive down NHS waiting lists until a deal was struck.
One official said Sunak had been a “blocker” to progress during talks with both consultants and junior doctors at the end of last year because of concerns that a more generous offer would result in calls for higher pay deals across the health service, in particular for nurses.
Some might call this an act of deliberate sabotage of the Prime Ministers own pledge to reduce waiting lists for treatment. Others may be a little less charitable.
It used to be three strikes and you are out. A general election cannot come too soon.
“Crucially, the Department [for Transport] does not yet understand how HS2 will operate as a functioning railway following recent changes”, they say.
The second news item reports that the UK minister responsible for the building of new pylons has been quietly reshuffled after it emerged he had campaigned against the structures in his own constituency:
The energy minister Andrew Bowie had been in charge of energy networks, including building pylons, since he took up his post in February 2023.
In July he wrote on the blog he runs for constituents in West Aberdeen that concerns among locals about new pylons were “a priority of mine”. He met local anti-pylon campaigners on multiple occasions.
In December the brief was passed to the climate minister Graham Stuart. No announcement was made but a change has been made on the government website.
And then there is the very damaging doctors' strikes in England, which is adding to pressure on the NHS. If, like me, you are wondering why the government has not got around a table with unions and settled this dispute then the Guardian has the answer.
The paper says that Rishi Sunak has been accused of personally holding up a deal to end doctors’ strikes in England despite warnings from the health department and NHS England that waiting lists will continue to soar unless the industrial dispute is resolved:
Sources told the Guardian it had been made “abundantly and repeatedly” clear to the prime minister that there would be no progress on his pledge to drive down NHS waiting lists until a deal was struck.
One official said Sunak had been a “blocker” to progress during talks with both consultants and junior doctors at the end of last year because of concerns that a more generous offer would result in calls for higher pay deals across the health service, in particular for nurses.
Some might call this an act of deliberate sabotage of the Prime Ministers own pledge to reduce waiting lists for treatment. Others may be a little less charitable.
It used to be three strikes and you are out. A general election cannot come too soon.
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Sunak is a hedge fund money grabber NOT a money spender. True blue Tory make money but do not spend it.
Pylons. Fancy that. Campaigns against them in his constituency. Quietly dropped when found out. It does not sound like he stud up for his constituents by declining the job in the 1st for he had to be quietly dropped.
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Pylons. Fancy that. Campaigns against them in his constituency. Quietly dropped when found out. It does not sound like he stud up for his constituents by declining the job in the 1st for he had to be quietly dropped.
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