Oh dear. Boris Johnson has promised to “level up”, but in doing so, he clearly means Manchester-only. The rest of the North can remain in the second or third division.
This is a politically dangerous move by the Prime Minister, to scrap the HS2 link to Leeds. For years we’ve been treated to the vision of the high speed, eye-wateringly expensive service from London to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, as a letter ‘Y’. Now, under the plan being heavily trailed and set to be announced later this week, that right arm is going. Instead, Johnson will call upon all his powers of persuasion to convince Yorkshire that improved local and cross-regional railways will compensate for the loss of the speedier, north-south London connection. Good luck with that.
