Aren’t there better ways to spend £80bn?

Published: 17:19 EST, 18 August 2013 | Updated: 17:19 EST, 18 August 2013

Is the tide beginning to turn against the HS2 high speed rail link between London and the North?

First Alistair Darling and Lord Mandelson, cheerleaders for the project when in government, warned it will suck up cash and be an ‘expensive mistake’ – denting the cross-party consensus in its favour.

Now the respected Institute for Economic Affairs says the cost of the line (which ministers recently revised upwards, from £34billion to £43billion) is actually likely to be £80billion – or £3,000 per household.

The Mail remains deeply sceptical that the line, which will shave just a few minutes off a journey from London to Birmingham, will bring the economic benefits claimed for it.

Indeed, far from boosting the regions, similar schemes in other countries have served only to benefit capital cities.

Many – not least the 500,000 householders who will face significant disruption while the line is being constructed – will agree with the IEA’s view that ministers could better stimulate growth by using the £80billion to cut taxes.

But, if there is to be a major investment in infrastructure, aren’t there alternative projects that offer greater certainty of creating jobs and wealth?

For instance, the money could be dedicated to providing the extra airport capacity this country desperately needs to help attract trade, investment and finance from around the world.

Or what about building the nuclear power stations required to keep the lights on, or a nationwide aqua-grid to transfer water from rain-drenched areas, to the often drought-hit South and East?

What is certain is that, the higher the bill for HS2 rises, the harder it will become to justify.

Clarity from Prezza!

Ed Miliband had a single, cynical strategy for winning power: complain about the Government’s ‘cuts’ and hope the economy flat-lined.

However, with the recession over, exports accelerating and the CBI today predicting growth of 2.3 per cent next year, he is now in a wretched mess.

In recent weeks, his backbenchers and even a member of his own Shadow Cabinet have been complaining that the party under his leadership does not have anything useful to say.

And, in a scathing intervention yesterday, Lord Glasman, Mr Miliband’s so-called ‘political guru’, said: ‘When the Labour battle bus should be revving up, it is parked in a lay-by of introspection’.

John Prescott, meanwhile, said Labour has ‘massively failed to get our case over’.

If even the notoriously incoherent Lord Prescott thinks Mr Miliband doesn’t have a clear message, he really is in trouble.

Play by the rules

Google already deprives the Treasury of hundreds of millions of pounds by channelling its UK profits through its international headquarters in Dublin – paying just £7.3million in corporation tax on UK sales worth £3.2billion.

Now this arrogant behemoth is arguing that it does not accept the jurisdiction of the High Court to hear a privacy case brought by a group of Britons who claim Google by-passed the security settings on their mobile phones.

The fear is that Google has been tracking them online, without their knowledge.

But, incredibly, the company says that because the software that it uses is based overseas, a UK court has no business hearing this very troubling case.

Isn’t it time the Government told its friends at Google that, if it wants Britain’s business, it must play by Britain’s rules?