Surely this is a cynical announcement.

When I was young, I used to look at politicians as giants; I might disagree with them on occasions but they were always honest, upstanding quintessentially British people with decent morals and standards.

Have I changed or have they?

This latest bit from Philip Hammond:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/52b977f4-9e8e-11e0-9469-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1QI1cBiq5

(thank you Financial Times) announces that HS2 will be sold to private investors (unidentified and for sums which our Transport Secretary will not speculate about) and thus recoup the taxpayers' investment. Maybe he is telling the Financial Times in the hope that some of the private investors who read the FT will come forward with an offer . . .

Clearly, someone has identified that one of the strongest arguments (and there are many) against HS2 is the cost per household or per taxpayer and one can only assume that this announcement is Mr Hammond's attempt to kick that argument into touch.

Beware, all you supporters of the STOP HS2 campaign - a lot of people who know little about HS2 (and that, as we all know is the majority of the good folk of the UK) will assume that, as it comes from the mouth of one of our ministers, it must be true - cleverly, part of our attack against HS2 has been sidelined so we need to think how to highlight the improbabilities of this announcement and work even harder to STOP HS2.

http://www.lichfieldagainsthighspeedtrains.org.uk/