Sunak is protecting Britain against the impending global disaster facing profligate governments
Good riddance, HS2, you shall not be missed. The cancellation of that monstrous project’s Northern leg marks the final end of an era of immoral profligacy by a political class that had come to treat taxpayers with contempt.
It was never worth spending what might eventually have ended up being £180 billion on one train line to London, taking decades to complete, in an ultimately doomed attempt by politicians with an inferiority complex to show the French that we too can produce a train à grande vitesse.
The opportunity cost was obscene: we haven’t built any nuclear power stations, or water reservoirs, or fixed our leaky pipes, or properly developed our creaking power grid, or constructed new motorways to relieve our hopelessly congested roads, in the name of hurling all available resources at what must be the most mismanaged grand projet in British history. How can anybody responsible for this money pit sleep soundly at night?
Yet there is another reason why Rishi Sunak is to be commended for taking on the self-righteous vested interests committed to defending the indefensible, and for calling David Cameron, George Osborne, Theresa May and Andy Street’s bluff. The Prime Minister has grasped, sooner than other world leaders, that governments are about to face a terrible fiscal reckoning. It is becoming much more expensive for states to borrow, threatening to trigger another financial crisis, and in time to force many countries to slash their spending.