IN THE run up to the London Mayor elections you’d expect some huffing and puffing from candidates about what they can do for Londoners badly affected by HS2. In reality, there has really mostly only been silence!
Mainly because they don’t understand the implications, criticisms and costs of the massive project, for Boris, Brian and Ken it’s probably because they don’t want to fully oppose their party leaders. London is a huge place and of course there are loads of issues for candidates to consider. Even so, it's possible that HS2 might be worth valuable votes to the candidates so it's worth observing what their respective positions seem to be.
Richard Barnes, Boris's deputy mayor and Harefield councillor, has been very visible and supportive of our campaign and events both in Hillingdon and Ealing which has been great for us. As for Boris he did visit in January but just this weekend a leaflet from him dropped on to my doormat telling me and all other residents of Hillingdon why I should vote for him, he told me all about CrossRail and the Olympics and a load of other stuff but didn’t mention HS2.
In an emailed reply this week from Mayor’s Question Time he talks about HS2 as if it’s a done deal, and states he is basically fighting for more money to develop the HS2 stations and associated Tube lines. He mentions mitigation and we have been led to believe he helped secure a tunnel for Ruislip, but he seems to have let down West Ruislip, Ickenham, and north Ealing. So come on Boris, keep putting the pressure on your chums!
Talking of Boris, he seems obsessed with his bikes. Apparently they are much more interesting than a £36.4billion train set [yes, folks, it is about 10 per cent higher than when first mooted]. Jenny Jones the Green candidate also seems fixated with bikes - her tweets are often about bikes in London and apart from a visit to Perivale last week to meet residents whose lives face devastation from HS2, she hasn’t done much to actively oppose the project and raise awareness except for refusing to sign the GLA report on High Speed Rail.
Don’t get me wrong it is great to see full opposition to the project from the Greens but it needs to be massive for them and they need to use their influence to get it on the Green agenda! This is development and carbon and money on an unprecedented scale for a transport link that doesn’t integrate into anything or anywhere very well. Top points for opposing HS2 but more needs to be done to support the fight!
The Labour candidate Ken Livingstone has stated clearly that he does not support the route and will take the government to court over HS2 if he wins the election. But last year when he visited Ruislip and was bombarded by HS2 issues, he was dismissive of them and seemed not to grasp the scale of the scheme and the impact it was going to have, or the cost. He has agreed to visit again soon but no date is confirmed and time is ticking on! It's often said about Ken that he has little regard for the suburbs and is only interested in inner London. Well we'd like to know if that is the case.
Lawrence Webb of UKIP has given us full support, visiting events and residents, and he and his party are opposed at a national level to HS2. They believe it is a white elephant and not of benefit to the UK. So they score full points at the moment!!
And the Liberal Democrats? Well Brian Paddick did visit us recently and was genuinely interested and shocked to hear everything we said. I’m paraphrasing but he was really intrigued that despite 'winning' a tunnel we are still fighting to Stop HS2.
We explained the more you know the worse it gets. With crime top of his agenda he should realise that HS2 is a crime against democracy and a criminal waste of money!
However, he knew nothing much about it and was officially towing the party line, despite his interest he showed in the minutes he spent with us. Not a peep since though, except one tweet!
What does it tell us when politicians don’t scrutinise a £36.4bn project and persist in toeing the party line – it says we should all be afraid, very afraid.
