The HS2 rail project is out of date and out of control. But it can still be halted | Simon Jenkins

Britain is cutting care homes and children’s centres, yet blowing £80bn on a railway line that has failed every viability test

Vanity projects are like foreign wars. They ensnare politicians and drive them mad. A high-speed rail track from London to Birmingham and beyond was first sold to David Cameron in 2009 as a glamorous alternative to a third runway at Heathrow, which he had pledged never to build. HS2 was stupid then, and has grown ever stupider ever since.

Related: HS2 is not a useless...