The money Sunak ‘saves’ from HS2 is getting smaller with every announcement | Simon Jenkins

While the PM makes empty promises to the north, he lacks the courage to cancel the white elephant London-Birmingham line

Rishi Sunak’s high-profile announcement of projects to be apparently funded by killing the northern leg of HS2 is a gem of political cynicism. He has made the announcement twice before, on 4 October and 17 November last year. He seems to have forgotten.

Each time the sum appears to shrink and delivery grows ever more distant. October began with £36bn for a schoolboy wishlist of ...