The new HS2 route serves areas with a heavy concentration of marginals – a winner or a loser at #GE2015
The HS2 route to the Midlands & North where a high proportion of the marginals are. An electoral winner or loser? twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/st…
— Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) January 28, 2013
Is the plan right in spite of NIMBY noise?
The day’s big announcement has been the extension of the HS2 ine from Birmingham to the East Midland and the North West – all areas with a high proportion of the country’s marginal seats.
- Come April/May 2015 this will be where a lot of the action is and today’s annoucement could have impact in the key marginal seats – particuarly the ones won by the Tories in 2010 which they’ll want to hold on to.
So is the prospect of the new facilities enough to out-weigh the negatives from the NIMBY factions?
A key factor for Osborne and co is that it is something they can point to when they are asked about stimulating the economy.
The polling suggests that high speed rail is broadly popular – will it stay that way now we have the routes?
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