HS2: No sane person wants the government to waste another £50billion as a fig leaf to cover its own embarrassment

• THE cancellation of the northern leg of HS2 has killed the project as a whole.

There is now no point in building a hideously expensive and completely redundant high-speed link between the outskirts of London and of Birmingham.

The southern leg of HS2 should be cancelled without further ado.

No sane person wants the government to waste another £50billion as a fig leaf to cover its own embarrassment.

There is no point in pretending that a corpse is not a corpse. HS2 is a zombie which has lost all credibility.

It has no public support. Only the construction companies stand to gain by the pretence that HS2 is not dead. Cancellation would also signal the end of HS2 Ltd.

This bloated company has treated the communities it has affected with contempt. Incompetent and financially incontinent, it has proved itself morally bankrupt and institutionally corrupt.

A fitting end to this disastrous project would be a public apology from Lord Adonis of Camden Town to the citizens of Camden for the harm his scheme has inflicted on them.

MARTIN SHEPPARD, NW1