‘HS2 has proved an unmitigated disaster’

• I ENDORSE every word of the Camden New Journal’s leader of March 30, (HS2 chaos all around – and not a peep out of Lord Adonis).

Lord Adonis of Camden Town should tell us what he thinks about the catastrophic damage his pet project of HS2 has done to the people, businesses, and buildings of this area. As for Lord Adonis’s ennoble­ment, it is as if Arthur “Bomber” Harris had taken the title of Lord Harris of Dresden or Berlin.

A 19th-century solution to a 21st-century question no one was asking, HS2 has proved an unmitigated disaster. It is incompetent, extravagant, and extremely unpleasant to deal with; HS2 refuses to agree the minutes of any meeting it has with its victims, treating them with contempt.

Its business case has been shot to pieces. It will not even connect the centres of London and Birmingham, let alone the north and south. HS2 is clear proof of the public sector’s inability to plan and implement a major transport project.

What is so puzzling is why both main parties have continued to support this gigantic white elephant. Because £10billion has been wasted is no reason to waste another £100billion.

If Rishi Sunak had any claim to fiscal and economic competence, the first thing he would do is kill off HS2.

Why also has Sir Keir Starmer, the MP for Holborn and St Pancras, not had the courage to state the obvious and come out against HS2?

This emperor has no clothes and no public support. Is there some secret pact between the Conservatives and Labour to keep this zombie project going?

MARTIN SHEPPARD, NW1