David Cornock Parliamentary correspondent, Wales
All aboard for HS2? Tunnel vision could yet win the day
Some bookmakers now make Cheryl Gillan the favourite as the next minister to leave the UK cabinet.
The odds on her were shortened after the transport secretary, Justine Greening, gave the go-ahead for a high-speed rail link through her Buckinghamshire constituency.
It's said you'll never see a poor bookie but unless Paddy Power and co have an insight into David Cameron's next reshuffle I'd resist the temptation to have a flutter.
Ms Greening announced plans to "mitigate" the impact of HS2, including a tunnel through the Chilterns. It doesn't go far enough to pacify some Tories in Chesham and Amersham but may have been enough to persuade Mrs Gillan to withdraw her resignation threat.
According to Justine Greening, the Welsh secretary is already on side. This is what she told the Commons: "I thoroughly agree with her [CG] that we have ended up with the right line, with the right mitigation".
Is that a fair precis of Ms Gillan's position? Does the secretary of state now agree with government policy? Questions I've put to the Wales Office and her parliamentary office without reply.
Ms Greening was keen to defend her cabinet colleague from the barbs of Labour and Plaid Cymru MPs who complained that the government was spending a reported £500m on a tunnel to keep Mrs Gillan in a job.
The transport secretary said the tunnel would actually save between £250m and £300m and that Mrs Gillan had done a "damn good job" representing her constituents, who have campaigned against the £32bn project.
That led Labour MP Kevin Brennan to ponder why if tunnels are cheaper: "Why aren't you burying the whole line?"
Ms Greening explained that it was a "complex" engineering issue linked to the spoil created.
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Comment number 1.
MabionGlyndwr7 Hours ago
The amount of expenditure on England's infrastructure is immense with Wales virtually ignored with a token Electrification to the outskirts of Cardiff, This is not good enough! There's billions on the Millennium Dome, Olympics, World cups, Common wealth games, the list's never ending in the guise of Britain. When are all the obedient fools in Wales going to wake up?
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Comment number 2.
tredwyn6 Hours ago
Wake up to what? Wales gets at least £6b a year of public expenditure more than it pays in taxes. Not as much as it should get on the basis of relative need but still a subsidy is a subsidy. Rather than moan the hand-out should be bigger, Wales needs to take responsibility for itself and strive to build its economy so it can afford the things it needs.
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Comment number 3.
MabionGlyndwr1 Hour ago
2: (says it all) Are you talking to me or are you on prescription drugs? I don't want Wales to have hand outs, I want Wales to have full control over our finances & resources so we can Improve everyone’s prosperity fool? It's you ignorant Unionists dependent on Westminster mammary gland , supping the financial nipple of London, who's happy for Billions spent across the border!
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