4-May-2015

Election News

What do the Manifestos actually say ?

After extensive study, our research department came up with the following Manifesto Commitments; how they might fare in any coalition negotiations is any ones guess.

Local candidates may oppose the party line, while (presumably ?) standing in support of the party manifesto ... strange, that ??

Conservative Manifesto

“We will rebalance our economy and build a Northern Powerhouse” (p13)

We will electrify the main rail routes, build the Northern Hub, and provide new trains for the North. We will upgrade the A1, M62, M1 and A555 link road. And that is on top of our £50 billion commitment to build High Speed 2 – the new North-South railway linking up London with the West Midlands, Leeds and Manchester – and develop High Speed 3 to join up the North.

“We will transform our railway network” (p14)

In addition to rolling out our national high-speed rail network, with High Speed 2 and High Speed 3, we will complete the construction of the new east-west Crossrail across Greater London, and push forward with plans for Crossrail 2, a new rail route running through London and connecting Surrey and Hertfordshire.

"We will build new infrastructure in an environmentally-sensitive way" (p57)

We will build new roads and railways in a way that limits, as far as possible, their impact on the environment. This includes investing £300 million in cutting light pollution from new roads, doing more tunnelling, building better noise barriers and helping to restore lost habitat. We will also replace locally any biodiversity lost in the
construction of High Speed 2.

Labour Manifesto

"Improving productivity and a new industrial strategy" (p20)

We will continue to support the construction of High Speed Two, but keep costs down, and take action to improve and expand rail links across the North to boost its regional economies. We will support long-term investment in strategic roads, address the neglect of local roads, and promote cycling.

Liberal Manifesto

"Promise of more" (p25)

Enable more people to travel with rail upgrades across the country and HS2

Making the connection: transport infrastructure (p29)

We will:

Develop a comprehensive plan to electrify the overwhelming majority of the UK rail network, reopen smaller stations, restore twin-track lines to major routes and proceed with HS2, as the first stage of a high-speed rail network to Scotland.

6.5 Air quality and greener transport (p87)

Support options for an intercity cycleway along the HS2 route, within the overall budget for the project.

UKIP Manifesto

It is time to scrap HS2 (p37)

HS2 is an unaffordable white elephant and, given other, far more pressing calls on public expenditure, such as the NHS, social care and defence, not to mention the need to reduce the deficit, it must face the axe.

Green Party Manifesto

Bringing the railways into public hands (p65)

In addition on the railways, we would not support HS2 (the proposed high-speed network). The money to be spent on this hugely expensive project, which at best will reduce journey times for a few passengers, would be much better spent on improving the conventional rail connections between various major cities, improving the resilience of the existing network to climate change and reopening lines and stations that have been closed.

SNP Manifesto

This does not mention HS2, but -

SNP launch manifesto to help business thrive

Mon, 13/04/2015 - 09:46
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Deputy First Minister John Swinney have today outlined the measures that SNP MPs will push for at Westminster to help Scotland’s businesses thrive.

Speaking at Springfield Properties in Braehead, Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney said that SNP MPs will:

Support an increase in infrastructure investment, pushing for HS2 to connect to Scotland with a high speed connection between Glasgow, Edinburgh and the north of England as part of any high speed rail network.