Results like these at a general election would mean Tory annihilation

[noblegiraffe]

Says a BBC headline this morning.

Anyone else stockpiling popcorn?

I believe HS2 was David Cameron's attempt to save his bacon by getting some of the UK net-contribution back from the EU.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea%E2%80%93Mediterranean_Corridor
Sadly, our civil servants don't keep track of purely political gestures, so we carried on, even though there is no productivity gain from shaving time from UK train travel now that we can use mobiles and laptops on the entire journey.
The money would have been better spent on East-West lines outside of the South of England.

Or on east west rail in the North. Or both. It’s not justifiable to spend £45 Bn or more getting from London to Birmingham 10 minutes quicker after they downgrade train speeds. Labour came up with this ludicrous idea but didn’t insist it started where it was needed. Euston upgrade is north of £5 bn alone. It’s management is being taken away from HS2 ltd because if it stayed, no private investor would go near it. They now want private investment for the loss making project. Hopefully not my pension fund!