Is the Tory promise to reverse the Beeching railway cuts a test of our gullibility?
Look at the difference between the rail network in 1963 (before Beeching) and 1984 (after him). And the Tories reckon £500 million will restore all that? They’re stupid with money.
The Conservative government has announced that it intends to reopen historic railway lines that were closed in the 1960s after the infamous Beeching report.
But it has announced a pitifully small amount of funding for the plan – just £500 million.
To put that in perspective, that much money would reopen just 25 of the 5,000 miles of railway that Beeching axed – as Labour’s Andy McDonald pointed out:
To herald the Tories' re-announcement of a £500m fund as the reversal of the Beeching cuts is a joke.
£500m would reopen just 25 miles of railway. Beeching axed 5,000 miles.
This is a stunt to distract from the collapse of the privatised rail system.pic.twitter.com/j4xC5BrHIG
— Andy McDonald MP (@AndyMcDonaldMP) January 28, 2020
In response, the Tories have said the money won’t repair any lines – it will be used only to fund feasibility studies to work out which routes can be restored.
In other words, not a single line will be restored as a result of this announcement – or with this funding.
It’s Boris Johnson’s 40 hospitals, all over again, only worse.
And on the subject of those phantom hospitals, if you have a Tory MP, maybe you’d like to wind them up by asking where – exactly – those hospitals are going to be?
And then watch them squirm.
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A test of gulibility?
The Tories don’t need to test how dumb the electorate are, they already know that a substantial number of relatively disadvantaged people willingly voted them into office with a big majority.