HS2: announced transport projects were just ‘examples’, says minister

The level of naked contempt you have to have for people to come up with this shit an excuse is mind boggling.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Government documents that were abruptly deleted after appearing online with announcements of new transport projects were just giving “examples” of what savings from the scrapping of HS2’s northern leg could be spent on, a minister has claimed.

The deletions on Wednesday night included removing an entire page where the government pledged to “revolutionise mass transit in Bristol’.

It appeared to have been replaced with a broader pledge to give the west of England combined authority £100m, which it could spend on various projects in the region.

Asked if Bristol was going to get a new mass transit system, Harper said: “My department published a document which set out very clearly what we are going to spend the £36bn on that we are saving from cancelling the second phase of HS2.

“They can’t hide from the fact that they released a document that looked like it had been scribbled in crayon by advisers that had never left London,” she said on Twitter.

Questioned on Sky News, Harper said ministers would “develop the business case” for restoring the Leamside line, despite the documents last week saying it would be reopened.

The original article contains 389 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 52%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Bristol has a history of mass transit getting cancelled for political reasons, I don't think anyone was at all surprised.