Can localism survive national infrastructure projects?

摘要

One of the saddest sights in local government is to see a grown-up chief executive buying a railway magazine at WH Smiths. This is not a reflection of the current financial climate, children or grandchildren, escapism or regression. It is the considered need to read up on the Department for Transport's engineering fantasy - the UK's second high-speed rail link (HS2). The choice of that well-known original station bookstall is deliberate - WH Smith started at London's Euston, whose customers will, of course, suffer many of the costs of reconstruction and delay, if the project is implemented.