Osborne and Heseltine say scrapping HS2 Manchester link would flag UK’s decline to world
Nearly 1,900 Scottish schools are expected to be affected by a three-day strike this week after a “bizarre” split between three large public sector unions over a revised pay offer.
The GMB and Unite unions have called off their strikes by cleaners, caretakers and cooks in up to 11 council areas after deciding to put a new offer from Cosla, the umbrella body for Scotland’s 32 councils, to their members.
Unfortunately our colleagues in Unison have taken the bizarre decision to continue with the strike action while balloting their members.
This presupposes that their members will follow their recommendations to reject the offer, however, if their members vote to accept then they will need to explain to those members why they lost three days’ pay and pension contributions.
Our members feel very strongly that the under investment in local government, they’re having to pick up the pieces of that and what they don’t want is our communities suffering any further.
Our members don’t want to take industrial action – this is an absolute last resort. I’m a parent myself. But if we don’t take a stand then the longer-term impact on our children is going to get far worse with the cuts.
So what are the political risks for Sunak if he scraps the Manchester leg? Businesses overwhelmingly back the project. But polling by YouGov since 2019 has consistently found voter ambivalence. In May this year, 26% of respondents said they “neither support or oppose” HS2; 18% “tend to support”; and 16% “tend to oppose”. More people hate the idea than love it: 20% “strongly oppose”; and 8% “strongly support”.
The lack of full-bodied support among the public is perhaps unsurprising. Rail travel remains a minority pursuit in the UK, with more people commuting by bus than train. In England, the average person made just 15 train trips last year, with 82% of all journeys of 10 miles or more being taken by car.
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