Political column - October 7

"Into the future with go-slow Sunak."

On the basis of their party conference, these are the slogans with which the Tories will go into the next general election, probably around a year from now.

Who would have guessed that Rishi Sunak would be a standard bearer for the cancel culture?

This is what makes Britain so great. It is a nation of ambition, enterprise, inspirational visions – and the courage to cancel things.

Because, above all, Britons love a bargain.

Think how much money could be saved by launching a UK moonshot and then cancelling it. Or Boris' idea of a bridge from Scotland to Northern Ireland, and then cancelling that.

HS2 now joins the growing list of projects axed by the British government over the years. Like TSR2, where you can see one surviving airframe as a museum piece at the RAF Museum at Cosford. Like various attempts at the Channel Tunnel which saw plenty of holes dug in the ground until finally a tunnel was built in collaboration with the obstinate French who didn't take the hint when we showed them our empty pockets.

Like Maplin, which you'll probably have forgotten about. And so on.

We did get the Millennium Dome, and also Concorde. Concorde was, again, thanks to the involvement of the French who could tell us a thing or two about operating a successful high speed train network.

If you're wondering, there was and is an HS1, and it wasn't cancelled. It is the rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel.

So after this week's Prime Ministerial announcement we shall have a truncated HS2 line costing billions connecting only Birmingham and London and shaving a few minutes off the journey time. That's assuming the train drivers are not still on strike and assuming that the massive cost is not recouped through fares so exorbitant that only business people with generous expense accounts can afford to make the journey, making HS2 a bit like a Concorde of the tracks.

Is it needed? Is there a point?

I did make a journey from Stafford to London not all that long ago. All these prices will have gone up since, but at the time it only cost £27 return, plus £2 for the parking at Stafford, and to my amazement took about an hour and ten minutes. HS2 will have advantages on that of course. I'll think of some in a minute.

In the North, they'll just have to make do with what the Victorians did for us. The Victorians built things to last. But, crucially, they did build them in the first place.

Meanwhile a star of the conference was Liz Truss. She is a Tory Prime Minister who never lost a general election. Her growth agenda has been widely adopted.

We can add her to our list. She was a cancelled project amid massive costs.

.................

An eager chap knocked on the door the other day hoping to sell the sort of stuff people who come to the door unannounced sell, and generally there is an offer on and one of the team just happening to be working in the area who can pop round the following morning to give a no-obligation quote.

From a psychological point of view, the techniques and script these folk use are fascinating.

It goes something like this. They come round hoping to flog you, say, a six tonne elephant, or whatever.

No, I explain, I don't want a six tonne elephant, either now nor in the future, even if you've got a special deal on and so there's no point in measuring up my house to see if one would fit.

They come back unabashed with a riposte from their patter routine.

"If you were to have a six tonne elephant, would you have a red one or a green one?"

I am always polite, because it must be a soul-destroying job going round knocking on the doors of houses like this to be met by residents of varying degrees of grumpiness. Indeed, I was once, when I was very young, briefly a door-to-door salesman for Betterware. I was in the job for one week.

Incidentally, I think on balance I would probably prefer a red one.