A Labour U-Turn

[youngmafbog]

or just Mr Darlings?

Posts are often put up with gusto when the coalition u-turn, so what do ABers think of this?

http://news.sky.com/story/1132304/hs2-project-attacked-by-alistair-darling

And remember SP's request for a clean fight!

[Canary42]

Why not, since "we're all in it together".

[Gromit]

Darling is not a member of the Shadow Cabinet. He has no authority on anything. He does not represent the opposition, and he certainly does not formulate or roll out official Labour policy.

He is just an individual back bench MP who has changed his mind.

[jake-the-peg]

Maybe it is the hike in the price tag which made him change his mind

Mabe he was always against it and accepted the need to support government policy as a member of the cabinet

In either case I find it hard to fault his logic

[mikey4444]

Jake...I agree with you here. I heard Darling being interviewed on the Today program this morning and I thought that what he said made sense. He also made it clear that he was speaking in a personal capacity. So an honest and candid statement from a politician...something we should all be applauding I would have thought.

I have yet to understand why we should be spending such huge amounts of money to allow a few thousand people each year get to Birmingham from London 15 mins earlier. You could move Birmingham closer to London for less.

[Sqad]

Well, if you want to continue with a 3rd rate rail service both in quality, comfort and reliability .......fine.

But just look at the French and Spanish railways which are in a different league.

Under investment in the UK has been the main reason for the present state of affairs during decades under the "care" of both Political directions.

[youngmafbog]

So labour wont be following suit?

[Quizmonster]

One Labour - ie opposition - politician makes one u-turn in over three years, while the coalition - ie government - makes over 40 in the same time-period and that's newsworthy?

[FredPuli43]

Quite QM. The Labour Opposition are still in favour of this; no U-turn there; and it's just one MP saying he doesn't agree. On the other hand, Mr Cameron appears to govern by principles, the main one being to propose something, then find the press and public are against it and reversing the proposal

[jno]

circumstances have changed - specifically, the likely price has shot up, while the coalition has failed to make the country rich - so he's changed his mind. That seems logical enough. It's just his opinion, not Labour's.

Cameron, it seems, is sticking to his original opinion, despite these changes; he does perform quite a few U-turns, but so far this isn't one of them.

[Quizmonster]

As you say, J, "the likely price has shot up," so Mr Darling's change of mind seems eminently sensible. I shouldn't be in the least surprised if further such mind-changes become more common.
Has there ever been a major government project in all history where the likely price has not "shot up"? I should have thought that, by now, politicians would treat that as a given, rather than something that just creeps up on them.

[emmie]

colossal waste of money, and if he says it is well that is another voice against this proposal.

[emmie]

they have done plenty of U turns, perhaps they aren't always newsworthy, or that the Labour folk don''t care

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2390711/DAN-HODGES-Labours-staggering-hypocrisy-mother-U-turns.html