As the PM is accused of ‘betraying’ the North, this is what he’s said on HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail
“I want to be the prime minister who does with Northern Powerhouse Rail what we did for Crossrail in London.”
Those were the words of Boris Johnson days after he entered Downing Street in 2019.
As people digest the contents of his government’s Integrated Rail Plan, there will be many people who will feel the prime minister has gone back on his word.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
New rail plan ‘a monumental achievement’
The proposed eastern leg of HS2, between Birmingham and Leeds, has been cut back.
High-speed services will run from Birmingham to East Midlands Parkway, around six miles south-east of Nottingham.
Trains will then continue to Nottingham, Derby, Chesterfield and Sheffield on the existing mainline, which will be upgraded.
Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) has also been downgraded, with the plans delivered through a combination of new track and upgrades to existing infrastructure, rather than an entirely new line between Manchester and Leeds.
A key focus of the PM’s policy agenda is the idea of “levelling up”, a broad concept that basically means investing in areas and improving infrastructure.
The justification from the government for these revised plans is that they will still cut journey times, but can be delivered much quicker than sticking to previous commitments to construct vast new infrastructure which won’t be finished for a decade or more.
But opposition politicians will claim the plans call into question the whole idea of “levelling up”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Starmer: ‘North of England has been betrayed’
They will argue that the focus on journey times does not tell the whole story and that the extra capacity the eastern leg of HS2 and the original NPR would have provided would have been just as transformative.
You can guarantee that the PM’s past comments on HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail will be raked over, providing fuel for election leaflets, campaign ads, media interviews and parliamentary exchanges.
This is a selection of Mr Johnson’s remarks on HS2 and NPR since he came into Number 10.
25 July 2019
Asked if he will “commit quickly” to NPR, the PM tells the Commons he is a “huge fan” of the idea.
“I went up to Manchester airport and saw the plan. It is a truly visionary and exciting plan, and I think we should definitely be doing it,” Mr Johnson said.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2019: PM backs new high-speed northern rail route to ‘turbo charge’ growth
2019 Conservative Party manifesto
The Tories’ blueprint for government, published ahead of the December 2019 general election, stated: “We will build Northern Powerhouse Rail between Leeds and Manchester and then focus on Liverpool, Tees Valley, Hull, Sheffield and Newcastle.”
The document was less definitive about the future of HS2, stating: “HS2 is a great ambition, but will now cost at least £81bn and will not reach Leeds or Manchester until as late as 2040.
“We will consider the findings of the Oakervee review into costs and timings and work with leaders of the Midlands and the North to decide the optimal outcome.”
29 January 2020
Asked about the need to increase capacity in the region by Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake, Mr Johnson says “we are not only building Northern Powerhouse Rail and investing in the Midlands rail hub but, as he knows, we are looking into whether and how to proceed with HS2, and the House can expect an announcement very shortly”.
11 February 2020
The PM announces that HS2 will be going ahead in full, including the eastern leg from Leeds to Birmingham, following a review into the scheme amid worries about spiralling costs.
Appearing in the Commons to announce the findings of the review, he says: “This is about finally making a rapid connection from the West Midlands to the Northern Powerhouse – to Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds – and simultaneously permitting us to go forward with Northern Powerhouse Rail across the Pennines, finally giving the home of the railways the fast connections they need.”
In comments that, upon reading back, appear to be laying the track for the IRP (Integrated Rail Plan) announcements, the PM says he wants to “look at how we can best design and integrate rail investments throughout the North, including Northern Powerhouse Rail between Leeds and Manchester”.
“I want the plan to identify the most effective design and sequencing of all relevant investments in the North,” Mr Johnson tells MPs.
He adds that HS2 and NPR will be “built as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible”.
But the PM continues: “Something has to change. Those who deny that – those who say that we should simply build phase 2b and Northern Powerhouse Rail according to the plans currently on the table – are effectively condemning the North to get nothing for 20 years.
“That would be intolerable, so as we draw up this plan, we are not asking whether it is phase 2b or not 2b.
“That is not the question; the question is how we can bring a transport revolution to the North sooner.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
PM: HS2 ‘is a fantastic project’
Asked by Labour MP Lilian Greenwood for assurances that phase 2b (the eastern leg from Birmingham to Leeds) will not be “delayed further or downgraded to cut costs”, Mr Johnson replies: “Of course we are committed to phase 2b, but I think the honourable member will appreciate – given what has happened in the past 10 years with phase 1 – that it is vital that we use this inflection point to ensure that the taxpayer gets maximum value as we proceed.”
Asked by Leeds Central Labour MP Hilary Benn when the new HS2 station will open in the city, the PM tells him “we will get it going as soon as possible”.
4 November 2020
“I can certainly confirm that we are going ahead with Northern Powerhouse Rail.”
9 December 2020
“We are getting on with both the eastern leg of HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail.
“What I have asked the National Infrastructure Commission and Network Rail to look at is how those two projects can best be integrated to boost the economy of the whole of the north of the country.”
10 February 2021
“I can certainly confirm that we are going to develop the eastern leg as well as the whole of HS2.”
6 October 2021
“We will do Northern Powerhouse Rail, we will link up the cities of the Midlands and the North.”
3 November 2021
“The north-east will be the beneficiary of the biggest investment in our rail infrastructure beyond HS2 that we have seen for a century.
“We will be putting in about £96bn more, and we want the local and regional authorities to work with us to ensure that we promote the projects that the people really want.”
Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of the now-defunct cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius, faces a 20-year prison sentence as the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking a severe penalty for his fraudulent activity.
The US DOJ on April 28 filed the government’s sentencing memorandum against Mashinsky, recommending a 20-year prison sentence due to his fraudulent actions leading to multibillion-dollar losses by Celsius customers.
The 97-page memo mentioned that Celsius users were unable to access approximately $4.7 billion in crypto assets after the platform halted withdrawals on June 12, 2022.
“The Court should sentence Alexander Mashinsky to twenty years’ imprisonment as just punishment for his years-long campaign of lies and self-dealing that left in its wake billions in losses and thousands of victimized customers,” the DOJ stated.
Mashinsky’s personal benefit was $48 million
In addition to listing massive investor losses resulting from the Celsius fraud, the DOJ mentioned that Mashinsky has personally profited from the fraudulent schemes in his role.
As part of his plea in December 2024, Mashinsky admitted that he was the leader of the criminal activity at Celsius, that his crimes resulted in losses in excess of $550 million, and that he personally benefited more than $48 million, the authority said.
The DOJ emphasized that Mashinsky’s guilty plea showed that his crimes were “not the product of negligence, naivete, or bad luck,” but rather the result of “deliberate, calculated decisions to lie, deceive, and steal in pursuit of personal fortune.”
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.
Magazine: Bitcoin $100K hopes on ice, SBF’s mysterious prison move: Hodler’s Digest, April 20 – 26
The concept of a Russian ruble stablecoin received special attention at a major local crypto event, the Blockchain Forum in Moscow, with key industry executives reflecting on some of the core features a ruble-backed stablecoin might require.
Sergey Mendeleev, founder of the digital settlement exchange Exved and inactive founder of the sanctioned Garantex exchange, put forward seven key criteria for a potential “replica of Tether” in a keynote at the Blockchain Forum on April 23.
Mendeleev said a potential ruble stablecoin must have untraceable transactions and allow transfers without Know Your Customer (KYC) checks.
However, because one of the criteria also requires the stablecoin to comply with Russian regulations, he expressed skepticism that such a product could emerge soon.
The DAI model praised
Mendeleev proposed that a potential Russian “Tether replica” must be overcollateralized similarly to the Dai (DAI) stablecoin model, a decentralized algorithmic stablecoin that maintains its one-to-one peg with the US dollar using smart contracts.
“So, any person who buys it will understand that the contract is based on the assets that super-securitize it, not somewhere on some unknown accounts, but free to be checked by simple crypto methods,” he said.
Another must-have feature should be excess liquidity on both centralized and decentralized exchanges, Mendeleev said, adding that users must be able to exchange the stablecoin at any time they need.
According to Mendeleev, a viable ruble-pegged stablecoin also needs to offer non-KYC transactions, so users are not required to pass their data to start using it.
“The Russian ruble stablecoin should have the opportunity where people use it without disclosing their data,” he stated.
Related: Russia’s central bank, finance ministry to launch crypto exchange
In the meantime, users should be able to earn interest on holding the stablecoin, Mendelev continued, adding that offering this feature is available via smart contracts.
Russia opts for centralization
Mendeleev also suggested that a potential Russian version of Tether’s USDt (USDT) would need to feature untraceable and cheap transactions, while its smart contracts should not enable blocks or freezes.
The final criterion is that a potential ruble stablecoin would have to be regulated in accordance with the Russian legislation, which currently doesn’t look promising, according to Mendeleev.
“Once we put these seven points together […] then it would be a real alternative, which would help us at least compete with the solutions that are currently on the market,” he stated at the conference, adding:
“Unfortunately, from the point of view of regulation, we are currently going in the absolutely opposite direction […] We are going in the direction of absolute centralization, not in the direction of liberalization of laws, but consolidation of prohibitions.”
Possible solutions
While the regulatory side is not looking good, a potential Russian version of USDT is technically feasible, Mendeleev told Cointelegraph.
“Except for anonymous transactions, everything is easy to implement and has already been deployed by several projects, but it’s just not unified in one project yet,” he said.
The crypto advocate specifically referred to interesting opportunities by projects like the ruble-pegged A7A5 stablecoin, unblockable contracts at DAI, and others.
Related: Russian crypto exchange Mosca raided amid cash-to-crypto ban talks
Regulation is necessary but not enough, Mendeleev said, adding that the most difficult part is the trust of users who must see the ruble stablecoin as a viable alternative to major alternatives like USDT.
Recent reports suggest that the deputy head of Russia’s Finance Ministry’s financial policy department urged the government to develop ruble stablecoins.
Elsewhere, the Bank of Russia has continued to progress its central bank digital currency project, the digital ruble. According to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, the digital ruble is scheduled to be rolled out for commercial banks in the second half of 2025.
Magazine: Bitcoin $100K hopes on ice, SBF’s mysterious prison move: Hodler’s Digest, April 20 – 26
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway