Cameron accused of ignoring Scotland as rail line stops south of Border
By Steven Vass

CONSERVATIVE plans to build a high-speed rail line no further north than Leeds will wipe out their vote in Scotland and encourage nationalism, according to the Scottish transport minister.

Stewart Stevenson MSP led a chorus of critics in saying that the presentation by shadow secretary of state for transport Theresa Villiers at the party conference in Birmingham last week would seriously damage the party's electoral hopes in Scotland at the next general election.

"I was astonished that David Cameron took his eye off the ball, but it tells you where the priorities of the Conservatives lie in Scotland. They didn't have high-speed rail in Scotland on their map, and they won't be on the map after the next election," he said, agreeing that it was likely to benefit the SNP.

"Voters in Scotland have long since abandoned any hope that the Conservatives will pay attention or respond to their needs".

While Conservatives were privately insisting that Villiers's speech had merely omitted Scotland carelessly, and aides later said the line would cross the border in time, observers feared this might be the shape of things to come from a party unlikely to have many supporters north of the Border.

"It's obviously been done for voter reasons but it's very short-sighted," said one non-partisan senior source. "Policies like these are likely to further undermine the union."

Graham Bell, chairman of the High Speed 2 Scotland (HS2S) group, the private-public sector campaign group for a high-speed link to Scotland, said: "The Conservatives have made it clear that blue is the new green, but they are also passionate about the union.

"They can't expect the loyalty of Scottish voters unless they understand that Manchester is only one-quarter of the way up the country."

He added that HS2S, which was set up in June, had recently scored a result by persuading respected UK high-speed rail campaign group Greengauge 21 to extend its study into building a network to cover Scotland.

While Greengauge is thought to have had no interest in Scotland before, it changed its mind after receiving contributions from Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, Edinburgh City Council and the South East of Scotland Transport Partnership. With the 180mph trains expected to substantially cut journey times, this is seen as improving the chances of the line including Scotland.

Stewart Stevenson added that the Tory proposal to scrap a third runway at Heathrow in favour of a TGV train from London via Manchester to Leeds would do less for the environment than a line to the Scottish central belt.

"If we are to meet our climate change objectives, faster rail links to Scotland would reduce the amount of air travel between Scotland and the south, which is a big opportunity that is being overlooked".

Laura Gordon, director of the Edinburgh-Glasgow Collaboration Project, said: "The significance of Glasgow and Edinburgh to the UK must not be understated. They are the twin engines of growth for the Scottish economy but are also hugely significant to the UK. I cannot understand why they would leave Scotland out of the plans".

Scottish Tory transport spokesman Alex Johnstone insisted that a high-speed network would be built in stages, just like the 19th-century railways, and welcomed the fact that the Tory plan would take it closer to Scotland.

But asked whether the UK party supported bringing it further north, Johnstone appeared to choose his words carefully.

He said: "The Scottish Conservatives have been in favour of bringing high-speed rail to Scotland for a considerable time, and we will continue to work towards that".