HS2 ‘vital for North boost’
Death of mercenary who led Congo mission
CRITICS of the costly HS2 rail project are “profoundly mistaken”, Labour’s Hilary Benn has warned.
The Leeds MP said the North faces “three decades of travel misery” without the new lines, which would help businesses to “thrive”.
He added: “There is no reason why a child growing up in Leeds should have fewer opportunities than one in London.”
Chancellor Sajid Javid is among those backing HS2, which is now estimated to cost more than £100billion.
Richard Burton in The Wild Geese
FAMOUS mercenary Colonel Michael “Mad Mike” Hoare has died, aged 100.
Born in India to Irish parents, he earned worldwide fame after commanding a unit in the Congo in the 1960s to thwart a rebellion.
It inspired the 1978 film The Wild Geese, starring Richard Burton as Col Allen Faulkner, who was based heavily on Mr Hoare.
But his career as a soldier of fortune ended in embarrassment when he was jailed for three years for hijacking a jet in a failed coup attempt in the Seychelles in 1981.
His son Chris said: “Mike Hoare lived by the philosophy you get
100th birthday last year more out of life by living dangerously, so it is all the more remarkable he lived more than 100 years.
“People described him as a legend and a gentleman – only a few realised there was a bit of pirate thrown in.”
Before becoming a mercenary, he served in the British Army in the Second World War and moved to South Africa in 1948.
His family said he passed away in his sleep at a care home in Durban on Sunday.