NICK

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YOU don’t need to be a fan of Thethick Of It to realise the decision to press ahead with HS2 is payback to voters in the Midlands and the North who helped break that “red wall” and power the Conservatives to government. So, why on earth have they decided to build it from London?

This is entirely the wrong way around. It should have started in the North to create jobs, stimulate local economies and show real intent.

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WHY is it every public sector project goes hopelessly wrong? Last week we learned the repairs to Big Ben have suffered a major setback as costs soar to £79million. The costs were originally estimated to be £29million. Add to this that the specialist timekeepers on site have said they are unable to repair the historic Elizabeth Tower clock.

So we’ve allowed a project to soar by almost 200 per cent and it doesn’t even fix the problem!

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DID you see that absurd claim that scrapping the TV tax – sorry, licence fee – would “weaken the nation”? It was made by the BBC Chairman Sir David Clementi, who also warned that it could mean the end of Strictly Come Dancing and specials such as Gavin & Stacey on Christmas Day last year.

Future royal weddings (and they are proving such a hit, aren’t they?) and the Olympics would have to become pay per view and China and Russia could flood the world with fake news unchecked by the Corporation’s news arm.

Setting aside the bias of much of its news coverage, particularly over Brexit, this ugly mix of bullying, threat and panic is the precise reason record numbers of people have tired of the BBC.