Channel Tunnel Rail Link (Supplementary Provisions) Bill

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that very helpful intervention. [Laughter.] We have plenty of time, Madam Deputy Speaker, but I am not sure that you would want me to digress to that extent. However, since the question has been asked, the channel tunnel, which was first suggested as a genuine capital project that would actually go ahead in the 1980s, gained support in the House because there was a commitment to link it via high-speed lines to points throughout Great Britain. My hon. Friend is absolutely correct about that. Subsequently, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the then Conservative Government decided that direct high-speed links to the channel tunnel would not be provided—I am not making a political point here; this party supported their decision. To bring the House completely up to date, it is a matter of record that our party's 2005 manifesto committed the Government to considering the case for high-speed links from north to south, and we have done that as part of the process leading up to the publication of our White Paper, ““Delivering a sustainable railway””, in July. The Government concluded correctly that although there may be a case in the medium to long term for high-speed lines as a way of meeting additional capacity demands, there was not as strong a case for them with regard to connectivity and journey times, given that Great Britain is a relatively small island. That discussion is still ongoing in the Government. We will make further consideration of the case. I hope that whoever is in this job in 2012 will make a relevant announcement at that time, in the run-up to the high-level output specification planned for publication in that year that will cover the control period from 2014 to 2019.