Channel Tunnel Rail Link (Supplementary Provisions) Bill

We are considering the first high-speed line to be implemented and inaugurated in our country and our capital city. I do not perceive any benefit in following the nationalist, narrow-minded dead end that the hon. Gentleman's comments suggest. To describe a high-speed line from St. Pancras to the channel tunnel as some sort of parochial benefit for the south-east is the worst form of nationalism. Nationalism takes many bad forms but that is one of the most small-minded attacks that I have heard since I gave an interview to BBC Radio Scotland two weeks ago.