[psd1]

Spanish politics is based on coalition; when a government is voted out, it generally retains a significant presence in the next government.

The UK looks like it's about to send the tories to the shadow realm, so they have zero incentive to do any long-term thinking.

My belief is that Sunak has cancelled this project out of sheer spite, to salt the earth for when the next government restarts it, so that in five years' time they can do their customary blame-it-on-labour bollocks. And they aren't expecting any votes from the north anyway.

My heart goes out to those who had their homes compulsorily purchased, but if they now buy them back, they will only be purchased again. The obvious winners are developers who sweep in to buy in the expectation that they'll be CPOd at a higher price in a year.

The Tory party is broke and in need of donations to fight the next election. If any of their donors then buy land back from HS2, I shall be cross.

[unflxw]

While I hope that Spanish politics continue to be based in coalitions, this is a very recent phenomenon, with a two-party political system historically dominating the country's politics, a tradition that predates the democratic system itself. [1]

For what it's worth, I believe the plan is to keep most of the land that was purchased for HS2, as to make it possible for the project to be restarted at a later date.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turno