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Opponents of HS2 in London's Primrose Hill have been rallied to action by the mayor of London's father, Stanley Johnson, calling for a "popular uprising" in the borough of Camden.
Warning not only of the cost and disruption of the construction, but the project's breaches of human rights and security implications, Johnson demanded that the scheme's architect, Lord Adonis, be stripped of his title of Baron of Camden, for the damage he would wreak on the borough. He asked a 500-strong audience of local residents, council leaders and MPs: "Would you call Bomber Harris Air Vice Marshall of Berlin?"
Johnson, whose £4m house in Park Village East will lie within 10 metres of the new subterranean track, said the proposed anchoring system along the HS2 track at that point was untested. He said: "It's never been tried, except perhaps in Japan, on the sea-wall at Fukushima."
Referring to newspaper stories of British jihadists in Birmingham, he said: "What about terrorism? With HS2 these young girls are going to get down from Birmingham 20 minutes quicker."
Johnson's emergence as a leading light of the north London anti-HS2 campaign pits him in theory against Boris, who supports the £42.6bn HS2 scheme in principle. However, the mayor has said he opposes the planned HS2-HS1 link through Camden – joining the new route to the existing high-speed rail track to France – which threatens to disrupt or constrain the growing London Overground services.
Johnson told the Guardian that the mayor's support for HS2 was based on "liking the idea of this new modern Britain, if that's not too Adonis-like", and said he would have a "pretty important role to play now", but warned: "Every time you make the impact in Camden more acceptable you diminish the need to axe the whole project."
"The council was part of a group seeking judicial reviews of the decision to build HS2, but a final appeal was dismissed this week. "That's four nurses' salaries down the drain. What's the cost-benefit ratio of legal action? Zero." (AtW's comment: that's infinity surely given £100000/0 )
Source: Boris Johnson's father calls for 'popular uprising' against HS2 | UK news | theguardian.com
