By Julia Penhaligon

There are some whose idea of investing in rail links in the north means bringing trains back to Bude.  But the government has ignored that campaign in its "Network North" alternative spending plan, following Rishi Sunak's scrapping of the HS2 rail project on Wednesday.

The closest that any of the £36 billion savings gets to Cornwall is a short length of railway between Tavistock and Plymouth. part of the West Devon Parliamentary constituency which in 2019 saw the Conservatives take 60.1% of the vote.  It is hardly a marginal.

The 40-page list of alternative transport projects devotes just one paragraph to the South West:  "We will reopen stations and reintroduce rail passenger services to Wellington and Cullompton, reinstate five miles of track and a new station at Tavistock to connect it with Plymouth.

"Alongside this, we will put aside funding to complete the South West Resilience Programme in full, delivering on our commitment to the South West to make the vital route between Exeter and Plymouth through Dawlish more resilient in the face of extreme weather."

The alternative transport plan does include a promise to maintain the £2 cap on bus fares and make more cash available for filling pot holes.