How are Welsh taxpayers paying for an England rail project?

[Wozza16]

I just can't fathom how you can make an argument that one countries taxpayers should be paying for an infrastructure project in another country that doesn't have an inch of it inside their country?

Otherwise you can argue England taxpayers should be paying for the South Wales metro, the severn bridge (which was built for free in-leu of a toll rather than the UK government investing.) It never ends.

Why are the Welsh such a pushover as a nation? I can't imagine that happening with in any other country in the world let alone Scotland.

Even the Welsh conservatives think it's a joke. 5 billion pounds+ is a huge amount of money that is being basically robbed.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-61495454

Surely there is a petition against this sh1t?

[The Bloop]

Re: How are Welsh taxpayers paying for an England rail project?

How dare the UK government award over £200m to 11 different Welsh projects, just a couple of months ago from the levelling up fund.
It includes £50m towards the Cardiff Crossrail project.
You'd better let those English taxpayers know.

[Doucas]

Re: How are Welsh taxpayers paying for an England rail project?

How dare the UK government award over £200m to 11 different Welsh projects, just a couple of months ago from the levelling up fund.
It includes £50m towards the Cardiff Crossrail project.
You'd better let those English taxpayers know.

I can't tell if this a joke.

Just in case you're serious, that is absolutely peanuts compared to the money Wales lost from exiting the EU.

[The Bloop]

Re: How are Welsh taxpayers paying for an England rail project?

I can't tell if this a joke.

Just in case you're serious, that is absolutely peanuts compared to the money Wales lost from exiting the EU.

Not a joke (and I'm not a supporter of them either incase you're wondering).
I'm fully aware that it's peanuts, and that we haven't received our fair share of HS2 money, but just for the sake of balance for the OPs point, thought it was worth mentioning. With a general election on the horizon, no doubt, there'll be a few more sweeteners coming this side of the border in the next year or so.

[dml1954]

Re: How are Welsh taxpayers paying for an England rail project?

I just can't fathom how you can make an argument that one countries taxpayers should be paying for an infrastructure project in another country that doesn't have an inch of it inside their country?

Otherwise you can argue England taxpayers should be paying for the South Wales metro, the severn bridge (which was built for free in-leu of a toll rather than the UK government investing.) It never ends.

Why are the Welsh such a pushover as a nation? I can't imagine that happening with in any other country in the world let alone Scotland.

Even the Welsh conservatives think it's a joke. 5 billion pounds+ is a huge amount of money that is being basically robbed.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-61495454

Surely there is a petition against this sh1t?

Because we live in the UK .

[Dorcus]

Re: How are Welsh taxpayers paying for an England rail project?

Because we live in the UK .

Exactly DML. It's not often I agree with you but England is not some foreign country. It's part of our UK.

[Rjk]

Re: How are Welsh taxpayers paying for an England rail project?

if Wales got 5bn of infrastructure spending that would be absolutely massive -

[JamesWales]

Re: How are Welsh taxpayers paying for an England rail project?

I agree, Wales should get it's share of funding, but it has to be said that more public money is spent per head in Wales than in England, so the 'tax payer' argument doesn't wash.

The argument here (which is true) is that people from North Wales will benefit as anyone going from Wrexham, Bangor et al will get to London quicker as a result. Like I said, that is demonstrably true, but I still think Wales should get it's share of HS2 funding, not least because it's politically sensible to do so.

[A Quiet Monkfish]

Re: How are Welsh taxpayers paying for an England rail project?

I can't tell if this a joke.

Just in case you're serious, that is absolutely peanuts compared to the money Wales lost from exiting the EU.

I'll explain this in simple terms. The UK is in the UK and pays , say £50 billion. It then gets back, say £25 bilion. All that 'EU funding' for pointless projects was actually us receiving half our money back. The 'EU' doesn't have one single euro - it's all contributions from the taxpayers of member states..

[Rjk]

Re: How are Welsh taxpayers paying for an England rail project?

I'll explain this in simple terms. The UK is in the UK and pays , say £50 billion. It then gets back, say £25 bilion. All that 'EU funding' for pointless projects was actually us receiving half our money back. The 'EU' doesn't have one single euro - it's all contributions from the taxpayers of member states..

on the other hand membership of the EU was worth a lot more than the membership fee to the UK economy.

Also at least the money we got back was occasionally spent on infrastructure projects in Wales, unlike Westminster who will always spend it in the South East

[Rjk]

Re: How are Welsh taxpayers paying for an England rail project?

I agree, Wales should get it's share of funding, but it has to be said that more public money is spent per head in Wales than in England, so the 'tax payer' argument doesn't wash.

The argument here (which is true) is that people from North Wales will benefit as anyone going from Wrexham, Bangor et al will get to London quicker as a result. Like I said, that is demonstrably true, but I still think Wales should get it's share of HS2 funding, not least because it's politically sensible to do so.

Wales gets more money "per head" compared to England, because the population here is older, poorer , with worse health, and that is unlikely to change as long as Wales is in this unequal Union.

where Wales doesn't get it's fair share in spending is in infrastructure spending which could actually help to transform the country

[JamesWales]

Re: How are Welsh taxpayers paying for an England rail project?

on the other hand membership of the EU was worth a lot more than the membership fee to the UK economy.

Also at least the money we got back was occasionally spent on infrastructure projects in Wales, unlike Westminster who will always spend it in the South East

The Westminster govt spends far far more in Wales than the EU ever did!

[poc]

Re: How are Welsh taxpayers paying for an England rail project?

I agree, Wales should get it's share of funding, but it has to be said that more public money is spent per head in Wales than in England, so the 'tax payer' argument doesn't wash.

The argument here (which is true) is that people from North Wales will benefit as anyone going from Wrexham, Bangor et al will get to London quicker as a result. Like I said, that is demonstrably true, but I still think Wales should get it's share of HS2 funding, not least because it's politically sensible to do so.

well there was plenty of people on question time saying its not true from a bit further up the warrington area last week

[JamesWales]

Re: How are Welsh taxpayers paying for an England rail project?

Wales gets more money "per head" compared to England, because the population here is older, poorer , with worse health, and that is unlikely to change as long as Wales is in this unequal Union.

where Wales doesn't get it's fair share in spending is in infrastructure spending which could actually help to transform the country

I don't disagree with you there.

I'm just providing an answer to the question, and that is because if ever the HS2 project were completed then people from Wrexham, Caernarfon and Holyhead will be able to get to Birmingham, Oxford, London etc much quicker - thus there is considered to be a benefit to Wales.

I don't agree with the whole HS2 project. Electrification of the GWR made sense, we can now get to London in 1hr45mins, but does that really need to be much quicker than that?

[JamesWales]

Re: How are Welsh taxpayers paying for an England rail project?

well there was plenty of people on question time saying its not true from a bit further up the warrington area last week

There are many reasons to criticism HS2 but undoubtedly it will make some journeys quicker. That much isn't in doubt.