{"id":123259,"date":"2021-11-22T16:12:50","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T16:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=123259"},"modified":"2021-11-22T16:12:50","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T16:12:50","slug":"why-ian-blackford-has-demanded-20bn-from-boris-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/politics\/why-ian-blackford-has-demanded-20bn-from-boris-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Ian Blackford has demanded \u00a320bn from Boris Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

PMQs: Boris Johnson hits out at ‘uncivil’ Ian Blackford<\/h3>\n

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Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, has lashed out at Boris Johnson after he ditches a proposal to build a bridge or tunnel to connect Northern Ireland to Scotland. Mr Blackford has called on Boris Johnson to give Scotland “its fair share” of £20 billion for scrapping these plans even though he described the proposals as “daft”.<\/p>\n

Boris Johnson has long been a supporter of building a fixed link between Scotland and Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

The PM asked Sir Peter Hendy, the Network Rail chairman, to investigate upgrading connectivity across the Union.<\/p>\n

Sir Hendy’s review (the Union Connectivity Review) is expected to be published soon, but a Government source has let slip that a bridge or tunnel connecting Scotland and Northern Ireland has been ruled out.<\/p>\n

Part of the review looked at whether the building of a bridge or tunnel across the North Channel between Stranraer and Larne would be feasible.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

According to the Telegraph, a Government source said such a project “would be technically very challenging at the moment”.<\/p>\n

They added: “That’s not to say it won’t become viable at some point in the future, but at the moment it would be very, very difficult and expensive.”<\/p>\n

Sir Hendy’s forecasted costs and the engineering challenges that would come with such a huge project, has forced the PM to ditch this plan.<\/p>\n

In response to reports the project will be scrapped, Mr Blackford has demanded that Westminster should hand over a staggering £20billion to devolved governments so they can spend the money themselves on “transport and connectivity projects”.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mr Blackford said: “Boris Johnson’s plans were daft but the funding suggested can and should be made available.<\/p>\n

“It could then be spent on transport and connectivity projects that are worthwhile and deliverable and not spent over the heads of the devolved governments.”<\/p>\n

He then tweeted: “Another broken promise from Westminster. If the bridge isn’t going ahead, Scotland should get its fair share of the £20billion investment we were promised, so we can spend it on worthwhile and deliverable transport projects in communities across Scotland.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The ditching of these plans comes as no surprise, as the Government was forced to officially shelve the eastern leg of the HS2 high-speed rail project last week.<\/p>\n

Building a bridge or tunnel between Northern Ireland and Scotland would be fraught with costly engineering challenges.<\/p>\n

According to the Times, engineers said building a tunnel connecting the two would be a “non-starter”, as it would take too long for emergency services to arrive if a crash occurred in the middle of the tunnel.<\/p>\n

One issue is that the Channel is far too deep. It reaches 300m deep in places; building support towers at this level would be prohibitively expensive.<\/p>\n

The Channel was also used as an ammunition dump in the Second World War, so building the bridge could be dangerous.<\/p>\n

The strong gales across the Channel could mean the bridge may be shut frequently, making the project unviable.<\/p>\n

In response to these leaked reports, the Department for Transport told the BBC: “We don’t comment on speculation. The Union Connectivity Review will be published shortly.”<\/p>\n

Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PMQs: Boris Johnson hits out at ‘uncivil’ Ian Blackford We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":123258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Ian Blackford has demanded \u00a320bn from Boris Johnson - Fin2me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/politics\/why-ian-blackford-has-demanded-20bn-from-boris-johnson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Ian Blackford has demanded \u00a320bn from Boris Johnson - Fin2me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"PMQs: Boris Johnson hits out at ‘uncivil’ Ian Blackford We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/politics\/why-ian-blackford-has-demanded-20bn-from-boris-johnson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fin2me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-22T16:12:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Why-Ian-Blackford-has-demanded-20bn-from-Boris-Johnson.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/politics\/why-ian-blackford-has-demanded-20bn-from-boris-johnson\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/politics\/why-ian-blackford-has-demanded-20bn-from-boris-johnson\/\",\"name\":\"Why Ian Blackford has demanded \u00a320bn from Boris Johnson - 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