Tim Montgomerie: HiSpeed rail advocates accuse southern NIMBYs of protecting their lawns at the expense of northern jobs

High Speed Rail, we are told, is the future but HS2's defenders are employing very backwards-looking propaganda to make their case.

Unveiled in Manchester today, a new poster campaign asks northerners to support HS2 because it means jobs for them while bowler-hatted southerners are opposed because the rail link will ruin their lawns...

Jerry Marshall, a campaigner against HS2, commented:

"They seem to be getting a bit desperate. I am looking at my lawn, it is only about 30ft long and it is hardly very posh. The truth is, it is more about ancient woodlands than lawns."

Pro-HS2 campaigners privately concede that the images are provocative but they capture their frustration that southern NIMBYs are trying to kill a project that - it is claimed - is vital for the northern economies.

The campaign fits into a theme that pro-HS2 campaigners are keen to develop: If the Conservative Party is serious about northern England, they say, it will build High Speed Rail.