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THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW Highlighting best practice 58 | REVIEW OF PARLIAMENT Europe was not the only divisive issue of the year. With its £21 billion price tag and its serious implications for constituencies and communities along the proposed route, the Bill to implement HS2, the high speed rail link between London and Birmingham, was always going to be controversial – but the government and the leaderships of all three main parties thought its wider economic benefits justified what ministers believed was a long-overdue upgrade to Britain's creaking and overloaded rail infrastructure. Unsurprisingly, the combined weight of the three front benches won the day, with a crushing majority – although a vocal group of rebels took their defiance into the division lobbies. The transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin opened the debate by reminding MPs of the 1833 Bill to create what is now the West Coast Mainline: 'It is worth recalling that in 1832 parliament rejected the initial Bill because some people objected, arguing that canals were all we would ever need for long- distance travel. Today, we ask far too much of the line. If we were talking about roads, it would be as if traffic still had to go up Watling Street, as if the M1 and M6 had never been built, and we tried to solve our transport needs by just patching up old roads … Cities and towns in the North deserve better. Scotland deserves better. Britain deserves better.' He was supported by his Labour shadow Mary Creagh, who said HS2 could transform the economic geography of the UK, and help rebalance the economy by creating new skilled jobs and apprenticeships. The Bill's arch opponent was the former Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan, whose Chesham and Amersham constituency lies across the proposed route. She had put down an amendment to throw out the Bill, and criticised what she called 'the cosy consensus' over it. A Labour opponent of the scheme, Barry HS2 – a band of rebels in the Commons HS2 has a £21 billion price tag and has serious implications for constituencies and communities along the proposed route