The incoming Secretary of State for Transport, Justine Greening, has announced a shock decision to cancel the High Speed 2 rail project which would have linked London and Birmingham.
Speaking from her constituency home in Putney Ms Greening said: "When I arrived in the role Dave said it was important to talk sense over HS2. So I looked at the facts and realised that shortening the journey time between London and Birmingham by 23 minutes wasn't really going to revive the economy."
The first stage of HS2, linking Euston to the Midlands, was expected to cost £17bn excluding backhanders. Journey times would reduce from 1hr 12mins to 49mins, a gain the Transport Secretary described as "bugger all".
Ms Greening went on to say: "I'm not sure Birmingham contains any economic activity, so quite why we'd want to get there quicker is beyond me. I can only assume this plan is still hanging around from the New Labour days - probably Prescott's idea to reduce pie-shipping times from Melton Mowbray."
"Actually, would £17bn be enough to have Birmingham moved further away?"
