JUST two days before a speech due from Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin intended to get the HS2 high-speed rail link project back on track, the Commons Public Accounts Committee described the plans as unrealistic.

Various figures are bandied around about the estimated cost of this white elephant scheme with even the Treasury putting it at £73 billion.

We cannot afford it and just as importantly we don't need it and don't want it.

This project will devastate the lives of home-owners living near the route, many of whom will be unable to claim any compensation nor sell their devalued homes.

It will also not benefit anywhere except London and claims to the contrary are spurious.

The existing railway system could be upgraded using just a fraction of this eye-watering sum and extra train carriages would ease the undoubted overcrowding problems.

When will David Cameron finally admit that HS2 is fatally flawed and has hit the buffers?

North West MEP Paul Nuttall, UKIP deputy leader.