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HS2: the great property robbery
The stifling power of property rights blocks the track to modernisation in Britain, writes ANDREW MURRAY
A train passes the HS2 construction site in Euston, London

CONTEMPLATING the sad stump of HS2 — as this is written the cancellation of its remaining northern leg looks inevitable — I recall a conversation I had with the great Marxist economist David Harvey a few years ago.

He was describing how he would visit a district in China and find it more-or-less a wilderness and then return maybe four years later to see it full of factories, housing developments and the most modern infrastructure, including high-speed rail lines.

I asked how the Chinese government was able to accomplish this and his answer stuck with me: “Property rights are not a problem.”

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