Why Won't They Join In?

First, the Tories refuse to join in the conference today which was designed to try again to find some common ground on care for the elderly. Now, they have refused to even look at the plans being drawn up for a high speed rail link up the spine of the UK. The thing is, they are forever moaning about not knowing what is going on in Whitehall. Yet, now they have the chance to be involved at the early stages of two major issues, but won't. With an election coming up all the parties will be cautious about how they interact with each other, particularly with the possibility of a hung parliament. But this really is ridiculous. They claim that the health issue has become a party political football, but they made it that way by bailing out of informal talks with the health secretary and our Norman Lamb. Now they say much the same about the railways. As our transport spokesman said today "This peculiar decision of the Tories coupled with Osborne's spending cuts strongly suggest that the Tories are trying to kick high-speed rail into the long grass. The Tories can't be trusted with our railways." If they are trying to cut a pledge they have made for genuine economic reasons why not just say so?