Dear Editor, By agreeing to minor changes in the route of the proposed and unnecessary HS2 railway line, my fellow opponents have fallen straight into the trap that Sir Humphrey has long used to divide and rule.

Sir Humphrey always puts in unpopular route proposals in the first draft so that they can be conceded to buy off MPs and look moderate at public inquiries.

For example, it always was the intention to put the line in a cut and cover tunnel along the old Crackley-Berkeswell loop line.

There is only one argument which will defeat this ludicrous scheme: continue to say that Sir Humphrey and HS2 can’t prove the need.

Anyone with the smallest knowledge of railways will know that re-opening the Great Central’s London Extension and upgrading the Great Western’s Northern Main Line to 125 mph is both simple, cost-effective and gives operators all the extra capacity they need.

HS2 is only being proposed to satisfy St Richard the Virgin’s vanity and ego. The sooner we all keep on singing from the same hymn sheet, the sooner the silly proposal will be defeated.

Chris Youett,

Coventry