I MUST admit to incredulity when I read the headline, “George Osborne is named as the Briton of the Year”, Guardian January 1.

I doubt very much if the residents of his Tatton Constituency share this view. Here is an MP who is “too busy” to hold surgeries, indeed his constituency office appears to be empty most of the time.

This is the MP who “dodged” constituents who wanted to express their views in relation to HS2.

He relocated his meeting with parish councillors from Plumley Village Hall to Macclesfield Town Hall on security grounds, and asked for this change of venue not to be made public!

I suspect that Macclesfield Town Hall was chosen as it had more escape routes than Plumley Village Hall and that would mean he could avoid anti HS2 protesters more easily – which he did by employing a police decoy car.

On HS2 he claimed his view was based on what he described as a judgement call.

This was a judgement that conveniently ignored reports from the Public Accounts Committee, the Institute of Directors, The New Economic Foundation and other similar critical reports.

I wonder if he was one of the Government Ministers who sat on the Department for Transport’s research that clearly showed that the methods employed by KPMG, exaggerated the benefits that would accrue to HS2, thus critically undermining KPMG’s findings.

He publicly claimed that “KPMG’s report showed that HS2 will provide a boost to the economy of £15bn pa.”

Was that a judgement call too? If so, I fear for the future.

Briton of the Year? I think not.

EWEN SIMPSON Mid Cheshire Against HS2 All Cheshire Against HS2