Tory conference: Osborne on HS2 jobs and prosperity
The chancellor asked Tory delegates to imagine a "nation of Isambard Kingdom Brunel being unable to summon the will to join the north and the south with a high speed railway".
George Osborne told the conference in Manchester the high speed rail line would bring "more jobs and prosperity to great cities like this".
He went on to list Britain's engineering achievements, and spoke about shale gas, nuclear power stations, genetic research and "materials of the future like graphene".
He told the delegates: "Ours is the Britain of the future."
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