TWO cheers for David Cameron’s staunch support for high-speed rail lines from London to the North – in the teeth of anger from his own allies along the route.

The Tories of Buckinghamshire will make life very uncomfortable for the Prime Minister as they fight to avoid watching 250mph trains – often only through powerful binoculars – zipping past their back gardens.

One Cabinet minister has threatened to resign and Mr Cameron is confronted with a near-daily barrage of ill-informed ranting in the Conservative press.

Nevertheless, this week, the Government insisted the £33bn project would go ahead, although it did alter half of the preferred route to Birmingham because of protests.

Mr Cameron is putting his belief in the ability of high-speed rail to boost the North’s economy before a local difficulty in his Cabinet and the shires.

Indeed, his commitment appears stronger than Labour’s. Maria Eagle, the shadow transport secretary, announced the scheme was no longer “untouchable” because of the spending squeeze – before leader Ed Miliband quickly insisted it was, after all, “a priority”.

I share the Prime Minister’s faith in the economic benefits from high-speed. More important, there is a desperate need for a new rail line – to ease overcrowding.

So why only two cheers?

Well, it is because the lengthy timetable for high-speed provides a handy excuse for dangerous inaction in the meantime.

The link to Birmingham will not be built until 2026, the extension won’t reach Leeds until 2032 – and there is no date for carrying on to the North-East, although journey times will be cut sharply for all.

Yet, when I quizzed Mr Cameron recently about the likely widening of the gaping North-South economic divide in the years to come, he immediately pointed to high-speed rail as the solution.

I suspect he will need a much better answer to satisfy the hundreds of thousands about to be thrown on the dole, as the spending cuts inflict deeper wounds in the North.

While the North-East waits for high-speed, council services will be ravaged, help for struggling businesses hacked back and powers to influence key economic decisions lost to London.

Where is the economic strategy for this region, beyond a naive faith that the private sector will miraculously mop up huge public- sector job losses?

Ever-faster trains can only provide a partial answer to relative poverty in the North- East in the very long run.

And, as the great economist John Maynard Keynes – now back in fashion – said: “In the long run, we’re all dead.”

AS one wag put it: “I guess we will never know why Vince Cable bragged about waging war on Rupert Murdoch . . . in that chat with two very attractive female reporters!”

We do know that the Liberal Democrats are again badly weakened, as their most powerful voice in a Tory-dominated Cabinet is humiliated and stripped of powers. Either a lame duck, or a laughing stock – or both.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister tightens his grip and delights Mr Murdoch, his key media supporter, by handing the decision on the BSkyB takeover to Jeremy Hunt, an anti- BBC Tory.

Once again, Mr Cameron comes out smiling.