A nine-year-old boy is set to appear before parliament, when he petitions a committee of MPs investigating the case for the HS2 high-speed rail link between London, the Midlands and the north.



Alex Rukin, son of the manager of the Stop HS2 Campaign, will tell the HS2 hybrid bill committee that the new rail line will run over a viaduct opposite his mother’s house in Balsall Common in the West Midlands and will disrupt his sleep, while construction works threaten to affect roads in the area for many years.

In his petition, Alex tells MPs that he thinks HS2 is a “stupid” idea which will cost more money than its supporters claim, and that people of his age group will end up having to pay for it through their taxes.

He writes: “Your petitioner thinks it is unfair that he and his friends will have to pay more money forever for something they think isn’t needed and they won’t have enough money to be able to use it.



“Your petitioner, who started doing video conferencing at school when he was six, wonders if the old people who say we need HS2 have ever even heard of the internet, Skype or Facetime. Even your petitioner’s dad uses them, and when he went to the same school, they only had one computer on a trolley for the whole school.”

Alex’s father, Joe Rukin, said: “As far as we can tell Alex will become the youngest person to have ever appeared in an official capacity before parliament. This makes sense to me, as apart from the specific instance of hybrid bill committees, I can’t think of any case when someone that young would have the opportunity, apart from maybe Edward VI.

“After I explained what petitioning was, he said he thought everyone in the whole country should be doing it, because he thinks HS2 is such a bad idea, and the wrong thing to spend lots of money on. He is committed to doing something about something he thinks is wrong, and I’m really proud about that.”