[QUOTE][The question is what does regional connectivity really mean? Connecting the regions to each other while avoiding London, or connecting the country via London? Given the chronic lack of investment for CrossCountry over the past decade, or more, I wonder if the latter is more important for Whitehall?/QUOTE]
I'm sure that it's much more important to HMG to provide connectivity of anywhere outside London to London, rather than, for example maintaining connectivity between Manchester and Aberdeen, Inverness to Birmingham or Newcastle to Bristol (not suggesting any of those are FlyBe routes, I know some aren't). One only has to look at the UK's motorway and rail networks to understand that connecting Nottingham to London is more important than Nottingham to Birmingham, and Leeds to London more important that Leeds to Manchester. But then, with most civil government civil servant and MPs (wherever their constituency is) spend a disproportionate time in London and the Southeast why would they think in any other way.