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As the North of England & parts of Wales count the costs of the Boxing day floods the anti Hs2 mobs cynicism levels are full to overflowing.
Desperate for any opportunity to try & revive their dying campaign they’re cynically exploiting the floods to call for Hs2 money to be diverted to flood defences – just like they did last time (and the time before that). It seems opposition to Hs2 has a fantastic affect on people’s intellect: Not only does it automatically make you a rail expert – it also makes you flood experts and a whiz at economics!
My local town (Sowerby Bridge) is one of those that’s been badly affected. It’s flooded for the first time since 1968. What the anti Hs2 geniuses will never understand is expensive flood defences wouldn’t have make the slightest bit of difference as such an unusual event couldn’t have been predicted. What would make a difference is something that would cost very little money – a change of Government land use policy. These interesting articles from George Monbiot explain the issues. It’s not about turning our rivers and streams into sterile storm drains & scarring our landscape – it’s preventing the bloody floodwater from getting to them in such catastrophic quantities!
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/17/farmers-uk-flood-maize-soil-protection
Of course, none of this suits the anti Hs2 mobs agenda, so it will be ignored. Then again, so will their ridiculous either/or flood defences or Hs2 comparisons. Wiser heads have always prevailed when it comes to building Hs2.
UPDATE;
A couple of days on and the anti Hs2 mob have got worse. This tweet is pretty typical.
Hs2 would be “underwater” eh? No. It’s complete tosh. The area in question is the Aire Valley flood plain. Hs2 will cross it on a couple of viaducts, the longest of which will be 2335m long! You can find the detailed plans here.
As usual, the anti Hs2 mob never let the facts get in the way…
Paul Bigland 
Haha, this is quite funny and goes to show their desperation now (well actually for some time, after the fight was long since lost).
I would say, however, that perhaps you shouldn’t have posted this because you’re possibly now the only way most people even get to hear about what the ‘antis’ are up to.
They’ve all but lost their own channels of communication. By talking about them, you somehow build them up as something important enough to be exposed. Instead of people so irrelevant that nobody cares!
It’s a fair point Jonathan. They really are that irrelevant nowadays. I’m working on two assumptions. One is that, no matter how much publicity I might give them (far more than they can give themselves) it’s not actually going to help them. The other is that they will become a useful example to others in how not to do things. They’re one of the first campaigns to rely on social media, so the lessons are there for others to learn.
Good points.