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Paul Bigland

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Paul Bigland

Monthly Archives: December 2018

New Zealand day 1: Auckland.

30 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Travel

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New Zealand, Travel

I’ll fill this blog out later, but here’s a start on describing our first day here in Auckland. It’s been an interesting experience for a whole host of reasons. Firstly, we almost never made it into town. Why? Because some nutter in a car cut up our airport minibus so badly he nearly took the front off! The language from our Roratongan driver was colourful to say the least!

We arrived in town around 9am and headed straight to the harbour area so we could put our suitcases in store and explore without them. I have to say, I don’t recognise most of the Central Business District anymore, so much has (or is being) rebuilt. It’s the same with the harbour area and the railway station. The harbour was home to this floating block of flats – and this is the small one. Wait till you see the size of the other!

The CBD was sleepy when we arrived, it’s now abuzz with shoppers and the harbour packed with folk eating and drinking or promenading in the sunshine.

One thing puzzles me though. Where the hell do central Aucklanders buy fresh fruit and veg? We spent a fruitless (literally) couple of hours looking for a local version of the Indian corner store or even a decent supermarket.

18:01 (NZ). 05:02 (UK).

Bliss! I’m laid on a bed, my first chance to be horizontal since leaving Heathrow on Friday lunchtime! After our abortive shopping trip we decided to go and slake our thirsts before picking up the suitcases and heading to where we’re staying, which is a first for us: an AirBnB. It’s a very pleasant and comfortable house owned by a Malaysian Chinese family in an area call Mt Roskill, to the South of the centre. We’ve not actually met them yet as they’re out, but we’ve settled and and done a shopping run to a large supermarket called One World. It’s been very interesting comparing costs to UK prices – and seeing lots of Kiwi wines that we’ve never even heard of in the UK, some of which seem very good value. Even one of the UKs more expensive UK wines (Villa Maria) is half the price.

Now I’ve had the luxury of a shower, shave and change of clothing I’m going to relax for a bit.

06:34 (NZ). Day 2.

Bugger! A virus we picked up in the UK before we left laid us low and that hour long NAO turned into 13! I blame the festive season and all that kissing strangers under the mistletoe!

Rolling blog: New Zealand here we come…

28 Friday Dec 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Air Travel, New Zealand, Rolling blogs, Travel

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Air Travel, New Zealand, Rolling blogs, Travel

06:00

The alarm’s gone off and we’re rising, bleary eyed from bed. Why is it that you so often have a lousy nights sleep when you’re about to embark on a long trip? Nerves, excitement? I’ve been doing this for decades but it still happens. Then one disturbs the other and you’re both tossing and turning! Add in a surreal dream too – at one point I woke up and thought “hang on, I’ll get arrested when I land in the USA!” After a moment thinking “where the hell did that idea come from?” I realised this was tied in to a scenario in a previous dream! I wouldn’t mind, but I’ve not eaten any cheese (renowned for triggering dreams) this Christmas.

Right now, I need coffee – and a shower – in that order!

08:29.

We’re being chauffeur driven to Heathrow T2 by Darren, Dawn’s brother. Mercifully, the roads ate quiet due to the Christmas shutdown.

10:04.

We’re through check-in, security (which was efficient and surprisingly painless) have stocked up on a few bits and now we’re enjoying a bacon and egg muffin washed down with more coffee. Terminal 2 is remarkably quiet compared to how I’ve seen it so it’s quite relaxed.

From here we’re off to Chicago aboard a United Airlines Boeing 767, Then to Auckland aboard an Air New Zealand Boeing 787-900 ‘Dreamliner’ which I’m looking forward to as I’ve never flown on one before.

Whilst hanging around in airport lounges is great for people watching it’s a waste of a few hours that could have been spent sleeping, or doing something more productive. It’s my great complaint about modern air travel. By the time we take off at 12:05 we’ll have been up for 6 hours.

11:16.

Our chariot awaits…

Right, where’s the wine?

11:42.

Boarding’s complete and we’ll be in the air for the next 9 hours, so we’ll see you on the other side of the pond this evening!

15:04 (Chicago time) 21:04 (UK time).

We’ve just landed at Chicago O’Hare. The temperatures a chilly -4 and snow’s forecast but as we won’t be leaving terminal 5 we’re not too bothered.

This hasn’t been a bad flight 3,254 miles in under 9 hours. There’s plenty of legroom on these 767s but the seat pitch is poor. You can’t recline far to get some decent sleep.

The food was pretty good. Due to her allergies Dawn ordered the vegan menu, which produced a very acceptable curry!

The salad accompanyment was just as tasty.

22:58 UK. 16:58 Chicago time.

Getting through Chicago O’ Hare’s a bit of a faff. This is the first transit flight I’ve been on where you have to collect your baggage to go through customs before dropping it off again. At least we already had our ESTA’s after being in New York in May. Even so, it’s quite a bureaucratic process. Now we’ve made it through to T5 departures. I must admit to being a little disappointed by the airport. Considering T5 is the international terminal, it’s not a patch on many. We’re both dog-tired at this stage and desperately hoping we can get some decent sleep on the next flight.

Rolling blog: The longest journey begins with the first step…

27 Thursday Dec 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

That said, ours began with a hiccup! We were planning to leave Halifax on the 08:23 train to Leeds, then catch a London train, but Northern cancelled it! We’re now on the 08:43 to Leeds which means our plans to get to Farnham for lunchtime have gone out of the window. Mind you, it’s a strike day on Southwestern Railway, so nothing is certain at that end either. Today is a day to travel with hope rather than expectation!

Hopefully this stuttering start to our odyssey means we’ve exhausted the bad luck at the beginning and can look forward to plain sailing in New Zealand…

09:32.

Our interchange at Leeds was pretty painless as LNER’s 09:45 was waiting for us in the platform. Today it’s being worked by a Class 90 hired-in from DB.

Getting a table seat to work at wasn’t too much of a problem either as this isn’t the busiest of trains. I must say, I like the new electronic reservation system LNER have installed as it’s much easier to read.

10:52

We’re currently speeding down the East Coast Main Line in the same murky weather that’s dogged us for days despite a brief flirtation with blue skies and sunshine South of Doncaster which lifted the spirits as well as the visibility!

11:25.

After a stop at Peterborough our unreserved coach is now almost full with people returning to London after the holiday. Looking around, I notice that out of the eight people I can see, 7 of us are using smartphones, whilst the young Asian lad sat across from me is reading a weighty JG Ballard compilation. Sadly, one young girl is using her smartphone to engage in a mind-numbingly phone call which is mostly a recitation of everything she’s eaten and everyone she’s met over Christmas.

12:50.

After a hop across London on the tube we’re pulling out of Waterloo on the 12:50 to Salisbury as far as Woking. As it’s a strike day there’s no direct service to Farnham.

These diesel units are showing their age now despite their refurbishment. They also seem remarkably noisy, more so than their Northern cousins. That we still have DMUs operating out of Waterloo in this day and age is sad. OK, the line’s not electrified all the way to Salisbury, but how about replacing them with 3rd rail bi-modes for now until a business case can be made for stringing wires up West of Basingstoke?

The weather’s thrown another curve ball. London’s sunshine’s given way to fog to the West, with visibility down to a couple of hundred metres.

13:31

Everything’s gone to plan. Our connection at Woking was fine. We even had chance to grab an (expensive) sandwich from the station cafe that’s been taken over by Starbucks. Now we’re aboard a Siemens Desiro that’s been fitted with the new SWR seat moquette, replacing the attractive SWT red with a patterned dark blue. The carpets received similar treatment. It’s not bad but it does show up the dirt!

Tilford. 15:50.

We’ve kept ourselves occupied since arriving in Tilford. ‘Tilly’, the Platt family dog needed walking, so we volunteered as we were happy to get some exercise after sitting on trains all day. Mist still hung around the river, making it a really atmospheric amble.

Now we’re relaxing at the wood cabin Dawn’s parents have rented before the family all head out for an Italian meal. I wonder if it’s Norwegian wood?

Boxing day blogging.

26 Wednesday Dec 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Calder Valley, Food and drink, Musings, Travel, West Yorkshire

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Calder Valley, Food and drink, Musings, West Yorkshire

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas day – unless you’re one of the 1000s of Network Rail engineers or contractors working over the holiday – in which case I hope you stayed safe had an easy shift! The weather here was remarkably mild for the time of the year, but then the valley was cocooned in cloud all day which kept the heat in.

We had a quiet day at home apart from a short stint at our local pub (the Big 6) at lunchtime.

Christmas Day lunchtime in the Big 6, when it’s all hands to the (beer)pumps…

It was a mix of regulars and unknown faces as people escape (or are told to bugger off out of the way) from family gatherings for a couple of hours before the real indulgences start around the dinner tables.

The rest of the afternoon and evening there was just the two of us enjoying some quality time together. Our Christmas dinner was anything but traditional. We’d bought some lamb shanks from a local farm shop which Dawn used for a 1st Class mutton (lamb) railway curry using a recipe from Rick Stein. It was divine! The mixture of spices (including cinnamon) really complements the lamb. Dawn served it with a home cooked Sambar (Indian veg curry) and red rice.

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing on the sofa and watching films whilst the cat curled up in front of the fire. Today the pace picks up considerably as we’re packing for New Zealand. Tomorrow we head down to Tilford(Surrey) to catch up with the rest of Dawn’s family for an afternoon, then head for Heathrow on Friday morning for the start of our delayed honeymoon! heading to New Zealand’s going to be a welcome break for a number of reasons. It’s an escape from the UK’s current political madness and shambles over Brexit for a start. There’s also the fact that January’s a drab month in the UK as many people are miserable because of a combination of factors, like the weather and because all the Christmas and New Year bills have come in. It also seems like a long haul to Easter and the next bank holiday!

Unlike our usual January escapes this one’s presenting an interesting logistical challenge on the packing front. Normally, we’d be going to somewhere Equatorial where the weather’s constant and we’d just need clothing for warm weather. Not so in New Zealand, where we’ll be doing a lot more walking and hiking in conditions that can mirror a UK summer. There’s quite a temperature variation too, so there’s a lot more to pack. Normally we’d only take one large suitcase between us. This time we’ve had to borrow a second one. I only hope we remember that when we’re travelling!

Jet (our cat) is most disgruntled as he’s been chucked off the bed to make way for the suitcases which currently look like they’ve been ransacked by overzealous customs Officers. The old boy (he’s 17) has been allowed on the bed recently as he’s been ill. We had to take him to the vets to get some infected teeth removed so he’s been given a lot of leeway and TLC. The problem is, he senses we’re going away, but at least he gets on well with the house-sitters who’ll be looking after him and keeping him company whilst we’re away.

23:13

Phew! Packing done, paperwork printed, instructions left. Now it’s time for a glass of wine and bed. Tomorrow’s going to be the start of a looonnng few days…

Rolling blog: Calder Christmas…

24 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Calder Valley, Rolling blogs, Travel, West Yorkshire

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Calder Valley, Rolling blogs, Travel, West Yorkshire

‘Tis Xmas eve in the Calder valley and the weather’s been in the festive spirit, blanketing Sowerby Bridge in a long cotton wool cloud this morning. Opening the bedroom curtain often reveals an unexpected delight as the weather in the valley’s so changeable. This was the view today.

DG315326crop

Sowerby Bridge railway station’s down there – somewhere!

Pretty as the picture looks it took me a lot of sweat to upload it because the Nikon download software on my computer had a hissy-fit and refused to open. Why is it that 99% of the time you can rely on these things – until you’re actually in a hurry? Is there something built into the software that can sense when it can cause you the maximum stress and blue language? In the end I had to reload the software, wasting a precious hour of the day, but of all the kit that could go on strike, this is one I can’t do without. With it being a Monday (as well as Christmas eve) there’s still work to be done which entails a bit of running around and a trip over to Huddersfield.

14:08.

We’re now over in Huddersfield where it’s a beautifully crisp and sunny winter afternoon. Whilst I’m here I’ve taken the opportunity to get a haircut. I suppose you could call it my Christmas No1!

The town centre seems reasonably busy as people do their last minute shopping/panic buying but the number of shops that have closed this year has left gaps like rotten teeth even in the busiest of areas.

Take Greenwoods for example. I’ve always found them a good mens outfitter with great prices. Sadly, the Halifax branch closed in the summer. Now it looks like the Huddersfield one’s had it too..

They’d join firms like Poundland and Crawshaws as well as the local branch of Card Factory and a number of small locally run businesses. At least next port of call is still thriving: The Kings Head at Huddersfield station.

A trip to the station allowed me to capture what will probably be my penultimate UK rail pictures of 2018.

DG315339crop

A pair of Trans-Pennine Express Class 185s pass at Huddersfield.

DG315341crop

I love the shadows and quality of the light this time of year.

DG315346crop

The new age. One of the former Scotrail Class 170s that has been cascaded to Northern at Huddersfield whilst working 2J67, the 14:49 Huddersfield to Leeds. Although billed as a Trans-Pennine Express service the trains and drivers are provided by Northern.

20:46

We’re in the Xmas spirit now as Dawn’s finished work until February and the Christmas cooking’s begun. This year we’re staying at home and cooking for ourselves, so we don’t have to do traditional fayre. Far from it. Tonight we enjoyed seared tuna with roasted potatos and steamed broccoli with a lemon and herb sauce.

Now we’re in preparation mode and getting ready to cook a traditional Indian sambal to go with the 1st Class Railway mutton (lamb) curry. The lamb’s already marinating ready to be cooked tomorrow. Here’s the ingredients for the Sambal. Sadly, we didn’t have the time to get shallots and okra, so we’ve freestyled a little…

 

The festering season approaches…

23 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Musings, Railways

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Railways

Not that we’ve been doing much festering today – even if we didn’t set foot outside the front door until 15:30. Dawn’s been busy working from home, trying to clear her desk ready for our new Zealand trip. I’ve been equally occupied with paperwork and scanning old slides. So, here’s a look at the results of my scanning labours.

The pictures I’ve been scanning today are from the Crewe locomotive works open day in August 1996. Even in those days, the works was a shadow of its former self. It still employed a few thousand people, but nothing like the 25,000 of its heyday. Even so, it was an interesting place to visit – especially as the railways were in the early days of privatisation. The works was full of withdrawn or stored locomotives kept as a source of spares or awaited scrapping as well as various locomotives being overhauled or repaired after accidents (a far more common occurrence then than now).

You can find all 62 pictures in this gallery, but here’s a few tasters.

05971. 47466. Crewe works open day. 17.8. crop

47466 is one of a long line of withdrawn Class 47s at the works (47439 is to its left) . Many of them were cut up in March the next year by contractors MRJ Phillips. The parcels and passenger work they’d been used for had been in decline for several years. 466 had been withdrawn as long ago as December 1991. Notice how faded the BR blue paintwork is on the loco compared to a 47473 on the right. 

06006. 08921. Crewe works open day. 17.8crop

The colour of things to come…08921 was being overhauled and repainted in the new livery of privatised company EW&S. Some components for the overhaul would have come from classmates dumped in the yard outside.

06030. Inside the bogie shop. Crewe works open day. 17.8crop

Inside the bogie overhaul shop, work that was gradually drying up as less and less locomotives were being used on the national network and modern equipment didn’t need as much maintenance.

06118. 08849. Stored. Crewe works open day. 17.8crop

08849 was one of a long line of stored or withdrawn shunters present at Crewe.  Once over a thousand strong and ubiquitous across the network, these locomotives had been in decline for decades as local goods yards and the need for shunters was far less.

05992. 86604. Crewe Works. 17.8.96.

86604 freshly overhauled and repainted in Freightliner livery. Who could have predicted then that this locomotive would still be working for (the now privatised)  Freightliner in 2018, 53 years after they were built!

 

 

Saturday selection

22 Saturday Dec 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Musings, Photography, West Yorkshire

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Musings, Photography, West Yorkshire

It’s been one of those slow days where we’ve been pottering around but doing nothing special – partly due to the miserable weather but also due to recovering from yesterday’s entertainments! I shouldn’t really complain about the weather. Whilst grey skies and showers aren’t to everyone’s taste, drinking water is – and our reservoirs are perilously low this year after such a long, dry summer.

Most of our day’s been taken up with the mundane, the sort of everyday chores that fill up a lot of modern day life. Trips to the recycling centre and a local farm shop then braving packed supermarkets (honestly, you’d think people were preparing for the Zombie apocalypse or world war 3, not just Christmas) and finally, giving in and nipping up to one of our favourite local pubs (The Moorcock Inn) for a ‘swifty’ and a chat before a quiet night at home. Whilst Dawn’s busy cooking pan fried hake with sautéed potatoes and steamed broccoli I’ve retreated to the office to scan a few more old slides. Here’s a couple of samples.

05940. Signalbox. Canterbury East. 21.7. 1996.crop

Here’s Canterbury East signalbox on the 21st July 1996. Built in 1911 by the South Easter and Chatham Railway it’s now a grade 2 listed building. It’s elevated so that the signalman could see all the tracks beyond the station roof.

05950. 47725. Kings Cross. 2.8. 1996. crop

On the 2nd August 1996 Class 47 No 47725 sits in platform 1 of London Kings Cross with the stock of an afternoon mail train whilst an electric loco at the front prepares to take this service North to Newcastle at 16:30. Mail trains used to operate out of many of London’s termini until a new rail connected mail centre (the Princess Royal Distribution Centre, or PRDC) opened at Willesden in 2003. In those days these trains would block platforms for hours, nowadays you’d never get away with it as platform space is at a premium.

Right, I’ve been summoned as food’s ready. Now for a glass of wine and a film…

Rolling blog: foodie Friday

21 Friday Dec 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Food and drink, London, Rolling blogs, Travel, West Yorkshire

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Food and drink, London, Rolling blogs, Travel, West Yorkshire

06:34

I’m preparing to head to London for an Christmas lunch with old friends and colleagues today. It’ll be a very convivial afternoon, as will this evening, as I’ve got to head back to West Yorkshire as Dawn and I are out for a Thai meal with a couple of friends – such is the fun of packed social diaries in the run-up to Christmas.

08:21

For once, the Yorkshire weather defeated me. Persistent drizzle (the sort of stuff that manages to defeat umbrellas or waterproofs) meant I abandoned attempts to walk to the station and cadged a lift off Dawn – which got me there considerably quicker and a lot drier! I’m now watching the rain from the comfort of my mobile office, otherwise known as Grand Central’s 08:10 from Halifax to London Kings Cross. Here it is pulling in to Halifax, past the old signalbox which was made redundant in October.

For once, my train’s not too busy, that’s possibly because it’s so close to Christmas, but also the fact the first service of the day (the 07:07) tends to attract most business people as it arrives in London at 10:10 whereas this one doesn’t arrive until 11:14. As I don’t need to be there so early I’m enjoying the space and relaxing atmosphere, although I’m still catching up on some work.

09:32.

The path for this train is characterised by generous timings on the way to Doncaster. We’ve swung between being 1 minute late and 4 early. Having waited for a platform at Wakefield Kirkgate we’d been running early until we reached Marshgate Jn just outside Doncaster where we were held waiting time and for a platform to be free. Platform space has been at a premium here for years, which makes timekeeping difficult. We’re booked a generous 6 minutes to clog one of them up, which has meant our slightly late arrival has turned into a right – time departure. Next stop – London Kings Cross…

10:08

We’ve just passed through gloomy Grantham where the low cloud that’s dogged us all the way from Yorkshire still persists. Despite the fact these Grand Central Class 180s are capable of 125mph I doubt we’ve touched that today until now. We’ve dropped a couple of mins behind time but we’ve obviously got a clear road as the driver’s opened her up for a bit. The speed app on my phone tells me we hit 124 after Stoke Jn at the same time a rainstorm on the edge of the weather front hit us! We weathered that (literally) and now the sun’s managing to break through the momentarily fragmented clouds.

10:35.

The burst of speed didn’t help us as we crawled from Werrington Jn (where Network Rail are preparing to build a new ‘dive-under’) through an empty Peterborough station and on to Holme Jn, which we passed 7 mins late. Sun and speed have both deserted us. This section of line’s very busy, with Thameslink stoppers added into the mix as Great Northern locals, so could well lose more time.

11:54.

I take back my last comment, we did make up 5 mins!

Now, lunch beckons…

17:15

I’m Northbound again after an excellent lunch (if you ignore the eye-watering bill) that included one of my favourites: seared scallops.

Chatham House rules prevent me talking about the event, but there you go.

Right now I’m doing a Jeremy Corbyn – sitting on the vestibule floor of LNER’s 17:03 to Leeds. Any resemblance to ‘Magic Grandad’ is purely coincidental.

17:58.

We’ve just left Peterborough so I’ve graduated from a vestibule floor to a seat.

19:55.

Ho hum. Everything went well until I got to Leeds, when I found my connection (the 19:36) was cancelled. This meant I’d be 15 minutes late as my next train wasn’t until 19:51. I’ve now swapped this..

For something a little less speedy and spacious!

Saturday postscript.

What a fun day! Lunch in London and Thai tapas in West Yorkshire has led to a slightly slower than usual start to the day (I blame the Tequila shots that Froso insisted we buy). Both meals were delicious but I think it’s time to give my stomach a rest today!  If you’re in the area I can recommend Café Thai in West Vale. We’ve eaten here several times and never been disappointed. They have a traditional Thai restaurant on the ground floor whilst upstairs they serve a tapas style menu. Here’s one of last nights dishes.

A good time was had by all…

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Slowly but surely, the old slides are getting scanned…

20 Thursday Dec 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Photography, Railways, Travel, Uncategorized

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Photography, Railways, Travel

It’s a painfully slow process, but I’m determined that 2019 will see the majority of my old railway back catalogue scanned and available on my Zenfolio website – although the travel pictures will have to wait a little longer! The past couple of months has seen me slog through a several hundred slides from 1996 onwards. Right now I’ve got as far as July, having uploaded or replaced another 40 images today. My plan is to continue my way chronologically through the years up the point I stopped taking slides and went digital, which was on the 20th February 2004, almost 15 years ago now! With the benefit of hindsight I’d wish I’d done it sooner – but hey ho!

These old pictures show just how much the railway scene has changed in the past 22 years. They’re all from the very early days of privatisation, when the railways had been ‘sectorised’ but not everything had been franchised. The first passenger service to be privatised was SouthWest trains in February 1996. This is adding another layer of complexity to scanning as the pictures are split up into different galleries on my website that are dedicated to each operator, so I’m having to do a lot of historical referencing as well. Here’s a few examples of today’s batch.

05865. 31421. Springs branch TMD. Wigan. 08.7.1996crop

A shot taken from a passing intercity service of the former Transrail depot at Wigan Springs Branch. Transrail was one of six companies the BR freight division had been broken up into as a way of introducing internal competition. In the end it, Loadhaul, Mainline Freight, Railfreight Distribution (RfD) and Rail Express Systems (RES) were bought by  American company Wisconsin freight which marketed them as English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS). Many of the old BR locos you can see in the picture were actually stored.

05887. 3202. Herne Hill. 30.06.1996crop

A Eurostar set led by 3202 snakes through Herne Hill in South London. These services would run for another 11 years, until High Speed 1 and St Pancras International opened in 2007.

05925. 31455. 31255. Wolverton. 14.7.1996crop

A pair of class 31s work an engineers train during track relaying work on the West Coast Main Line North of Wolverton. These old locomotives would sit idle during the week as they were kept purely to work these trains. That meant their reliability was poor, often leading to engineering work being disrupted. Note that the adjacent pair of tracks remains open. This would never be allowed today due to the risks it passes to track workers, who can be seen ahead of my Euston-bound Intercity service.

The UK has gone mad.

19 Wednesday Dec 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Brexit, Musings

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Brexit, Musings

We live in utterly surreal times here in the UK. Or, more specifically – England, as it’s unfair to tar the Scots and Northern Irish with the Brexit brush. We’ve spent the past two and a half years since the referendum on a slow course to self destruction and now we’re teetering on the edge of the cliff. Whilst we’re perched there, our political class infight and squabble, posture or play out fantasy scenarios that are so divorced from reality that you have to wonder – are they really that deluded, or are they doing this for their own ends? There’s a few honourable exceptions from both sides: Anna Soubry and David Lammy being two of the voices of reason.

Since the referendum result I’ve been hoping for an outbreak of sanity. It was obvious as soon as Teresa May drew up her red lines that Brexit was undeliverable, she was asking for the impossible. Before that it just might have worked. We’d never have had a better deal than our membership of the EU – that was always certain, but we might just have managed a less worse scenario and the utter chaos than we have now. Instead, she triggered article 50 and the countdown without any plan.

Since the referendum we’ve gone from the impossible promises of the Brexit fanatics to our own Government talking about mobilising the army to cope with a ‘no deal’ Brexit, whilst the Health Secretary is buying 1000s of fridges to stockpile medicines for the NHS. This is insane. How can a country inflict such things on itself in peacetime? And all for what? The threat of a ‘no deal’ Brexit is no threat to anyone except ourselves. All we’re doing is holding a gun to our own heads. It’s a surreal game of ‘chicken’ that no decent politician would ever inflict on their own country, yet that’s exactly what our politicians are doing, and some of them are genuinely serious about it as Brexit is like a religion to them. It’s an article of faith that no amount of fact based evidence and events of the past two and a half years will shake them from. Here’s a reminder of the broken promises and fantasy claims made by some of the architects of our downfall.

brexit lies

Will any of them admit to being wrong? No. They cling to Brexit as if it’s the word of God, despite the fact the EU made it crystal clear from the very beginning that it was not going to change the rules of the club just because we’d decided to leave.

I believe several things have led us to this. Once is English arrogance and exceptionalism, the bizarre belief that because we once had an Empire and were on the winning side in two world wars, we were somehow ‘better’ than everyone else, that we were blessed because of an accident of birth and could do no wrong. Whatever happened, we’d always come out on top. The second is complacency about the state of our democracy and a lack of engagement or understanding of the political institutions that underpin both our country and the European Union. I’ve lost track of the numbers of bonkers conversations I’ve had (and still have) with people who clearly have no idea how these things work, but who spout whatever slant they’ve been fed by the newspaper they read, or social media group they’re part of. I’ve never been a fan of conspiracy theories, but now there’s too much evidence out there not to appreciate how a few very rich (so powerful) people have used their money and the media (which they own) to manipulate opinions. It’s been going on for years in the way newspapers like the Mail and Express have poisoned the debate about immigration. It came to a head in the referendum, with massive manipulation of social media – such as targeted ads on Facebook directed at people who’d been identified by harvesting their data. Social media has proved to be as much of a curse as a blessing. We now know the problems, but the problem is no-one is doing anything about it. Our democracy is broken, but no-one wants to ask the awkward questions (unlike in the US, or EU) never mind find ways to fix it.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are caught up in the insanity of it all – including the business community, who are tearing their hair out at the uncertainty and unpreparedness for a major change in our economic relationship with our biggest market: Europe. Here’s an example.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/companies/businesses-watching-in-horror-as-mps-urged-to-stop-no-deal/ar-BBR9ivS?ocid=spartandhp

To add to the shitstorm we’re seeing the rise of the far-right, who’ve been emboldened by Brexit. Racism has become fashionable again. Sadly, where I live (West Yorkshire), it never really went away. It was one of the things that shocked me when I first moved here in 2010, the fact you’d hear people use the term ‘Paki’ quite openly and unashamedly. It’s quite clear to me that a lot of the Brexit vote here was driven by attitudes to immigration. The supreme irony is that this is mostly about religion and skin colour – something that leaving the EU will do nothing about as these are Commonwealth citizens they’re normally talking about, not EU citizens. In fact, we’ll probably need more dark skinned folk from the Commonwealth and elsewhere to take the place of the EU citizens who currently keep the NHS running but who no longer feel welcome so are leaving!

Today the EU published what it would do in the vase of an insane no deal Brexit. It highlights the utter stupidity and dishonesty of the Leave campaign’s slogan “Take back control”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46617152

The main points are;

British airlines to operate flights into and out of the EU but not within in it

Hauliers to carry freight by road into the EU for a nine-month period without having to apply for permits

UK financial services regulations – in a limited number of areas – to be recognised as equivalent to the EU’s for one or two years

The icing on the cake?

“Brussels says the arrangements will be strictly time-limited, lasting only for a few months and will be ended without any consultation with the UK“

Our country has never been so divided, nor have so many of us been ignored by the political classes. Political discourse has been poisoned by sections of the media who label people ‘traitors’ in echoes of Nazi propaganda from the 1930s – another parallel I’ve always been reluctant to make – but not anymore. When we have the Brexit fanatics threatening riots in the streets if a ‘true’ Brexit (whatever the hell that is) isn’t delivered, and politicians from right and left back them up we are in deep, deep shit. That’s not leadership, that’s the sort of cowardice that opens the door to fascism.

Whilst we have all these forces in play, our politicians posture around May’s proposed deal that no-one really supports but where few MPs have the backbone to stand up and say “this is madness, what are we doing to ourselves”? Which leaves people like me deeply pessimistic about the future of the country and venting my spleen via a blog.

In just over a week’s time we’re off to New Zealand. I’m starting to regret that I’m not 20 years younger, otherwise I might not come back. 2019 is going to be a year when the shit hits the fan and we have no idea how far it’s going to fly…

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