Yes, it’s back! Despite the fact the campaign against Hs2 has been as pointless as giving away condoms in a convent and most of the old guard of Nimbys and other locals have bowed to the inevitable now its obvious HS2’s being built we’ve had members of Extinction Rebellion move in to provide some comedy gold.
Extinction Rebellion have left a very large hostage to fortune with their slogan ‘Tell the truth”. Here’s an example, with serial porkie teller Chris Packham (exposed in this blog for having pants on fire) holding up their slogan here.
Of course, such a slogan is hypocritical is the extreme as XR members have lied through their teeth about HS2 ever since they became involved. Here’s one classic example. Step forward ‘William’, a American in the UK who calls himself ‘Boots on the ground News’ on Twitter.
Rather laughably, William claims that “The truth always surfaces” as part of his bio. Well, yes. It often does. But not in the way he meant…
You see, the man is just another of those odd fantasists who’re often drawn to groups like Extinction Rebellion and the campaign against HS2. We’ve seen them in action for years and I’ve documented many of them and their tenuous relationship with reality (and facts) over the years.
Here’s just a few of his recent howlers.
Eh? I’m sure I’m not alone in reading this and thinking – ‘hang on, I remember the summer of 1976 and standpipes and water bowsers in the streets – I’ve not seen or heard a dicky-bird about any anywhere in 2020’? Of course, in my neck of the woods (West Yorkshire) I’ve also seen a lot of nearly full reservoirs over the weekend, and earlier in the year I remember the damage caused to my local town. Not by drought – but by floods!
Oh, the UK metrological office would care to differ too. Here’s a couple of quotes.
“This winter (December, January, February) has been the 5th wettest winter on record (data back to 1862) for the UK as a whole as well as the 5th mildest.”
And…
“Is this due to Climate Change?
Met Office records show there is a recent trend of increasing rainfall on seasonal and annual timescales. Since 1998, we have seen six of the ten wettest years on record. However, rainfall patterns in the UK have always shown a large range of natural variation, which makes it more difficult to unambiguously identify long term trends linked to climate change. However, wetter winters have been observed and is consistent with what we expect to happen in the future with continued climate change.” You can find the rest of what the Met Office has to say here. And Spring? The pictures far more mixed, and more complex.
And what of June? The Met office reports that “Rainfall was 144% of average”! I’m sure those people across the country who were caught up in June rainstorms and flash floods will be as surprised as me to know it never happened! So, the assertion that this is ‘greatest drought the UK has ever seen’? Utter bollocks. The man must have been been getting his weather advice from the Daily Express!
Then there’s these recent classics. It seems that teenage ‘tree protectors’ have the uncanny ability to travel through time and space, allowing them to be in two places simultaneously. Take a look.
On the 18th young ‘Windfall’ lives up a tree in Crackley woods eh? Hang on a minute, on the same day she’s supposedly up a tree in Cubbington woods!
Clearly, it was such a rush to get between the two sites (they are over 6 miles apart) she never had time to change her red top!
I could go on (and on) but as his twitter feed is so full of twaddle, lies and scaremongering I’d be here all night. The fact these people are now the backbone of the ‘campaign’ against HS2 should tell you all you need to know.
Sadly, the UK ‘green’ movement seems to be full of clowns like this. Whilst their European counterparts are helping to cut Co2 emissions by encouraging the modal shift from air/road to rail to tackle climate change, these muppets are trying to sabotage building the rail capacity we need to be able to follow their lead. The good thing is they’re so bloody useless they’ve not stopped a thing! My concerns are twofold. The damage they’re doing to the reputation to the wider green movement, and the facts they’re filling the heads of young people like these misguided but well-meaning protesters with lies. They deserve better.
“Tell the truth”? The immortal words of ‘Jim Royle’ spring to mind…
It would be good to see more people challenge the likes of @bearwitness2019 over the crap they fill impressionable young minds with. Feel free…
2023 update.
‘Windfall’, William and Packham have had it tough since those heady days of 2019. Packham’s done a good job of damaging his reputation over HS2 (amongst other things). ‘Windfall’ has gone with the wind and disappeared along with the other attention-seekers of HS2Rebellion whilst William still occasionally warbles on Twitter about the forthcoming ecological apocalypse, a scaremongering tactic that’s doing nothing to change things.
Meanwhile, HS2 gets built…
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One day you will see the difference between HS2, the concept which may or may not be a good idea and HS2 Ltd, the inept ‘builder’ of a railway which some of us have to put up with daily. Does this recent report not make you stop and think?;
The delivery of the HS2 high-speed railway is “unachievable” within budget and on time, a Government watchdog has said, giving the project the highest risk rating for the first time.
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority, which assesses major projects, gave HS2 its first red rating since its annual reports began in 2013.
Red ratings indicate projects where “successful delivery … appears to be unachievable” and in which there are “major issues with project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery, which at this stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable”.
I expect I’ll get deleted again!!
In the 11 years I’ve been watching this project I’ve seen you people clutch straw after straw. You’ve held on to so many you should have enough to thatch the roof of the O2 arena by now! This is just another straw. Have you ever read the remit of the IPA? No. Do you understand the ratings system and what it signifies? No. So, in 2019 HS2 was graded red. It’s now 2020 and the project’s been reset and construction is very much underway. In 2019 Crossrail was graded ‘Red’. “Unachievable”? It’s been built! The project hit problems and it’ll be opened in stages some years late. Oh, there’s also a couple of “Unachievable” Aircraft Carriers floating around too!
The ratings are a snapshot in time, a guide, nothing more. The IPA report will no more stop HS2 than the decade long efforts of a few Nimbys, Neoliberals or the recent daft lies and protest camps of ‘Extinction Rebellion’ and the American I’ve blogged about here.
HS2 is being built. It’s time you got used to that fact.
Oh I’ve got used to it well enough, I have to deal with it most days! That’s not the point I’m making. HS2 the concept and HS2 Ltd are not the same thing, I can’t understand your silence about the failings of the latter when you are obviously so knowledgeable about everything to do with the project.
I get you’re railway man and see a need for HS2, you may be right, I don’t know enough about the railway network to know. What I do know that experience after experience of myself and many others affected plus numerous official reports from various bodies have shown that HS2 Ltd are incompetent at what they’re doing. It’s incredibly tiresome dealing with them all the time plus they’re wasting huge amounts of public money because the people in charge are incapable of managing this project properly, it’s not just me and a load of ‘nimbys’ saying it, I hear it first hand all the time from people working for or on behalf of HS2.
I’m well aware that there are problems with the way HS2 Ltd are run. They’re effectively a Government quango, not an independent or private sector company. They’re also a multi-tiered organisation who’re often represented by contractors who’re working for them. I’ve heard people complain that some of the enabling works contractors have been difficult to deal with but the main civils contractors very good.
And?
What I’ve also seen is that some of the people HS2 are having to deal with are obstructive and will do everything they can to make life unpleasant for everyone-then complain about the attitude of others! One only has to watch the videos of the antics of the anti HS2 protesters and the locals who support them to see these abusive and deluded people in action.
But then, many of you have spent years frightening the hell out of each other with your scare stories and apocalyptic visions of what will happen if HS2 was actually built. To listen to some of you it’s akin to Genghis Khan and the golden hordes arriving to lay waste to the Chilterns and elsewhere. Ever heard the story of the boy who cried wolf?
He didn’t say she was in Cubbington.. It says “the Cubbington 3”
I don’t know why you are so passionate about all of this but it’s blinding you, a lot of what you ‘prove’ is assumption and overly harsh criticism. Is it so hard to believe there are a lot of good intentioned people doing what they can to protect what’s left of our natural heritage?
I’ve been there and you are missing so much truth but more importantly you are missing understanding.
I hope you endeavour to report more accurately in future for the sake of your readers.
You seem to struggle with the English language so you’ve made a rather desperate attempt to excuse the mans lies. You ignore the fact he made his dishonesty more obvious when he flew to Spain and back, then ignored the self-isolation rules. What I say is not ‘assumption’ or ‘overly harsh’ criticism, it’s a look at the facts – and it’s certainly not ‘missing the truth’, because the truth is – these protesters campaign is based on a tissue of lies. The lie that HS2 is somehow destroying the environment, that it’s an airport shuttle service, that it’s costing over £200bn – I could list loads. Being ‘well intentioned’ doesn’t mean you can lie. You’ve been sucked into a completely dishonest campaign and it’s incumbent on some of us to expose the truth and the stupidity and dishonesty of people like this.