So much for the August bank holiday! It’s been the most subdued of all of them this year. Not that we’ve exactly been painting the town red – but we have ventured out and walked up to one of our favorite pubs/eateries a couple of times this weekend – the fabulous Moorcock Inn. The restaurant area’s been rejigged to allow for social distancing and the menu has been adapted too, but it’s so good to see them back.
The restaurant area.Walking up to the Moorcock and looking down on Sowerby Bridge.
To be honest, the weather’s been pretty disappointing over the holiday. The temperature’s dropped so much we actually had the heating on one morning, just to take the chill off the place – how bizarre for what’s supposedly the height of summer!
Although it’s the holiday season the pair of us have spent most of our time working rather than relaxing. There’s so much to do and there never seems to be enough hours in the day. I’m preparing for my round Britain train trip for RAIL magazine which I’ll be starting on the 7th September. There’s a lot of preparation involved this year due to Covid, so it’s taking up a lot of time. I’ve also been trying to get work done to the cottage, which has meant I’ve spent most of the day up on the roof doing a few repairs whilst the weather stays fine. I’ve really enjoyed it as it makes a change from staring at computer screens and the the old skills have come back to me. Oh, the simple life! The weird thing? I’ve spent seveal hours flossing the roof by digging out soil between the stone slabs (this is Yorkshire, we didn’t use skate). Soil, On a roof? Where the hell does that come from? You could grow potatoes between some of the slabs! I only had the roof relaid 10 years ago – so what’s that all about?
Talking of simple lives brings me onto today’s picture of the day, which is also simple, but colourful. I took it in Old Havana, Cuba on the 15th January 2006.
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Normally I nominate a particular individual who’s displayed Darwin awards levels of stupidity, but this week’s award is a collective one that goes to all those involved with Hs2Rebellion and their latest stupid stunt at Euston, where they claim to have set up their 6th ‘protection’ camp. Here’s the nonsense posted by HS2 Rebellion on their Facebook page.
Anyone who knows anything about the Euston station area and the plans for HS2 will spot the rather obvious flaw in their plans…
This tiny bunch, which includes serial muppet Larch Maxey, whose record of failing to stop anything dates back to 1995 and the motorway around Burnley in Lancashire. But then this is the man who was flummoxed by a pair of electronic doors which he’s failed to superglue himself to, so it’s hardly surprising he’s made yet another hilarious gaffe.
Their problem? The trees they’ve climbed may be at Euston, but they’re on the North-Eastern side – which is outside the boundary and worksites of Hs2! They could sit up there until doomsday – it won’t affect HS2 in the slightest! Here’s a look at the area.
The gardens the HS2Rebellion protesters are in are the ones shown in green, opposite blue coloured Stage B2 of the Euston station redevelopment – which is entirely Network Rail’s responsibility. Only Stage a and B1 are part of the HS2 redevelopment, so whilst their tree-hugging might give them some interesting views of the work on HS2, it ain’t going to stop a thing! Not that the Hs2 stage nearest to them isn’t due to start until 2026 – which is an awfully long time to be sat up a tree, waiting…
You have to laugh as this isn’t the first time HS2rebellion have set up ‘protection’ camps that don’t protect anything that’s actually under threat. Poors Piece at Calvert is another example.
These farcical events won’t stop Hs2 in the slightest, they merely illustrate how inept the remaining anti Hs2 protesters are. Many of the original protesters have had their wings clipped by injunctions or through bail conditions set after them being arrested for futile stunts.
Now the nesting season is coming to an end we can expect to see Hs2’s contractors begin to remove the final small areas of woodland that need to be cleared to begin construction of the railway. This will leave the protesters not up a tree – but certainly up shit creek! I don’t expect the protests to survive such a PR failure. Their rhetoric’s become increasingly shrill and out of touch with reality over the past few weeks as they’ve suffered failure after failure – whilst claiming they’re ‘winning’.
Watch the farce become even more pronounced before winter sets in…
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It’s been another miserable day weather-wise here in the Pennines. You can tell it’s a bank-holiday weekend! What a contrast to the early days of lockdown when we had the levels of sunshine that made things bearable. Now the weather seems as fed-up and jaded as the rest of us. Despite the holiday we’re not going to be doing anything exciting. Instead we’ll be staying at home and cracking on with work and jobs around the house that’ll stand us in good stead when all this is over – although we will get out for a ramble at some point.
Today’s picture’s a complete contrast to the mundanities of life here in the UK, although the image is of someone preparing for another day at the office as it were…
This shot was taken on the ghats on the river Ganges, Varanasi. India in March 1998. It’s dawn and a priest is preparing his stall for another day of handing out blessings to the faithful who’ll be flocking to the river shortly. It’s quite a magical place to sit and people watch. There’s really nothing like it here in Europe and for Westerners who’re unused to life on the sub-continent it can be quite a culture-shock, especially if they visit the ghats where bodies are cremated before the ashes are scattered in the Ganges.
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I had sooo many things I was hoping to get through today, but there never seems to be enough hours in the day – even when the weather is crap and keeps you constrained. On the plus side, I’ve managed to wade my way through lots of paperwork, scan dozens more old slides and get other pictures up for sale on eBay (here’s a sample).
What I had hoped to do is get around to a lot more blogging as there’s some really exciting stuff happening with the High Speed 2 rail project. Maybe tomorrow…
Meanwhile, here’s the picture of the day. One thing I’m really looking forward to now I’ve nearly finished scanning my old railway pictures is moving on to the 1000s of travel slides I have. I wonder how much some of the places I visited in those days have changed?
Today’s picture is of the sunset over the harbour at Labuanbajo on the island of Flores, Indonesia, which was taken in July 1992.
I’d arrived here by island hopping from Bali on a mixture of local buses and ferries. Looking back, it was an epic journey and one I recreated 6 years later – only then I wasn’t flying solo…The boats that you can see are local outrigger fishing boats, and yes, the sunsets in that part of the world at that time were superb!
If you want to browse (or even buy) more pictures from Indonesia follow this link.
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Thursday’s been another fun-packed day here in the Pennines. OK. I lied, the weather’s been changeable at best and most of my day has been spent glued to a computer screen as I head for the home straight when it comes to scanning my old railway pictures. After nearly 30 years there’s only a couple of hundred left to do now. God, I am going to be soooo glad to see this job finished!
Not that the picture of the day will have anything to do with railways. At the moment my feet are that itchy they almost feel on fire, so here’s a picture of something rather different. It was taken at Hampi, India in December 1997. This magnificent building was actually a stables for elephants.
I pity the poor sod who had the job of mucking these out…
I’m really looking forward to getting back on the road again after the Covid crisis and heading back to this neck of the woods. Life has become far too mundane here in the UK and I need some colour, magic and the splashes of inspired insanity only Asia can provide!
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Sorry for the absence of this feature these past couple of days but it’s been a busy time that’s left me with little opportunity to blog until today. The weather here in the Pennines has been pretty awful with a lot of heavy rain so I’ve been stuck inside trying to catch up on paperwork, scanning old pictures and planning next month’s round Britain trip. The break has allowed me to add more than 120 plus old railway pictures from 2001-2002 to my Zenfolio website, and you can find which galleries they’ve been added to by following this link. They may only have been taken 18-19 years ago, but in modern railway terms that seems like dog years compared to human ones! I’m amazed how much has changed in that time.
OK, on to what we’re here for – the picture of the day. This one was taken in the Glodok district Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, on the 15th February 2017.
As someone who’s always been a light sleeper (unless I’ve had a drink) I’ve always been envious of some people’s ability to sleep almost anywhere! This chap had decided to have a siesta in this precarious position. I’ve come across this ability a lot in Asia and it always amazes me. I’ve seen kids curled up on busy pavements or station platforms in India who’re totally oblivious to what’s going on around them. This chap was outside a shop on a busy main road but still managed to get some shut-eye!
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Looking at what passes for a campaign to stop HS2 and the main players I sometimes wonder of those people who donate to Crowdfunders to pay for things ever actually stop to think where their money might be going?
Perhaps they assume it’s all going to some brave ‘eco-warriors’ who only care about the environment? After all, that’s the impression some sections of the media do their best to present. These kids you see on TV are all modern day versions of ‘Swampy’, risking all to protect the country’s ecology if you believed everything you read in the Guardian.
No doubt the people who’ve been persuaded to cough up money also think it’s all accounted for and everything is scrupulously above board and every penny goes to protecting trees – or something…
The truth is rather different. I wonder how many people who’ve parted with cash know about how much has gone ‘missing’, the in-fighting between groups for control of the campaign, the fact theft is common on the camps and that actually, what you’re just as likely to be funding are anarchist groups with a wider political agenda who’ve just latched onto HS2 as yet another way to gain influence – and get money….
Not a lot to stop the biggest construction project in Europe is it? Even worse, many of the camps aren’t actually doing anything. The laughably named Wendover ‘Active’ Resistance camp has done nothing since it had a sunbathe to stop Hs2 day (no, really!) on the 8th August. The rest of their time seems to be taken up with partying or venturing into the village to beg or bum food.
Well, that’ll really stop Hs2…
Poors Piece near Calvert labels itself as a Conservation project and appears to have little involvement in trying to actively stop Hs2, Jones Hill woods remains largely undisturbed by HS2 work, so has seen little action. Crackley Camp is pretty much redundant as much of the woodland that was to be cleared for HS2 has already been felled (they didn’t stop a single tree being felled). Cubbington is much like Jones Hill, work’s due to start there shortly. That leaves Denham which has been the site of most of the large protests recently. Well, as large as anti HS2 protests get – which normally means a few dozen people ineffectively kicking off and creating a nuisance, but little else.
That was until the past few days when tree felling took place along the Fosse Way in Warks. Sadly, several large Oaks had to be removed to make way for the course of the railways and also road diversions. It was yet another farce for the stopHs2 groups. With few local people on the ground reinforcements drove (irony, no?) up from Jones Hill and Harvil Rd (82 miles away) – for all the good it did. By yesterday all the trees had been felled, with several protesters arrested. The protesters are nothing if not consistent as this is yet another straight defeat.
So who are these groups opposed to Hs2? Well, the original national Group is StopHs2, but this is really only two people (Joe Rukin and Penny Gaines) and it’s more of a marketing and fundraising operation nowadays. The actual protesters are a rag-bag of local Nimbys and (mostly) young people who group themselves under the Extinction Rebellion or Hs2Rebellion banners, with one or two veterans of the old roads protests who’re ‘professional’ campaigners and serial failures – like Larch Maxey, who seems to struggle with modern technology. Hilariously, he failed to glue himself to some automatic doors earlier this month!
But here’s where it becomes very ‘Life of Brian’!
After pulling a couple of cupid stunts in Central London and elsewhere during the Covid lockdown it seems Extinction Rebellion and Hs2 Rebellion had a falling out. You’ll notice HS2 Rebellion no longer use any XR branding.
Meanwhile, people have so far donated over £36,000 via this Crowdfunder.
The aims are claimed as this.
The more enquiring minds amongst you may have noticed that there’s no named group or persons in charge here. Nor is their any mention of an auditor or audited accounts. In fact, there’s nothing, not even an address – and there’s been no feedback whatsoever from whoever set this up. So, there’s no mention of any way of overseeing that this money goes to what (or where) is claimed.
Some of the activists on the ground started noticing this too – including people who have been part of the administration of HS2Rebellion. Two of them (Hayley-Marie Pitwell and Lora Hughes) are long term-protesters who’ve been based in the camps. Having got no answers behind the scenes they were forced to go public via Facebook. Here’s a long (but illuminating) exchange! Go grab some popcorn…
This was several weeks ago, but nothing was ever resolved and (to my knowledge) no accounts have ever appeared anywhere. As for the Joe Rukin ‘legal case’ – it doesn’t exist…
To say this ruffled feathers is an understatement. Then things went from bad to worse as ‘Lorax’ chipped in. Go grab more popcorn! Oh, and a warning, this gets very un-PC!
Got your breath back after all that yet? It’s now the 26th August and there’s still no sign of the storm over the ‘missing’ money abating. meanwhile, life at the protest camps is hardly sweetness and light. Their nature means they attract all sorts of waifs and strays. Some with the best of intentions, others not… There’s always been problems with people who identify themselves as anarchists and who believe all property is theft. They tend to be light fingered with other people’s property, as Alan Woodward (a long term member of the camps) found to his cost.
I’ve always been amused by how many of those people who see themselves as anarchists and lovers of ‘freedom’ tend to be some of the most dictatorial and authoritarian going. This trait is manifesting itself in the attitude of those behind HS2rebellion and some of their supporters. It’s very much a case of ‘do as I say’ not as I do – as you’ll see shortly. meanwhile, as if there’s not been enough –
Here’s some more!
HS2 rebellion tried to claim this little ‘action’ for themselves…
Oh, look – it’s those nice, law-abiding, peaceful anti HS2 protesters (not).
Only what they failed to notice was the .com on the bottom of one of the banners – which led to this exchange on the Rebellion Facebook page.
Hang on a minute! This is not about a railway? What IS it all about then? Here’s the answer. More anarchists – and more splitters!
“Jelly Tot” is one Elliott Cuciurean, another of the anarchist wing of the HS2 protests who’s been up in court for repeatedly breaking a High Court injunction (amongst other charges) and who’s due to be sentenced in October. He was prominent at Crackley and Harvil Rd camps. It seems this bunch are some of his friends from the Denham camp who’ve had a falling out with HS2 Rebellion.
As usual, you’ll notice their environmental credentials are paper thin, because that’s not really what they’re about – it’s just a convenient peg. Their website is just as transparent in content. It only has two blog entries, both of which are tedious rants. What gives the game away are the tags to each…
“Class Traitors”? “Smash the state”?
I do have to laugh when I think about all those comfortable middle-class Chiltern Nimbys who’ve been donating money to these people and not realising what exactly they’re offering to feed and keep in their midst. People who want to bring down their whole way of life!
This brings me onto my final example of how these protesters are using HS2 protests for their own ends and wider political aims. Step forward William, who posts on Twitter as ‘Boots on the Ground’ (@bearwitness2019). William is an American who lives in London whom I featured in my last ‘crazy anti HS2 protester of the week‘ blog.
Recently, William (despite his supposed concern for the environment) secretly flew off to Spain for a few weeks – only he kept forgotting to turn the location finder off on his phone, which rather gave the game away!
The giveaway is that for several weeks we are spared him recording diatribes to camera and posting them on Twitter. Until yesterday, when he popped up in London at a tiny protest.
Hang on a minute…Not only is he not wearing a mask, as he’s just flown back from Spain he should be self-isolating – which means he’s breaking the law and could be fined £1000. In fact, as I’m assuming he’s still an American citizen, it’s worse. Here’s the Home Office guidelines.
But this is typical of the protesters. It’s do as I say, not as I do. They rail at others for supposedly breaking the law and ‘crimes’ whilst blatantly ignoring it themselves. Oh, there’s more. In his latest video, William calls for support for a new political party called ‘Beyond Politics’. You might not have heard of them but they’re a splinter group of Extinction Rebellion extremists who recently trashed the offices of several charities and political parties! 5 of them are now on remand.
Such democratic people, eh?
This is the true face of a lot of the hard-core protesters against HS2. They haven’t got a hope in hell of stopping Hs2 of course, but I though it was worth recording for the record who they really are and what their real agenda is – and it has very little to to with the environment – or railways.
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Thank you!
UPDATE (23rd October 2020).
The shenanigans continue, so here’s a link to part 2…
It’s been another wet and windy weekend here in the Pennines and I’m really ready for some sunshine and a change of scenery. Last week made my feet even more itchy, but I’ve got several things to sort out right now before I can start to think about wanderlust.
So, here’s a picture of the day which shows what you can experience when you do indulge. This was the view at sunrise one January morning from the balcony of our room at the Greenlands Hostel in the hill station of Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, South India. Imagine waking up just before dawn, walking outside and seeing this view – magical! We’re 2133m above sea level and way above the plains – and it shows.
The stillness that time of the morning’s beautiful. Our room had a fireplace and we’d bought bits locally so that we could brew coffee over the open fire we had in our room (yes, it gets cold at night at that height!). We were travelling with a hammock too – so we had that set up on the verandah in order to be able to enjoy this view in comfort. Magical times…
Today’s been spent at home dodging the gales that have been sweeping the Pennines – not to mention the rains we had this morning which made it a good day to stay at home and continue having a clearout. I’ve been having a trip down memory lane as part of a decluttering exercise. When you find stuff where it’s the first time you’ve looked at it for 30-40 years you do start to think – do I really need this? The shredder has now overheated because of the amount of work it’s had to do. That said, I now have a nice collection of old photographs to use in future blogs when I talk about past careers and experiences. Oh, I also have a lot more shelf space…
It’s a thought that rather neatly brings me onto the picture of the day which was taken in the Paharganj area of Delhi, India on the 7th December 2010.
My office doesn’t look like this at all – honest….
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As I’ve described in my earlier blog about today’s events, it’s been a long day that’s brought back a lot of memories and purely by accident, it’s produced today’s picture.
Whilst we were all sat in Pat and Jake’s garden talking about old times, Jake spotted this dragonfly which had landed on a sunflower. For once, the critter stayed long enough for me to get my camera out and get a shot. I love these creatures as they’re both delicate and colourful – and extremely photogenic – when they stay still…
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Paul Bigland 