Monthly Archives: October 2023

Rishi Sunak, HS2 and ‘Network North’ – the lies continue…

09 Monday Oct 2023

Posted by in Hs2, Railways, Rishi Sunak, The Labour Party

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The widespread derision that greeted Sunak’s plan to fool people that by scrapping phase 2 of HS2 he suddenly had £36bn to spend on some wonderful and well-thought out new initiatives wasn’t what he was expecting. But when you’re as out of touch with the real world as multi-millionaire Sunak is – that’s not really that surprising.

Some sections of the media, both right and left, smelled a rat and – aided by people on Twitter who did the digging for them a slew of stories appeared, illustrating that some of these projects already existed whilst others were ones that had been sitting on drawing boards for years, were already in the pipeline or had already been rejected/cancelled by previous Tory PMs – the ‘new’ Bradford station being a classic example.

Useless Transport Minister Mark Harper and his sidekick Hugh Merriman were trotted out with Yorkshire leaders to pretend that there was suddenly £2bn to spend on a new station at Bradford. In truth it was no more than a cheap PR stunt which local leaders allowed themselves to be dragged into. There is no £2bn. There are no costed plans for such a station. there’s no planning permission, no land acquisition, no public enquiry or any of the other formalities required before anything actually happens. There’s more chance of me winning the lottery than anything remotely useful happening before the next general election, but the fiction has to be maintained in the hope of keeping a few Tory votes. For Bradford, it’s always ‘jam tomorrow’.

Harper managed to look even more stupid yesterday. After a number of impossible schemes in the ‘Network North’ report were pulled from the official website, Harper claimed in an interview that the schemes that had disappeared weren’t real commitments to do things (no shit!) they were just ‘examples’ of what could be done – with money that doesn’t exist! That’s not what Sunak had said, but then everything Sunak had said was a lie anyway.

I keep banging on about this but it’s important to understand why the £36bn claim is such an outrageous lie.

HS2 phase 2 was due to be constructed between 2023 and 2035, with services starting between then and 2041. That meant spending would be spread out over nearly two decades with peaks and troughs during that time depending on the intensity of construction or fit-out work. There is NO pot of money sat in the Treasury labelled “for HS2” that’s just waiting to be spent on other things. The vast majority of the money hasn’t even been properly budgeted for or even borrowed yet! Governments borrow money depending on the needs of regular spending reviews. Right now, that money doesn’t exist. You don’t borrow money needed in 2033 in 2023 (never mind money needed even later) as you haven’t even worked out how much you’ll actually need. All you really have is a forecast. They’re projections, not actual costings – or cash.

There is no £36bn. It’s a projection, a possible future budget, not real money in the here and now.

Sadly, a lot of the public have no idea of the reality here, and part of that blame lies with the media, who are woeful at telling people the truth. There’s a number of reasons for that. Part is laziness, part’s pressure to churn out stuff and damn the truth – and part is deliberate misinformation from ‘client’ journalists who’re really just mouthpieces for the Government – and say what they’re told to. Especially if the outlet they work for happens to be one owned by certain millionare media ‘tycoons’ who use their ownership of newspapers and TV channels to further their own personal/political agendas. That said, some journo’s working on left of centre outlets aren’t averse to spinning a story to fit a misguided ‘green’ agenda.

The end result is the same. Joe Public is woefully misinformed on subjects like HS2 – either by accident or design.

Here’s an example from today. A newspaper from those well-known ‘Northern’ counties – Devon and Cornwall – published this piece on the Camelford by-pass, entitled ‘Camelford bypass set to benefit from HS2 cancellation funding”

Wow! Camelford is going to get a new bypass now, eh? No. Of course not. A local Cllr put the story right on Twitter.

Wait! What? There’s *already* an outline business case?

Yes. It was originally submitted in 2019 and refined in 2022. It’s been sitting on civil servants/ministers desks since then. And is doesn’t need money from HS2 either. The ‘Atlantic Highway Camelford Improvement’ is eligible for money from an existing budget, as the report mentions:

“The Department for Transport (DfT) has made the A39 a part of the Major Road Network. This means we can apply for funding from the current 5-year national roads programme (2020 – 2025)”.

You’re being lied to – again.

This is classic delay tactics by Ministers. Want to make it like like you’re doing something whilst you’re actually doing nothing? Simple, just commission another study or ‘review’ and kick the can even further down the road. Plus, it means no-one actually has to pony-up the money they don’t have and just lied about! Plus, remember the small print of page 24 of that piece of crap ‘Network North’ Sunak laughably claims is a plan;

“As usual, individual projects referenced in this document will be subject to the approval of business cases“.

I’m going to end on a slightly brighter note. Labour have opened their conference in Liverpool and some of the ideas they’re putting forward are going to make a few Tories nervous (and hopefully, criminals).

Firstly, Labour have said that when they form the next Governement they’ll appoint a Covid corruption commissioner to claw back some of the £bns that went missing on dodgy PPE and unworkable systems like ‘track and trace’.

Secondly, they’ll revisit the planning laws. Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged to “rebuild Britain”, including by speeding up the planning process for key infrastructure projects – such as railways, including HS2 and whatever survives from the mess the Tories call ‘Network North’. Plus, a motion calling for the HS2 high speed rail line to be built in full was backed by Labour delegates.

Labour are starting to look like a party preparing to take power, which is excellent news. Maybe the future’s not so gloomy after all…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

I don’t believe it!

07 Saturday Oct 2023

Posted by in Hs2, Politics, Rishi Sunak

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The other week I visited a village called Shawford, in Hampshire and passed a pub famous as the location of the demise of the TV character who’s catchphrase is the title of today’s blog. It seemed very appropriate to use to describe the latest tone-deaf crass stupidity from our Tory Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. Fresh from not levelling up, cancelling the majority of the UKs new green railway to drive a motorway through previous commitments to net zero, he tweeted this.

From his private plane.

I can only assume his recent list of culls included all of his PR advisors, as even the most tone-deaf intern could spot the optics of this. But Rishi? Oh no. As a multi-millionaire he’s so used to wealth and privilege it simply doesn’t occur to him.

But that’s it, isn’t it? Trains are for plebs. Who needs a railway when you’ve got access to a private plane? I assume the helicopter he normally uses must be in for servicing or summat

The sooner we eject these out of touch idiots from Government the better – before they do any more damage the the country…

I’ve a small favour to ask (as I’m not a multi-millionaire with a private plane)…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

RIP: John Russell-Brown.

06 Friday Oct 2023

Posted by in Down memory lane, London, Musings

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I’m writing this because no-one (apart from his close circle of friends) will know of John Russell-Brown – or JRB as we called him. I have to admit I’m no longer one of them as I haven’t seen JRB for many years, but all will become clear later.

Sadly, JRB died of cancer on the 3rd October, in London. Apparently, he’d been ill for several years but decided to refuse any more treatment.

I first met Jon when I was applying to live in the housing co-op in East London which became my home for a decade back in the 1980-90s. JRB was a friend of friends and when I got a flatshare there in 1986 we were allocated a flat just a few doors down the same balcony from JRB. The whole balcony became thick as thieves as we had a lot in common – beer (real beer) being one of them, although thinking back to those times my poison was real cider. Oh, there was food too. Jon lived on his own and could be quite a private person. He never married and in all the years I knew him he never had a partner. That was never a problem. Many of us didn’t – we just all gelled. It was very heady days. Then, Jon was a dispatch rider, often travelling daft distances on his motorcycle to deliver stuff. These were the days before the internet – or Amazon when you could make a living doing such things.

Jon could be quite imposing in his leathers. He was tall, well-built (but not fat) bearded with close cropped hair. He was also a gentle giant. He had a stammer, which I think he was quite conscious of but none of us ever mentioned, why would we? He was just a lovely bloke – and very knowledgeable about beer – and politics. We became good friends and part of a small group I nicknamed ‘The Corbin drinking crew’ – Corbin House being the name of block on Bromley High St we lived in.

Jon was also very well read. We used to have parties in his small flat which was filled with books and beer memorabilia. I remember he used to make his own houmous which contained so many cloves of garlic you wouldn’t have seen a vampire for miles!

Sadly, when Lynn and I moved to Crouch End in North London I lost touch with Jon – apart from when I attended the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) where I knew I’d catch up with Jon as he was a volunteer on the Foreign beer stand. Sadly, moving to Yorkshire (and Covid) prevented me being there for some time.

But I’ve never forgotten Jon, or those fabulous and special days living in Corbin House. God, we used to have fun. Travelling around London to different pubs, attending the Canterbury beer festival and many others – and simply having a great time.

I’ve hundreds of pictures from those days but right now this is the only one I can find that I’ve scanned. I’ll do better soon. Here’s JRB flying kites with the rest of us on (I think) Blackheath in May 1995. I know I have better pictures. I’ll find one soon.

Jon may have gone – before his time too – but he’ll always live on in my memory, and that of all those of us who knew him. Sleep well, gentle giant. See you on the other side…

Rishi Sunak, HS2 and the great transport betrayal.

05 Thursday Oct 2023

Posted by in Economic illiteracy, Hs2, Politics, Rishi Sunak

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We’re less than 24 hours from Sunak’s appalling speech to the Tory party conference and things are already falling apart for him. But that’s the problem when you tell lies, they’re often so easy to expose when honest folk start to do some investigating.

Remember the Sunak’s claim that, right up to the last moment ‘no decision’ had been made on HS2? He lied. Not only was that obvious when the ‘Network North’ document and fantasy shopping list was slipped out (which had clearly been cobbled together days before) but he also made a video for social media. ITV had a look at it – especially the background, and revealed it was made at least a week before conference. You can see their report here. This morning Transport Minister Mark Harper (another conference liar) has been touring the TV studios, essentially saying ‘so what’? Yeah, who cares that we have yet another Tory Prime Minister who lies so glibly?

Now the wheels are coming off some of the ridiculous claims of what projects the imaginary £36bn of ‘savings’ from scrapping Hs2 phase 2 will fund. Some of the projects are utterly batshit. The whole list seems to have been cobbled together by someone Googling old transport schemes or people’s aspirations without any consultation with people who know about transport. Hence the addition of two absolute howlers.

Apparently, Network North will build an extension of Manchester Metrolink to Manchester airport. There’s only one problem. That was completed in 2014. Another completed project included in the wish-list was highlighted by Nottingham MP Lilian Greenwood.

Another list of projects has mysteriously disappeared, as local BBC reporter Dan Holland has found.

The fact that most of these schemes are little more than vaporware is given away by a footnote on page 24, which says “As usual, individual projects referenced in this document will be subject to the approval of business cases“.

But, as many of them are basket cases, not business cases, they’ll never happen. Some would never get through Network Rail’s GRIP process (Governance for Railway Investment Projects), like the idea to electrify the Hope valley line between Manchester and Sheffield. Whose daft idea was it to prioritise that? We’ll never know as no-one’s putting their name to this list of fantasies. Certainly, no-one in the rail industry was consulted, or Northern Mayors. Back in 2015 the Northern Electrification Task Force (set up by the Transport Minister reported on the priorities for electrification in the North. Number 1 on the list of 12 routes was the Calder Valley (Leeds to Manchester and Preston via Bradford and Brighouse). I blogged about it at the time. You can find the full list here. Hope Valley came in tier 2, so why’s it been mentioned in this report ahead of all the others? How many marginal Tory constituencies are on the route I wonder, or on the route of some of the other invented schemes?

Here’s the list of tier 1 routes. Guess how many have been electrified since 2015? Not a single one!

  • Calder Valley (Leeds to Manchester and Preston via Bradford and Brighouse)
  • Liverpool to Manchester via Warrington Central
  • Southport/Kirkby to Salford Crescent
  • Chester to Stockport
  • Northallerton to Middlesbrough
  • Leeds to York via Harrogate
  • Selby to Hull
  • Sheffield (Meadowhall) to Leeds via Barnsley / Castleford & connections
  • Bolton to Clitheroe
  • Sheffield to Doncaster/Wakefield Westgate (Dearne Valley)
  • Hazel Grove to Buxton
  • Warrington to Chester

How many are on the fantasy list? Just one (Sheffield to Leeds) with no funding agreed.

The truth is – ‘Network North’ is a con, which is why the ‘North’ now includes the South-East and Devon and Cornwall! Just look at the map! It’s the whole of England (and a bit of Scotland)! Oh, and why is Manchester now where Preston is?

Money has been diverted from the North to imaginary schemes right across England. Worse, money that was building a new green railway now will (supposedly) built motorways and dual-carriageways, sometime in the future, maybe – ish. And fill in potholes. So much for ‘net zero’ – and so much for ambition.

Can you start seeing the size of the con yet?

We’re going from spades in the ground actually building something that’s been 15 years in planning to a series of schemes (some resurrected, others just dreamed-up) where the vast majority of them will never happen – but they will look good on election pamphlets in marginal constituencies in 2024.

One of the great ironies of all these is one of Sunak’s main justifications for scrapping HS2 phase 2 which is the fact it’s been repeatedly delayed. Yes, and whose bloody fault is that? His Governments! If the Tories hadn’t continually dithered and delayed, changed their minds and kept interfering in the plans, Phase 1 and 2a of HS2 would have opened in 2026 and 2027.

Now we see the Tories doing their damndest to sabotage the future through a scorched earth policy of selling off land earmarked for HS2 as quickly as possible to make it as difficult (and expensive) as possible for Labour to re-instate what’s been scrapped. It’s political cynicism and economic destructiveness at its worst.

There’s another problem too. Credibility. Who in the financial markets of business sectors will trust the word of this bunch of liars again? Why would anyone take the risk of investing in the UK when a government acts this way? Over the past few years the Tories have proved they simply can’t be trusted to keep their word, be it international agreements they admit they’d willingly renege on (brexit) to HS2.

A final problem. This is government by diktat. No-one was consulted about this. This is Sunak usurping power and ignoring the democratic process. Ignoring the will of Parliament, ignoring regional elected political leaders and ignoring the institutions of state such as bodies tasked to run the transport needs of the country. It’s profoundly undemocratic. We don’t even know who drew up this daft list of projects. All we know is no-one who matters was consulted – apart from the Tory Mayor of Birmingham, Andy Street, who was stopped from resigning (if the threat was ever real) by being fobbed of with the promise of a rail scheme he’s been fobbed off with in the past and which still hasn’t been delivered.

The whole of the UK not just the North should be appalled at what’s occurred. This is no way to plan anything – much less the economic wellbeing of a country. But that stopped mattering to the Tories years ago. Now all that matters is trying to cling to power.

It’s been said that what the Tory party conference was really about was a battle for the soul of the Conservative party. What that conference proved was that they don’t have one.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Rishi Sunak, railways and HS2. What a lying shit-show.

04 Wednesday Oct 2023

Posted by in Hs2, Politics, Railways, Rishi Sunak

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I’m not going to pull any punches here but neither am I going to get into too much detail right now as I’m too bloody angry and still gathering data.

Here’s what I do know. Sunak has lied. Big time and repeatedly – and this is all down to him. Cabinet responsibility my arse. From what I’ve been told by various sources no-one had a clue what he was going to say until the very last moment. Many not even then.

No-one in the railway industry had any idea. Nor in HS2 Ltd, or the Infrastructure Commission. The Regional Mayors of the cities affected (including the Mayor of London) hadn’t the foggiest. None of the people who should have been consulted on cancelling the biggest civil engineering project in Europe were consulted – at all. This was a decision made by one man – and whoever’s been whispering in his ear.

Because Sunak lied to everyone.

He insisted just a few days ago that ‘no decision had been taken’ He lied. How do we know? Because shortly after his appalling speech at the Tory party conference this document, titled ‘Network North’ was slipped out on the DfT (who hadn’t been consulted either) website.

It’s 35 pages long. There’s no way on God’s green earth this was cobbled together over last weekend – although cobbled together it was. It’s appalling and I’ll be pulling it apart in another blog.

Sunak is claiming that by cancelling phase 2 of HS2 he has £36bn to spend on transport projects around the UK. It’s a lie. There are no £36bn savings. The money doesn’t exist. None of these projects could possibly happen before the next election. The budgeted spend on HS2 phase 2 over the next 5 years is around £3bn. The small print on page 24 of ‘Network North’ gives the game away. These schemes are a wish list that have no business case (and never will) nor planning permission or any other of the legal hoops such schemes have to jump through. Plus, the amounts they’re supposedly meant to cost are pure guesswork. It’s a con, an election con.

HS2 Phase 2 had (to quote Sunak’s laughable phrase) ‘spades in the ground’. He’s scrapped a scheme that was actually being built for ‘jam tomorrow’ but he knows he won’t be around to make any of them happen. It’s pure bullshit, and the party faithful (and the gullible) will fall for it – as well as a few parochial Northern luddites. He’s set rail investment and tackling Climate Change back by a generation. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the faux Greens who’re welcoming the decision to cancel a green railway to divert the money to road building instead. I have a special circle in hell reserved for them…

We are all being lied to – big time. We need to start understanding that – and we need to start doing something about it. Much of the national and nearly all of the regional media are doing an appalling job on this because they’re not doing the obvious and following the money. What money? The £36bn is a fantasy, as HS2 Ltd and Government accounts show – so why are they not pointing this out?

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

3rd October picture of the day…

03 Tuesday Oct 2023

Posted by in Hs2, Manchester, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, Railways

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As I suspected. This week’s proving very different to the last one. I’ve hardly moved from the house apart from a brief foray into Sowerby Bridge yesterday in order to pick up some shopping. Mind you, the weather’s hardly been conducive to venturing far. We’ve had more than our fair share of rain here in’t Pennines – such a contrast to the great weather we enjoyed in Surrey. So, I’ve battened down the hatche and got square eyes by wading through the hundreds of pictures I’ve had to sift through and edit before captioning them and getting them on to my Zenfolio website. The process is almost finished – the last ones will be done by tomorrow. I’ve also written an article for RAIL magazine on my visit to the HS2 bridge site near Aylesbury last week.

HS2 is taking up a lot of the media’s time right now due to the absolute car-crash that’s the Tory party conference in Manchester. That the route to Manchester might be scrapped has been widely leaked to the press and Sunak is making an utter fool of himself parroting ‘spades in the ground, spades in the ground’ whilst refusing to quash speculation that he’s started himself! The optics of this are mad. Who in their right minds would hold a party conference in a major city you’re about to deprive of a new high-speed railway? But, looking at the conference it’s clear anyone in their right mind has stayed away. Leaks from those there describe the atmosphere as like a party at a funeral. It’s more ‘the last days of the bunker’ in the levels of unreality that have crept in. One would be forgiven for thinking its really the UKIP conference with the Tories having drifted so far to the right. That Nigel Farage himself has attended and been lauded by some says it all. Then there’s the video of Farage dancing with Priti Patel. God help us! It gets worse, our esteemed (are you taking the piss? Ed) Transport Minister, Mark Harper has joined the ranks of the batshit conspiracy theorists and condemned the concept of ’15 minute cities’. Add this to Sunak announcing his going to scrap non existent plans to tax meat and make you use seven recycling bins and you can see how far from reality the Tories are straying.

The Daily Mirror newspaper has helpfully highlighted 5 of the maddest claims and outright lies used in speeches at the conference. Talk about having no shame…

Then, today, Home Secretary Suella Braverman channeled her inner Enoch Powell to give the most awful speech imaginable, full of anti immigration rhetoric and condemnation, telling people we’re facing a ‘hurricane’ of immigrants coming to take over our shores then launching into more ‘war on woke’ tirades that forced one man to grumble aloud. It wasn’t even a heckle, but he was immediately pounced upon by security and police, had his pass ripped from around his neck and was ejected in full view of the media who caught it on camera. Then it turned out the man was none other than Andrew Boff, the Conservative Chair of the London Assembly!

This car crash will hit the inveitable brick wall tomorrow, although from what I’m hearing many delegates have already left in despair. Tomorrow Sunak is due to address the conference. Will he be suicidal enough to announce the cancellation of HS2? Who knows. Whoever is advising him from the Tufton St cabal could well have sealed his, theirs and the Tories fate, because such an announcement will go down like a bucket of cold sick, no matter how he tries to spin it. ‘Levelling up’ will be exposed as a joke and the North won’t forgive, or forget. And I suspect the Labour party will be watching with bated breath as the Tories could well be about to leave them a huge open goal.

I’ll be waiting for the next set of opinion polls to come out after this shambles is over with great interest. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with today’s picture which is one of the batch I’ll have uploaded to my Zenfolio site tomorrow. Rightwinder try and pretend there’s no need for investment in the railways anymore as no-one using the trains nowadays. Really? Here’s the concourse of London’s Liverpool St station seen at 18:25 last Thursday. Just containing tumbleweeds, obviously….

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

1st October picture of the day…

01 Sunday Oct 2023

Posted by in London Underground, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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After a week gallivanting around the South-East today couldn’t have been more different. Partly because after getting up at 06:30 every day the pair of us had a lie-in until nearly 11:00! Hey, it’s Sunday and time to recharge the batteries. The fact we’ve both gone down with minor colds and aches was another good reason to relax – at least until tomorrow. So, no trains for me today. In fact, no travel at all unless you count a leisurely stroll into Sowerby Bridge and back in order to pick up some shopping and ensure that I get my steps in for the day. Apart from that, I’ve spent the rest of Sunday glued to my computer in order to finish the first sift of this weeks pictures and begin editing the ones that pass muster. Which is a lot!

Whilst doing this I’ve been trying to resist looking at commentary about the Tory party conference in nearby Manchester. OK, I have taken the occasional peek but managed to avoid the temptation to vent my spleen – difficult as it is when you’re watching a party who’ve been in power for 13 years trying to pretend the utter shitshow we’ve suffered is nothing to do with them and what we actually need is to elect them again so they can make everything *even* better! Their levels of delusion are off the scale and I have to wonder if even they believe the bullshit they’re coming out with. Of course, their cheerleaders in certain sections of our famously ‘independent’ media (are you having a laugh! Ed) are doing their damndest to keep the gravy train rolling and cheerlead. Oh, did I mention trains? One thing you won’t get a straight answer out of any of them is over the HS2 railway. Apparently, having set the hare running over the future of HS2 to Manchester, Sunak and Co won’t comment on ‘speculation’. The very speculation they’ve started and could kill in an instant if they were honest and gave a straight answer. But they’re not – and they won’t. After all, when you’re having your conference in Manchester and spent years talking bollox about ‘levelling up’ the country are you really going to admit you’ve just cancelled/postponed the high-speed line to the city?

I can’t see the Tories having a great conference. It seems from reports (and the pictures I’ve seen) that attendance figures are derisory. Everyone knows they’re a dead man walking so why bother going unless you’re one of the deluded batshit faithful? I’ll bet the Labour conference shortly after will be a very different affair as people can see which way the electoral winds are blowing. I’d love to be enthused about Labour and the vision of them taking power and putting to rights the mess the Tories have made of the UK since they morphed into UKIP, but I’m struggling. Honesty is in short supply in UK politics. Of course, that’s not just the fault of the political classes, it’s also the media and voters as many of the latter seem happy to be lied to if what they’re told fits their prejudices. How things will pan out only time will tell, but it all increases my feelings of disconnection from the UK. As I get older the more I suspect that the UK is becoming an economic and political basket-case that’s utterly incapable of shrugging off the past and embracing a future where the world’s changing and flag-waving just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Anyways, on another front it’s going to be a very busy week as I’ve articles to write, pictures to edit and spleens to vent – and an awful lot more besides as I’ve another role to slip in to but more of that soon…

In the meantime, here’s today’s picture which is from last week’s Southern haul. People from outside of London always think of the London Underground as the ‘tube’, those narrow trains that runs on certain deep level lines across the capital. Here’s a very different ‘underground’. This is a Metropolitan line train at Chalfont and Latimer out in suburban North-West London. The stations and tracks are shared with the old Great Central railway as far as Amersham. This is Sir John Betjeman’s ‘metroland‘.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312