Category Archives: Chris Packham

Chris Packham’s wasting his time (again)…

05 Tuesday Jan 2021

Posted by in 'Green' madness, Chris Packham, Hs2, Politics, Railways

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Still smarting from his spanking in the courts, ‘celebrity’ conservationist Chris Packham has come up with another wheeze to try and stop HS2, the UK’s new high speed railway, of which phase 1 from North of Birmingham to London is already under construction. This time Packham hasn’t needed to persuade people to donate money for his expensive vanity project as he’s fallen back on an old StopHs2 favorite by starting a petition on the Government website! There’s a rag-bag of other names associated with the petition, but the only ones worthy of note are the veteran human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield QC (who lives near the route), plus Richard Walker, Managing Director of Iceland Foods, charity trustee and Ambassador for the Wildlife Trusts (by the way, that’s some of the same Wildlife Trusts that environmentalist George Monbiot flayed for ‘greenwashing’ road and housing projects in Buckinghamshire).

Packham and his friends have been busy since last week drumming up media support for the petition and exploiting his social media connections. So far, they’ve had quite a bit of success. As I write this, the petition has reached 47,000 signatures, nearly half-way to its target of 100,000 which it needs to hit by the closing date of 17th June 2021. On that performance, it stands a very good chance of being the very first anti HS2 petition to ever reach the magical 100,00 signatures.

There’s just one teeny, tiny problem that Packham and his fellow signatories aren’t admitting in their daft assertions and breathless bluster…

Parliament “must” vote! Really? Says who? No-one. Certainly not the Government petitions website, which points out that these petitions can’t make Parliament *do* anything, as they explain here.

So this may not be debated in June as there’s already been numerous debates (and primary legislation in the shape of 2 Hybrid Bills) already. Still, there’ll be a vote on repealing the HS2 Hybrid Bills AFTER the debate, won’t there?

Nope…

Oh, has Packham not mentioned that? How remiss of him!

You see, the petitions debates are held in Westminster Hall, not the main chamber of the House of Commons – and they’re just that – a debate. Or, to put it in simpler terms – it’s a talking shop! As the Westminster Hall website explains:

“Debates in Westminster Hall take place on ‘general debate’ motions expressed in neutral terms. These motions are worded ‘That this House has considered [a specific matter]’. Amendments to such motions cannot be tabled. Divisions (votes) cannot take place in Westminster Hall.”

So, in short, there’s no way on God’s green earth that the Government’s Parliamentary Managers – or Parliamentary process would allow this (or any other petition) to go to a division (vote) in the Commons. It’s a dead duck! Packham’s peddling the fiction that if 100,000 people sign this petition, MPs will stream into the House of Commons and (en-masse) vote to repeal both HS2 Hybrid Bills! It’s a fantasy that relies on the gullibility of people to have no idea how their Parliamentary democracy actually works.

So, let’s indulge ourselves in a flight of fancy just for one minute. What if there WAS a vote in the Commons on HS2? The Government would win it hands down – for several reasons…

  1. Parliamentary mathematics.
  2. HS2 has massive cross-party support and the Tories would almost certainly ‘whip’ their MPs to vote in favour. So, even in the even more ridiculous and fantastical scenario of everybody else’s MPs voting to oppose HS2 the Government have an 80 seat majority and can’t fail. But, as the only people who oppose HS2 are a handful of Plaid Cymru MPs and the solitary Green, that ain’t gonna happen – but then, neither’s the vote!
  3. The number of MPs who oppose HS2 has fallen in recent years as many of those who did back in 2014 have lost their seats or simply left Parliament, so I refer you back to 1.

In short, this petition’s a complete waste of time. It’s just another myth that Packham’s peddling – like his Court case which was eviscerated as a waste of time with no chance of success by the Judges. This time he’s peddling the fantasy that MPs in Parliament would (if they could) vote to repeal the HS2 bill when they can’t – and wouldn’t.

Oh, there’s also the small matter that by the time this petition ends in June, two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) will already be several miles into their progress digging the Chiltern Tunnels and there’s going to be a lot of earthworks and new bridges being created along the 140 mile route of the line! This is not like pulling the plug in a computer system no-one’s ever seen, and if you think the Government will allow such a visible, physical monument to failure to be left behind you really do need to give your head a wobble! The only monument to failure you’ll be seeing here has Chris Packham’s name written all over it.

I have to say, it’s sad to see that the UK ‘Green’ movement has been hijacked by ‘conservationists’ with no thoughts for the science of climate change, whose only answer to any practical solution to tackle cutting carbon emissions is “but, Trees!” It’s this blinkered, ‘lose not one tree, not one blade of grass’ fundamentalism that’s making them part of the problem, not the solution, and it’s playing right into the oil/road lobby’s hands.

Oh, I take it back when I say this petition’s a ‘complete’ waste of time. It does have a couple of uses, but Packham won’t like either of them.

Firstly, these petitions come with a handy map showing which constituencies the people who’ve signed it live in. This will allow me to map the decline in signatures of people who live in areas HS2 passes through as I have a wealth of data from years and years of other failed petitions!

Secondly, it allows us to see what people acre about MORE than HS2! For example, here’s the top 10 active petitions at the moment.

In comparison to these, Packham and it friends have a mountain to climb. Oh, and that’s without mentioning that the petition to stop Brexit had over 6.1 MILLION signatures. That worked well…

Enjoy watching HS2 being built! If I have time tomorrow I’ll be blogging an update on progress with its construction.

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Chris Packham’s Judgement day…

06 Monday Apr 2020

Posted by in Chris Packham, Hs2

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Today the High Court released the full details and legal argument of their judgement on Chris Packham’s appeal for an interim injunction to stop tree felling on the route of HS2, and also his application for a Judicial Review. Both were rejected last week, but today the judges (Lord Justice Coulson and Mr Justice Holgate) published their judgement which you can find here.

It’s brutal. If I were Packham’s solicitors I’d be reaching for either the brandy or the smelling salts because they do not come out of this well. One only has to wonder about the quality of advice they gave to Packham as the judges make no bones about what they think, or found. I’d also suggest the man himself should have a long hard think and consider if the money donated to his Crowdfunder to bring this (obviously) futile action which clearly had no chance of success (as the judgement explains) was well spent, or how the poor people who were mugged for more than £100,000 might feel about their money being trousered by lawyers when the case had no chance of success? Here’s some snippets. First up, the Judges opinion of Packham’s Solicitors…

packham solictiros

“Overlong and repetitive with an unfortunately imperious tone”? Ouch!

It gets worse…

packham 2

If his solicitors (Leigh-Day) cheeks weren’t burning after that last slap, they should be after this one!

As you’d expect from High Court judges, the judgement goes into great detail, with references to case law and legal opinion. It gives not a single crumb of comfort to Packham or his legal team. I said in previous blogs that Packham’s obsession with the Oakervee was barking up the wrong tree (if you’ll pardon the pun) and the High Court make that clear. Oh, the final sentence of the 30 page judgement is a zinger, not just for Packham, but also for the eco-fascists who’re breaking the covid-19 Lockdown to tie up Police, Court Bailiffs and security guards on the HS2 construction sites.

packham 3

The reaction to all this on social media has been muted so far, mainly because the judgement won’t reach many people. Twitter however, is different. Here’s on reaction, which sums things up rather well, including Packham’s predicament…

pete

So, if you support HS2 or not. Next time Packham and his legal time ask you for money. Don’t throw it away, again. Those opposed to HS2 have wasted millions of pounds on futile legal actions over the years, much of that money’s been raised from poor sods who’ve been persuaded to part with it via Crowdfunders and appeals. It’s wasted more millions of public funds in defending these actions. And all for what? Nothing. Hs2 is being built. Now…

 

Chris Packham loses his legal case against HS2.

03 Friday Apr 2020

Posted by in 'Green' madness, Chris Packham, Hs2, Railways

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A bit of good news today. Celebrity ‘Environmentalist’ (and paid tour-guide to the jet-set in exotic locations) Chris Packham has lost his legal case against HS2 today. In a double-blow he not only lost his call for an immediate injunction to stop tree felling in Crackley woods, the two judges hearing his case also refused his application for a Judicial Review on the grounds that “there was no real prospect of success” – which is hardly surprising as Packham had fixated on the Oakervee report and its conclusions, ignoring the fact it was merely a non-statutory review that had no legal standing unlike the Environmental Impact Assessment, or indeed – the Parliamentary process and legality of a Hybrid Bill that has been granted Royal Assent!

Needless to say, this leaves his eco-fascist supporters on the ground up shit creek. Or in their case – up a tree! Bailiffs are continuing with the eviction sanctioned by the High Court and already some of the tiny bunch of people in the trees have been brought down and several arrested.

Meanwhile, the game of bullshit bingo on social media continues with no lie too big to tell. The irony is the protesters are claiming this fiasco as a ‘victory’ as they’ve managed to delay work for all of – ooh – a few days! The levels of delusion and arrogance amongst the protesters is a sight to behold on social media- as is the bluster. They pretend they’re actually the law and will be taking others to court. Really? Remind me, who’s being arrested and who’s doing the arresting? These people need to give their heads a wobble. One day they’re issuing their demands (seriously? Get over yourselves!), the next day the real world loses its patience with them and they realise just who is in charge as they’re taken down from the trees by the law and nicked.

I wish I could have respect for people who claim to be protecting the environment, but honestly, this bunch do nothing but harm to the environmental movement because their sense of self-righteousness and inability to understand how ordinary people see their antics. Their sanctimoniousness is weapons-grade. They completely ignore the costs and logistics of keeping their tiny band from causing trouble. There’s literally hundreds of security staff, bailiffs and police being tied up here, not to mention the miles of fencing and other material needed – and all for what, so that the eco-fascists can ponce around in their pointless videos on the likes of Facebook and Instagram. But what does these videos actually show? Their utter failure to stop anything.

But, do you know the real irony about these people who’re kicking up a fuss about Crackley woods? Have a look at a map.

crackley

HS2 can be seen at the top of the map just clipping the edge of the wood and avoiding the majority of it. It couldn’t do any less damage than it is as this is clearly the optimum alignment. But, hang on – what’s that dismantled railway below it that pierced the very heart of the wood? That’s the former Kenilworth-Berkswell LNWR route (opened in 1884). It’s now part of the Kenilworth Greenway, which will be temporarily diverted between Burton Green and Berkswell during HS2 construction, and then restored alongside HS2 when it is completed, including passing through the new public open space that will be created atop the Burton Green green tunnel . . . reuniting the centre of the village that was cut in half in 1884 by the LNWR line! So, the Victorians clearly had less regard for the environment and ancient woodland than HS2 does!

I’ll look forward to seeing the Judges judgement on Packham’s daft court case on Monday. I suspect it’s not going to be kind. I feel sorry for the poor mugs who he persuaded into putting up the money for this through crowdfunding. Meanwhile, expect the Government granting HS2 ‘Notice to Proceed’ very very soon…

Yet another stophs2 protest flops.

29 Sunday Dec 2019

Posted by in Chris Packham, Hs2, StopHs2

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‘Celebrity environmentalist’ Chris Packham had arranged yet another stophs2 protest to ‘save’ the trees. You know, the one’s he’s never been honest with people about and continually made up numbers regarding. Like the claim HS2’s causing the greatest deforestation since WW1 (tosh I exposed here). Or that 108 woods will be ‘destroyed’ by HS2 (they won’t, as I exposed here). His latest numerical flight of fancy was to claim that his little campaign has 5 million ‘supporters’ – as can be seen mentioned on the box he handed in to Downing St in this picture.

Where this number came from is as mysterious as all his other made up numbers. It has no basis in reality, but then a lot of what Packham claims fits into that category.

Clearly, with such vast support, the ramble from Denham today must have brought the place to a standstill as all those supporters rallied to his flag, no? After all, Denham is less than 20 mins by train from London Marylebone and it’s right in the Nimby heartlands on phase 1 which is supposedly united in its opposition to HS2.

No.

Even Packham’s been forced to admit that the turnout has been pretty abysmal. He’s claimed “over 1000”, which seems remarkably generous judging by the pictures appearing on Twitter. Here’s a selection. First up, Packham’s tweet.

Packham’s attached a 20 second long video which shows a few dozen people walking past the camera and err, that’s it! Notice something else? How few of the ‘5 million’ have liked or retweeted this so far…
Spot the 1000s? Nope, me neither…
A nice, tightly cropped picture, showing just a few dozen people. Where’s everyone else?
Another Packham self-publicity shot with the silly train set and the 1000s gathered who turned up for the ramble behind him. Oh, wait…”Tell the truth”? That’s rich coming from Packham, man who’s continually made stuff up!

Still, never mind. This must be trending on Twitter and across social media, right? I mean, 5 million people pumping this out will make a huge impact, won’t it?

Like hell. The #rethinkHs2 hashtag’s got nowhere! Meanwhile, over on the Stophs2 Facebook page, there’s one or two more revealing videos that show just how few have turned up. You can find them here.

To put all this nonsense in perspective. Many millions of us repeatedly marched against Brexit. Did we succeed? So, how will this little circus stop Hs2?

The really sad thing here is the way Packham and the other single-issue campaigners like the Woodland Trust are exploiting people for their own ends. None of this is going to stop Hs2 in the slightest, it’s basically a cheap publicity stunt for Packham and his friends where he’s exploited his ‘celebrity’ to suck people into believing the nonsense he spouts. My frustration is the way people are being misled over the true impact of HS2 and the fact they’re not actually protecting anything in the long term, exactly the opposite in fact.

Without HS2 we simply don’t have the rail capacity for the future to get people & freight off roads and cut transport Co2 emissions to tackle global Climate Change. Stopping HS2 isn’t ‘green’. This is the classic example of not being able to see the woods for the trees and the oil companies and road lobby must be rubbing their hands in glee at how easy it is to get ‘greens’ to do their work for them. Packham offers no solutions. He has none, because it’s always easier to oppose things and leave solutions to others. Here’s something else he doesn’t tell you. Here’s all that woodland ‘destruction’ put into perspective when you compare it to just a single road scheme in SE England. Of course, the LTC would have been greater than HS2 until the Woodland Trust mysteriously upped their figure from 40.2 ha when someone drew their attention to it, without providing a shred of evidence to back up or explain the increase. Funny, that…

One last thing that made me laugh about today? The complete absence of pictorial or other evidence that any of the remaining StopHs2 Twitter trolls managed to drag their sorry arses away from their keyboards and out of their armchairs to be there – even the ones within a 20 mile radius. They may rant on social media, but that’s all they do…

Today’s mixed messages

18 Wednesday Dec 2019

Posted by in Calder Valley, Chris Packham, Musings, Railways

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I’ve had another busy day home-based, doing all sorts of different things, but as the weather has been freezing and the valley fog-bound for much of the day I’ve really not minded. That said, I would have liked to have ventured up to Scotland to say goodbye to yet another old BR train fleet that reached the end of the line today. Scotrail retired the last of the 16 Class 314 electric trains that have run around Strathclyde since 1979, giving the old girls quite a decent send-off too by all accounts. This blog looks back at their lives and times.

Instead of a Scottish sojourn I’ve been up to my neck in paperwork whilst waiting for various home deliveries. Dawn ordered something via Amazon which was fine as they emailed me with a 2-hour delivery slot between 8-10am and kept to it. I’d ordered some printer inks which were being delivered via Yodel, whom I’ve heard lots of bad things about. I wasn’t re-assured when I went to track my delivery via the link to the Yodel website this morning. I found that I was delivery number 73! My first thought was “Oh ‘kin hell – 73? In a day? I’ve no chance” Here’s a screen grab from 13:00

My pessimism was entirely misplaced. Their tracking system worked perfectly, as did the countdown allowing me to nip out and not stress about missing the delivery. Finally, just before 17:00 the chap rang the doorbell and I had time to commend him for getting through so many drops in a day. Our chat revealed he’d had a fun time with the weather as most of his drops had been up in the high Pennines and it was only now he was dropping down into the valley, so he’d battled through ice, rain and fog to get to me!

On another front, I have had time to look at some comments on social media friends have linked me in to, including this outstanding piece of hypocrisy from celebrity environmentalist Chris Packham, who tweeted this earlier today.

Hang on, isn’t this is the same man who’s organised a dishonest media campaign against building High Speed 2, the one chance we have to have the rail capacity we need to cope with modal shift from air and road to rail so as to cut transport Co2 emissions in order the tackle climate change? The very same! I’m no ‘celebrity environmentalist’ but I’ve never dreamed of taking an internal flight in the UK! I’ve always travelled by much more environmentally friendly rail – but then (unlike Packham) I’m not jet-setting around the world to lecture folks on how to be green. Packham’s statement begs a question. If this is his ‘last’ internal flight, how many has he taken before now? This seems like a classic example of ‘do as I say, not as I do’ and it shows why so many people are cynical about the ‘green’ movement. Mind you, Packham’s got form. I’ve already exposed his nonsense about Hs2 being the ‘biggest deforestation programme since WW1″ here.

Tomorrow I escape the Calder Valley for some time down South, so expect a rolling blog documenting the day, which might be interesting if the new timetables are providing the same ‘fun and games’ as they have been. Watch this space….

Put not your trust in Princes (or ‘celebrity’ Environmentalists)…

24 Sunday Nov 2019

Posted by in Chris Packham, Hs2, Railways

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Well- known TV presenter and environmentalist Chris Packham has continually made the statement that HS2 is causing the biggest deforestation programme since World War 1. Here’s one of his tweets from today, making exactly that claim.

There’s only one problem with it, which is this…

Here’s why.

I’ve been doing something Packham clearly hasn’t bothered to do and researched the evidence for his claim. I started off with this website from the Conservation Volunteers which contains a history of British woodland. They have a handy section on the 20th Century, which reveals this:

“The strategic danger of this situation became obvious in the First World War (1914-1918), when enemy action prevented imports getting through. Over the four years, about 180,000 hectares (450,000 acres) were felled to meet the demands“.

180,000 hectares eh? Any more offers? Well, actually – yes. This is from the Countryfile website.

“There were 182 government-run sawmills by the end of 1917, supplemented by a further 40 mills run by groups such as the Canadian Forestry Corps and Women’s Forestry Corps. By 1918, 182,000 hectares of woodland had been felled – an area larger than modern-day Greater London”. Let’s split the difference and say 181,000 hectares shall we? Oh, and that’s without The conservation volunteers pointing out that more woodland was felled in WW 2 than WW1.

“By the time of the Second World War (1939-1945), the Commission forests were still too young to provide much timber, and about 212,000 hectares (524,000 acres) of private woodland were felled to meet the demand“.

Then how much woodland is going to be felled (note, felled, not just affected) by HS2? Because, if Packham’s claim is right, it’s got to be way over 180,000 ha, or even 212,000ha. Now, 212,000 hectares is 210 square kilometres. What do HS2 say’s is affected in this document? Note, this is not just felled, but indirectly affected too. Oh…

Up to 3.8km in total will be affected by HS2. That’s just 380 hectares! Oh, and that’s without talking into account the fact HS2 will be planting MORE woodland than they affect, in fact, they’ll be planting more than double the amount, 136% more in fact. Some ‘deforestation’!

Put simply?

WW1 = 181,000 Ha felled

WW2 = 212,000 Ha felled

HS2 = 380 Ha (includes woodland affected but not felled).

Plus, if we take up Packham on his claim about ancient woodlands, we can see the numbers are even smaller, as this blog using the (Woodland Trusts own figures) exposed.

Oh, there’ also this handy little graphic from @greensforhs2 which adds more context. Did you know far more woodland’s been felled in Scotland to make way for windfarms?

Someone pass Packham a fire extinguisher as his pants are clearly ablaze!