Category Archives: Economic illiteracy

Financial spin & contradictions from the anti Hs2 mob.

25 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Economic illiteracy, Hs2, Hs2aa, Northern Powerhouse, Politics, Rail Investment, StopHs2, Uncategorized

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Today’s not been a good day for the anti hs2 campaign despite their high  expectations. For some reason they’d convinced themselves that there was trouble on the horizon for Hs2 and that the Autumn spending review might even see Hs2 cancelled as the Government ran out of money for investment.

For days they’d been circulating nonsense comparisons such as ‘defense spending or Hs2’ or  even ‘Police Officers or Hs2’. In the end the Chancellor made complete fools of them! Not only did he find new money for the armed forces and didn’t cut the police budget – he also confirmed extra money for transport investment including Trans-Pennine electrification and confirmed the Hs2 budget at £55.7bn in 2015 prices.

funding envelope

The poor anti Hs2 mob didn’t know how to respond. StopHs2’s Penny Gaines and Joe Rukin had been sitting by their keyboards, waiting to spin what they could, but found the cupboard was bare. They managed a few desultory tweets but Osborne had clearly wrong-footed them.

Once the news broke that the Hs2 budget had been adjusted they tried the usual daft spin to pretend that the budget for Hs2 is the same as the cost of Hs2. They were helped by one or two confused Journo’s who managed the same feat, so I must give credit to the BBC’s Paul Scoins (@paulscoins) who corrected a tweet when I pointed this out to him.

What wrong -footed the antis even more was the revelation that the updated budget also included the budget estimate for the Hs2 trains, meaning the increase was far smaller than they’d be trying to spin! What they’d failed to understand was the 2015 cost is simply the 2011 cost adjusted for inflation. Of course, if you’re going to adjust the Hs2 budget for inflation you also have to adjust the benefits of Hs2 by the same amount. Watch some of the antis really struggle with that little fact…

Meanwhile, in one of those wonderful ironies, whilst StopHs2 and a few other antis were trying to pretend that this is a real cost increase in Hs2, Hilary Wharf, a member of the other remaining anti Hs2 Group – Hs2aa – was with a group from Potter Row who were presenting their petition to the Hybrid Bill Committee. Wharf and Co are arguing for a fully bored tunnel under the Chilterns. Part of their argument was that the actual costs of tunnels can come in lower than initial budgets- a position in diametric opposition to their fellow travellers at StopHs2!

Worse was to come as details of Sir Peter Hendy’s report into Network Rail was released. This exposed the anti Hs2 mobs scaremongering on Hs2 sucking money from rail investment was complete nonsense. You can read the details on RAIL magazines website.

Crazy anti hs2 campaigner of the week – No 7

03 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Economic illiteracy, Hs2, Peter Jones

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Despite strong competition, this weeks award goes to Camden resident Peter Jones (who Tweets as Hs2DeadDuck) for this superb bit of financial illiteracy & economic nimbyism.

dead duck

Quite how overcrowding & a lack of rail capacity can be solved by less public subsidy is a mystery. As for the idea that, rather then providing the means for increasing numbers of people to travel to & from work we should simply price them off the railways – it’s the sort of bonkers nonsense that the Taxpayers Alliance would be proud of! Come to think of it, the anti Hs2 campaign does increasingly resemble the TPA in that it’s anti public transport – having switched from just opposing Hs2 to being against Hs3 & any other modern rail investment.

Jones neatly ignores the fact that the reason most people travel at peak times is that they have to in order to get to work on time! They have no option. If they can’t get on a train then either they have to find another way to get to work, or find another job. Clearly, retired Camden Nimbys like Jones see their needs first & foremost & damn the rest of the UK, its economy and its environment. It’s the classic ‘I’m alright Jack’ attitude.

Now, assuming the vast majority of folks wouldn’t be looking for lower paid jobs elsewhere, how will they get to work? By coach or car, obviously. Both of which are far more dangerous than rail travel – and far more polluting. There’s also the small matter of where they park in London.

So, in one fell swoop, Jones is proposing to get a few more people killed in the inevitable road accidents that would follow, further damage the environment with the pollution these vehicles will cause, cause gridlock on London’s roads – and see us have to build vast multi-storey car parks to accommodate the vehicles. No doubt many of them will have to be built in Camden as it’s outside the congestion charge zone!

There’s also the small matter of freight too. Without the paths for freight that Hs2 frees up on the WCML we’ll be seeing more HGVs on our motorways – and London’s roads.

Of course, the problem won’t just be confined to London. Hs2 frees up commuter capacity at other major city stations like Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield & Manchester.

It’s absolutely bonkers but it very neatly illustrates the illogical mindset & ‘I’m alright Jack’ attitude that permeates the anti Hs2 campaign.

UPDATE:

Jones is also a very good example of the abusive (& downright defamatory) nature & tactics of many of the anti Hs2 campaigners – as this tweet from last night shows.

dead duck 4