Category Archives: election2015

StopHs2: Their archive’s great for mapping their decline…

10 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by in election2015, General election, Hs2, StopHs2

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I was doing a bit of research the other day so I popped into the StopHs2 campaign’s website to look back through some of the deceitful nonsense and bluster they’ve spouted over the years. As you may have noticed, I do like a bit of number crunching! Whilst I was there I noticed that their archive’s a clear indicator of their gradual demise. Their archives go back to the spring of 2010, so I decided to have a look at how many articles they produced each year and tallied up the figures for each March and April. Here they are.

articles on stophs2 website

After being steady for so many years the decline since 2016 is marked. It’s hardly surprising as there’s nothing to report as nothing’s going on now the campaign’s collapsed. Most of the articles over the past couple of years have been reactive, complaining about Hs2 rather than campaigning to stop Hs2.

If you can take the time to browse through the archive there’s some hilarious predictions and pronouncements that haven’t aged well at all. There’s a rich vein of Joe Rukin’s  lies to be mined too!

I’ll leave you with this gem from April 2015. In it, Penny Gaines claims that “it’s worth reminding politicians that HS2 is a big issue in constituencies along the line” Really Penny? In the attached video Joe Rukin makes the same claim, highlighting Warwickshire North, the constituency where the outgoing MP Dan Byles (an opponent of Hs2) had a wafer thin majority of 54.

HS2 dominates election campaign in many constituencies

So, what was the result? Well, the new Tory candidate INCREASED the Tory majority by 3%, from 54 to 2,973 as the BBC reported here. So much for Hs2 being an election issue! The same happened on other parts of the route too as I pointed out in a blog at the time.

When the last one out turns out the lights on StopHs2 I do hope they leave their archive online as a testament of how not to run a campaign!

The anti Hs2 mobs campaign continues to head for the rocks

10 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by in election2015, Hs2, Hs2aa, Politics, Railways, StopHs2

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As we’re now well into the general election campaign I thought it would be interesting to have yet another look at the anti Hs2 campaign’s social media influence.

No doubt they’ve been hoping that the *cough* ‘millions’ they claim are affected by & who oppose Hs2 would be flocking to their banner. As usual, the truth is very different.

I’ve previously looked at their Twitter & Facebook performance in February & March. This looks at the groups themselves and the individual ‘main players’. I’ve added today’s scores in this little spreadsheet, along with the percentage change.

Anti Hs2 mob stats

As you can see – it’s abysmal. They’ve hardly moved from a very low base & in some cases they’ve even gone backwards! Bear in mind that ‘followers’ doesn’t automatically mean supporters. Many folks will be following simply to see what they’re up to. No wonder the main political parties don’t see them as anything to worry about with such abysmal numbers as these. That said, UKIP & the Greens should take note too. They’ve been conned into thinking there’s lots of votes to harvest by opposing Hs2, which is pure moonshine.

Let’s put these numbers in perspective. The total number of UK parliamentary electors in 2013 was 46,139,900. I hate to think how many zeros would be on the figure if you calculated what percentage of that number the anti Hs2 campaign is reaching!

There’s another problem for the anti Hs2 mob. As the election campaign progresses it’s becoming clearer that voters are starting to seriously think about who they want to see in Government. It’s all very well considering placing a protest vote with UKIP or Greens but neither have a snowballs chance in hell of holding power. Polls are showing that voters are realising this, with votes transferring back to the main parties.

This is yet more bad news for the anti Hs2 campaign. Their ‘no votes for you with Hs2’ campaign’s been an embarrassing flop & they’re failing to persuade anyone who could stop Hs2 to do so. It’s not hard to see why. Their Twitter campaign is increasingly relying on the sort of people the PM once called ‘swivel-eyed loons’…!

When the election results become clear & the Hs2 Hybrid Bill Committee reconvenes, I suspect their campaign will go into another slough of despondency. I can’t see the people who bankroll it continuing to throw their money away forever. Perhaps it’s time Joe Rukin started looking for a proper job…