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Category Archives: ‘Green’ madness

Chris Packham’s wasting his time (again)…

05 Tuesday Jan 2021

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

≈ 14 Comments

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'Green' madness, Chris Packham, Hs2, Railways

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 loses his legal case against HS2.

03 Friday Apr 2020

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

≈ 4 Comments

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Chris Packham, Hs2

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…

“Extinction Rebellion”. How to make friends and influence people (not).

02 Thursday Apr 2020

Posted by Paul Bigland in 'Green' madness, Coronavirus, Environment, Hs2, Railways

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

'Green' madness, Coronavirus, Hs2, Railways

Regular readers will know of my exasperation at the UK’s ‘green’ movement, which seems to spend more time alienating people through its attitudes and behaviours than it does getting them on board. I find it intensely frustrating as we desperately need a credible Green voice in politics and in general. Sadly, we’ve ended up with a bunch of finger-waggers and self-appointed ‘saviours’ of the planet who’re either actively undemocratic or entirely useless. Instead of persuading people to change their behaviours in their own long-term interests and using democratic means to do so, they come across as a mix of eco-fascists and loons.

Here’s an example from the protests against building HS2, Britain’s new high-speed railway. Yes, I know – you’d think Greens would be all for it. But that involves being sensible, pragmatic and seeing the bigger picture. Those are three things noticeably absent from much of the UK’s ‘Green’ movement. Take a look at this.

hs2 rebellion

Seriously? Here’s a bit of background. These clowns are up a tree in Crackley Woods in Warwickshire, in defiance of a High Court Injunction. The only reason they’ve no food is their planning was so piss-poor they never took enough up into the trees with them for more than a couple of days. Instead (stupidly) they expected to be resupplied by friends on the ground. They’re now whining that the High Court Bailiffs and security people won’t let food through to them – and prolong the circus even further, which means everyone is more at risk from Coronovirus.

“Prisoners of war”? They inflicted this upon themselves and they’re free to leave at any time. Instead, they’re playing martyr. Not only that, they’re comparing themselves to people who’ve actually fought for their country to uphold the democratic system. What’s democratic about them? Nothing. They’re eco-fascists. They’re ignoring the fact the HS2 bill was passed by Parliament with a massive majority in both the Commons and the Lords, and they’re ignoring the law of the land as enforced by the High Court. They’re entirely self-appointed and (unlike Parliament) unaccountable. They consider themselves to be above the law. They also spout a load of uninformed rubbish, but that’s another matter…

Their hypocrisy is breathtaking. Their tiny and futile protests are costing a fortune due to the levels of security needed to protect the sites, the delays incurred and the fact they’re tying up literally hundreds of site security people, High Court Bailiffs and police officers when they should and could be at home, safe from exposure to covid-19. Than they have the brass-neck to point the finger at everyone else – and use the NHS in their propaganda.

How is this an advert for the Green movement? These people are preventing us building the rail capacity we need to get modal shift from air/road to rail. It’s madness – but that’s the level of intellectual bankruptcy of the UK’s greens I’m afraid.

The road lobby and oil companies must be laughing their socks off.

UPDATE.

I see the Coventry Telegraph has published a list of these clowns demands! – as if they’re in any position to make any – but then this simply shows how arrogant and out of touch with the real world these people are, and also how undemocratic they are. I’ve reproduced them here.

“We have 5 demands.

Ultimately, we want to stop HS2. It does not serve ordinary people. It does not accommodate for a culture gearing towards a society with ecology on the agenda. HS2 is proclaimed to be carbon neutral in 120 years, yet during a time of biological annihilation and climate emergency, they consider wiping out precious woodland and endangered habitat a sound ecological plan.
The British public have not been informed of the costs or the implications of the project. Considering this is the most expensive railway per mile in the history of the world, at an estimated £307 million per mile, and being paid for by public money, this is completely undemocratic. We therefore seek a democratic solution.
We demand a citizen’s assembly in the nature of the one used in Ireland for the repeal of the eighth amendment on abortion. This will ensure public money is used to meet public needs not private interests … This is our primary demand.
We also have demands that require immediate action.

• Stop HS2 during this pandemic . This is not essential work. HS2 should not be exempt from their current social responsibility. We have witnessed the impossibility of workers being able to keep to their social distancing.
• Stop this eviction, and all others, during this pandemic . We have witnessed the bailiffs be unwilling or unable to comply with the social distancing policy. Any kind of eviction brings high stress, which threatens the immune system. We are also at a height of 20 metres from the woodland floor, exposed to the elements with no free access to food or water. We are being given an ultimatum: either highly risk our personal immune systems, and therefore our close family and community’s health, or hold onto our current home, which is part of the little remaining precious ecosystem we all rely on. This is completely unjust.

• Stop any irreversible work until both Chris Packham’s court case on the legality of the project, and Notice to Proceed go ahead. That includes habitat destruction of any kind, work involving displacing homes, ground and preparatory works, etc.
• Should work cease, we demand that workers receive adequate compensation , the sum of which to be decided by the workers themselves, as only they know the needs for which this compensation need fill. The fallouts of poor decisions made by upper management and politicians should not fall upon those who are forced to implement them.
Signed, The thirsty occupants x”

And you wonder why I have no time for these people?

 

 

More ineffective stopHs2 nonsense…

22 Sunday Mar 2020

Posted by Paul Bigland in 'Green' madness, Hs2, Politics, Railways

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Green madness, Hs2, Politics, Railways

To say the tiny bunch of self-appointed ‘eco-warriors’ have lost the plot in these troubled times is putting it mildly. Right now they’ve deployed weapons-grade hypocrisy and rank stupidity in equal measures. Just take a look at this video.

Literally nothing they claim in this video is true. The irony of all their claims about being assaulted? They’re being watched by half a dozen police officers (who really do have much better things to do with their time right now). Said officers just might know a bit more about the law than these protesters with their histrionics.

Their hypocritical claims that the HS2 security workers are ‘breaking the law’ by not keeping 2 metres apart? There is no such law (it’s advice that doesn’t apply in this situation).

Oh, and watch serially failed Green Party Candidate Mark Keir getting right into the faces of the security people as he more and more frequently loses his rag (a not uncommon sight nowadays, how long before he’s nicked for threatening behaviour I wonder)? This is the man I highlighted in my latest crazy anti Hs2 campaigner blog as the ultimate hypocrite. Social distancing my arse! This is the clown who was berating men for not keeping their distance yet here he can be seen pressed up against them, covering them in his spittle as he rants and rages!

The ultimate irony? Without these increasingly futile and idiotic protests none of the police or security guards would need to be there and several million pounds of taxpayers money could be spent elsewhere. On things like the NHS perhaps?

It’s time those who’re financially supporting these idiotic antics by ineffective barrack-room lawyers and faux ‘eco-warriors’ (have you seen the mess their ‘protest’ camps make in woodland?) take a good look at what they’re funding and the utter pointlessness of it. Because this isn’t saving woodland, or the planet. Exactly the opposite in fact.

Because, 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 Climate Change. Stopping HS2 isn’t ‘green’, it’s exactly the opposite. These people can’t see the woods for the trees.

Why single-issue campaigners are part of the climate-change problem, not the solution.

15 Wednesday Jan 2020

Posted by Paul Bigland in 'Green' madness, Environment, Hs2

≈ 6 Comments

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'Green' madness, Climate Change, Environment, Hs2, Railways

As the countdown to the Government making its final decision on building HS2 the opposition has ramped up their anti HS2 PR, the latest being today’s overly-long 34 page report from the Wildlife Trusts.

It’s a masterpiece of speculation and scaremongering. Long on apocalyptic predictions of what HS2 will do the UKs flora and fauna but woefully short of facts. It also ignores the critical question. If not HS2, what?

The report’s been collated using responses from 14 Wildlife Trusts and a number of conservation and landowning organisations along the full route of HS2 who’ve all been busy staring into their crystal balls in order to predict a future where HS2 has supposedly laid waste to this green and pleasent land. Here’s some examples. Here’s this from the Executive summary.

“HS2 will result in the loss of irreplaceable habitats, including ancient woodlands, veteran trees, wood pasture, old meadows, mires and wetlands. A total of 108 ancient woodlands are known to be threatened with loss or damage under current plans. Many other important wildlife habitats will be negatively impacted by the construction of HS2 and will not recover their existing biodiversity value, under the timescales used in HS2’s calculations”

At the risk of being flippant, the old expression “you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs” springs to mind here. The idea that we can build anything on the scale of HS2 in the UK without affecting something or someone is pie in the sky. The point is to ensure the least damage is caused as possible, to mitigate the losses and to ensure there’s replacements for what has to be lost. Because (make no mistake) there’s something much bigger at stake here. It’s called planet Earth – but more of that later….

Here’s some more examples.

“1.3 Species at risk
It is anticipated that HS2 will impact a wide range of wildlife significantly”

Anticipated? By whom? This is a good example of the language used throughout the report. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen the words and phrases “risk”, “potential risk”,”jeopardised”, “may”, “likely”,

Then there’s these classic bits of daft scaremongering from the introduction.

“HS2 is a huge infrastructure project, which will cut and divide England’s natural habitats in two, from London to Manchester and Leeds”…”HS2 will cut right through the heart of England, slashing a large part of the countryside in two”.

Err, hello? This is a railway, it’s not the Berlin wall! And, it’s a damned sight more permeable for wildlife than the alternative – more motorways. It’s this sort of blinkered thinking that is so frustrating, because at no point in the report are any alternatives considered – or a comparison of the destruction they would cause even mentioned. Because – if you did that, the effects of HS2 on the environment would look very different indeed to the bleak picture painted by these groups.

It’s that lack of a bigger picture that makes organisations like this part of the Climate Change problem, not the solution. They’re single-issue campaigners. They daren’t look at the bigger picture, because if they did it would make people realise that they (literally) can’t see the woods for the trees.

Great, say they managed to stop HS2. What then? The need for it won’t go away. Instead, the Government would have to come up with an alternative and the only obvious alternative is more motorways. The old axiom ‘be careful what you wish for’ is very appropriate here. If ‘green’ groups think building a new railway is too higher price to pay, what price is several hundred miles of new motorways?

Of course, the stock answer you get from groups like the Wildlife or Woodland Trusts is “not my problem Guv, we’re only here to campaign about UK trees, or newts, or bats”.

Which brings me back to planet Earth – if only I could bring these groups back there too!

Transport is one of the biggest emitters of Co2. If we’re serious about tackling GLOBAL climate change we need to get modal shift from road and air to the greenest form of mass land transport: Rail. But we can’t do that without the vastly enhanced rail capacity HS2 gives us as our existing network is full and can’t be expanded in any meaningful way. Oh, we can tinker around the edges, removing a few pinch-points here and there, but the truth is we need a new line. The rest of the world has realised that High-Speed rail’s the solution, but many here are too blinkered, too conservative and (seemingly) incapable of grasping the scale of the problem.

Great, we get to ‘save’ a tiny patch of ancient woodland. For now. But in doing so we put the whole ecosystem at risk. Not just in the UK but across the planet as there’s a clue in the name ‘Global Warming’.

This is ultimately my frustration with these supposed environmental groups. Their inability to see and deal with the bigger picture won’t save anything. Just the opposite! There’s another hypocrisy here. ‘Green’ groups constantly shout about the ‘climate emergency’ and the need to act NOW! Yet, when it comes to building HS2 they say “not so fast, we must go back to the drawing board”, thus delaying the means to enable modal shift for several years if not decades. Some ’emergency’! It’s taken us 10 years to get to this point, yet HS2 still won’t be ready for years!

I could spend hours critiqueing the rest of the scaremongering in this report, but I think you get the drift. I want to see the environment protecting too – after all, I’ve got to live on this planet as well. I just wish we had a decent environmental and truly ‘green’ party in the UK, because what we’ve got now is just doing the road lobby and oil companies jobs for them.

Despite all this there has been one very refreshing thing and that’s HS2 Ltd finally taking the gloves off by starting to challenge these factual inaccuracies and spin rather then leaving it to people like myself and Gareth Dennis. Here’s a sample of their ripostes on Twitter.

This challenging of factual inaccuracies and willingness to stand up for the project rather than rely on people like myself, Gareth Dennis and RAIL’s Nigel Harris amongst others is long overdue but nevertheless welcome. Maybe now we can start to cut through the crap and talk about the serious issues as construction of HS2 gets underway.

UPDATE: 16th January.

I know I’ve been a stern critic of the environmental movement in this blog, but I’m going to share this with you as evidence of why this is. Here’s a tweet from Craig David, who is the CEO of the England and Wales ‘friends’ of the Earth (FoE).

This mind-numbingly banal and intellectually bankrupt comparison is the best that a CEO can come up with? Seriously? If anything makes me worry for the future of the planet it’s the fact that these people are the ‘leaders’ of the ‘green’ movement. Talk about out-gunned and out-manoeuvred. Christ on a bike…

The UK’s ‘green’ movement isn’t fit for purpose.

17 Tuesday Sep 2019

Posted by Paul Bigland in 'Green' madness, Green madness, Hs2, Railways

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

'Green' madness, Hs2, Railways

It’s been one of those days where just opening a single newspaper has highlighted why the UK’s ‘green’ movement simply isn’t fit for purpose. They’re more part of the problem, not the solution. I say this with a huge amount of regret as I see myself as someone with a real concern for the environment with a fear of what we’re doing to the planet, but the past few years has seen me look at these groups with fresh eyes.

Let me explain. I saw a paper copy of yesterday’s Guardian earlier. On one page it carried a story reporting on a new report from the Office of National Statistics that says traffic on our roads has increased by 33% in the past 30 years. Here’s a link.

The article by Gwen Topham quoted someone called Jenny Bates, from (what are supposedly) ‘Friends of the Earth’, who said “Despite noise made by vehicle manufacturers about cleaner petrol and diesel technology, transport is still the most climate-polluting sector and it’s clear petrol and diesel sales have to stop as soon as possible…The only way to stop transport from leading us to further climate breakdown is to drastically cut the miles travelled by car. Cleaner options such as bicycles, buses and trains need to be made more accessible and more affordable” .

Perhaps FoE could explain exactly how they propose we can do this when they actively oppose building the high-speed 2 railway (HS2), the only way our increasingly overcrowded rail network will ever be able to cope with a modal shift from road to rail?

To add insult to injury and highlight just how much environmental groups in the UK have totally lost the plot, the opposite page carried a piece on how the Woodland Trust have secured delays to clearing some of the tiny pockets of UK woodland that will have to be cut down to make way for HS2!

I mean, seriously? They’re going to take the fundamentalist approach that ignores the bigger picture? Every single tree and patch of UK woodland is inviolable. Forget tackling global climate change if it means a single hectare here has to be sacrificed for the greater good…

This is why I’ve no time for UK environmental groups like the Woodland Trust or ‘Friends’ of the Earth. They’re not part of the solution, they’re part of the problem. They’ve no real answers to anything. In fact, they oppose the only workable solution we have to vastly increase capacity on our railways and tackle Co2 emissions from transport! This is through the looking-glass stuff! The road lobby and oil companies must be pissing themselves laughing at the way ‘Green’ groups are doing their job for them. What annoys me is the mealy-mouthed statements we get from these groups, where they say “Oh, we’re not opposed to high-speed rail in principle” (just don’t ever try to build it in practice, because we’ll scream blue murder!).

I’ve written about the hypocrisy of the Woodland Trust in this matter before here. Since then, myself and a few other people have been doing some digging and it turns out their hypocrisy verges on the downright dishonest. I’ll be blogging about that in greater detail soon. So, next time you get bombarded with requests for money from these people via Facebook or whatever, just pause for a moment and wonder, are they really offering any solutions, or are these campaigns just a cynical way to raise more money?

Meanwhile, here’s an illustration of the problem. These are the Medway viaducts in Kent, where the M2 crosses next to HS1.

The M2 requires two massive viaducts, each one far wider than that used by HS1. In the background you see an electric train capable of 140 mph that can carry 352 people seated (and many more standing). Unlike the 60-70mph vehicles on the motorway, it can be carbon-neutral. Yet (supposedly) green groups oppose this as a way to link our major cities! Madness, utter madness…

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