Category Archives: Hs2

High Speed 2 (HS2) update number 3.

25 Wednesday Nov 2020

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My last update was back on October 7th, so as so much has been happening recently I though it time for update No 3. Here’s a (by no means exhaustive) round up of news from the past 6 weeks.

On the 7th October HS2 Ltd signed the contract for the first 2 of the Tunnel Boring Machines that will be boring beneath Greater London. These tunnels will be twin bored. At 13 miles each way, and with a combined total of 26 miles, HS2’s London tunnel’s will be the same length as Crossrail.

These machines are part of a package of 10 TBMs purchased to construct the 64 miles of tunnelling along the HS2 route between the West Midlands and London.

The (TBMs) are being built by world leading manufacturer Herrenknecht and will be delivered to the site in the UK by the end of 2021. They’re being designed and manufactured specifically for the London clay and chalk ground conditions they’ll be used in.

These first two London TBMs will be launched from a portal at West Ruislip and will travel 5 miles east, creating the western section of the  Northolt Tunnel. Once they arrive at Green Park Way in Greenford the machines will be extracted from the ground and the site will then be used as a vent shaft. The 8.4 mile tunnel will be completed with a 3.4 mile tunnel drive from Old Oak Common using two further TBMs which are yet to be procured. A second tunnel between Euston and Old Oak Common will complete the remaining 4.5 miles of London tunnel between the two HS2 stations. 

Once the first new TBMs have been built, they will be transported by sea before being delivered to site at the end of 2021. Once assembled, they will begin the tunnel drive from mid 2022, until completion at the beginning of 2024.

Construction London Tunnel Maps

On the 14th October details of a 5 year study into geology along the HS2 route was announced in a partnership with Bath University and the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) in a major study of the geology beneath the first phase of Britain’s new high speed railway between the West Midlands and London.  You can read the full details here.

A few days later on the 19th October the designs for the HS2 viaducts at Edgcote (515m long) and Lower Thorpe (210m long) in Northamptonshire were unveiled, along with details of major new wildlife sites and environmental mitigation that will be created. Full detail are here.

An artists impression of the new Edgecote viaduct. (Copyright HS2 Ltd).

Over the weekend of the 24-25th October another engineering milestone was celebrated when a 45 metre, 914 tonne modular bridge was moved into place over the M42 motorway in just 45 minutes! Just like last time, the motorway reopened 24 hours ahead of schedule. More here.

On the 27th October HS2 revealed updated designs for the Canterbury Works vent shaft headhouse and compound, in South Kilburn, London. It will be one of four structures that will be built to provide ventilation and emergency access to the high speed rail line for the 4.5mile long Euston Tunnel between Euston and Old Oak Common. More Here.

Design for the Canterbury Works headhouse and compound. The Canterbury Works site is located in South Kilburn, behind Canterbury Road and Canterbury Terrace and next to the existing railway tracks. Picture Copyright HS2 Ltd.

Just 3 days later, the final design for the Little Missenden vent shaft headhouse was revealed. This will provide ventilation and emergency access to the high-speed railway’s 10 mile-long Chilterns tunnel below. The headhouse is one of four that will be built above a vent shafts leading down to the high speed rail tunnel and is similar in style to the HS2 headhouse at Chalfont St Peter announced earlier this year. More here.

The pace of announcements in November didn’t slack off. There was a slew of news on virtual Meet the Contractor events, substantial grants to community funds and innovative robot technology for the TBMs as well as gold awards for sustainability.

Then, on the 23rd November, the 4 day virtual ‘Meet the contractor’ event went live, with around £12bn worth of contract opportunities. Needless to say, there’s been a lot of interest. You can find out more here.  

On the same day HS2 issued an invitation to tender to five bidders in the running to design, deliver and maintain almost 300 state-of-the-art lifts and escalators for HS2’s four major new stations. The contract is divided into two separate packages for lifts worth up to £267m and escalators worth up to £198m. Shortlisted bidders are;

  • Fujitec UK Ltd
  • Kone Plc
  • Otis Ltd
  • Schindler Ltd
  • Thyssenkrupp Elevator UK Ltd

There’s more details here.

The political front hasn’t been forgotten either. Yesterday the Government published a statement of reasons command paper for the High-Speed Rail (West Midlands to Crewe) Bill. The command paper is titled the ‘Government overview of the case for HS2 Phase 2a and its environmental impacts – Update for the House of Lords’. This is required by Parliamentary Standing Order 83A(9) to assist the House during the third reading of the High-Speed Rail (West Midlands to Crewe) Bill. This document summarises the work that has already been done to assess, control and mitigate the environmental impacts of HS2 Phase 2a, and explains why the government continues to take the view that the HS2 Phase 2a project is worthy of its support.

The 24th was also the day HS2 Ltd invited contractors to bid for first major civils work north of the West Midlands, on the phase 2a route to Crewe. Known as ‘Early Civils Work – Package 2’ (ECW2), the new £50m programme includes a range of enabling works designed to reduce disruption during the main build stage of the project. This includes major highways works and associated utility diversions as well as a range of environmental and other surveys along the 58km route. In a separate deal was a detailed programme of ground investigation along the 2a route, with Hs2 confirming that the latest package – worth £25-30m – has been awarded to Balfour Beatty. More here.

Last on the list is today’s announcement that HS2 and the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) have agreed to work together to deliver the utility diversions required to enable the planned Birmingham Eastside extension to serve the new HS2 Curzon Street Station on its proposed route to Digbeth. Details here.

Phew! I really do need to do these updates more often! As you can see, there’s a huge amount going on at the moment – and that’s without other work on the ground, such as the continued arrival of the Chiltern Tunnel Boring machines from Germany, whose components continue to be shipped in and moved to sites on the Phase 1 route.

There’s also utilities work still happening, with National Power having successfully installed a bridge at Denham (despite the actions of the tiny protest camp in the area) ready to begin installing the new HV pylons that will replace the old route. Away from the Chilterns and Warwickshire work is picking up the pace in Staffordshire, where clearance of trees and scrub has picked up the pace. You can find a detailed look at what’s happening up and down the HS2 route by taking a look at the excellent ‘HS2 in your area’ website.

Needless to say, the protests against HS2 have had no significant effect and are well past their peak due to a combination of factors. They never managed to attract large numbers of people and many of the real activists have rendered themselves useless by getting arrested and being subject to bail conditions/injunctions. Nowadays protests are very small scale and tend to involve one or two people climbing on to lorries before being nicked by the police and carted off to the local cop-shop. The minor delays they cause to HS2 work is out of proportion to the inconvenience they cause to locals – who’re getting increasingly unhappy with what they see as a waste of everyone’s time! As protesters seem to be spending more time in court than they do trying to stop HS2 I can only see one way this is going…

Hopefully, once the latest ‘lockdown’ has eased and we know what the new rules are I’ll be able to begin bringing you bulletins from events along the route. In the meantime, I’ll do another update in December. Watch this space…

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The truth about the ‘desecration’ of a children’s memorial by HS2…

21 Saturday Nov 2020

Posted by in Fake News, Hs2, Railways

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There’s an old saying that ‘a lie is halfway around the world before the truth has got its boots on’ – and this is never truer than when it comes to stories planted in the media by opponents of the HS2 high-speed railway that’s currently under construction.

Here’s the latest example, which is a tale about a memorial woodland outside Wendover in Buckinghamshire.

The story was planted by a young lady from East Devon, one Beth Mahoney. Here it is;

Sounds awful, doesn’t it? Needless to say, it soon got picked up elsewhere and amplified and exaggerated even more. Reading it, you’d think that HS2 contractors had just turned up out of the blue and bulldozed all the trees, memorials and (alleged) children’s ashes to make way for the new railway. After all, the story contains all the right elements to cause outrage in certain circles: Death, children – and trees.

One of the people who helped amplify this story and the sense of outrage was none other than ‘celebrity’ environmentalist, Chris Packham (who’s relationship with the truth is always questionable when it comes to HS2) who tweeted this.

So, what’s the truth? Let’s go back to the beginning, shall we? This is the announcement from the hospice about the establishment of the memorial wood.

Note, this is a memorial woodland. It is not (and never has been) a cemetery. No-one is interred there and if anyone has scattered ashes there, then they have done so without official sanction. Nor is it specifically about children.

Why did no-one know this work was happening, as is claimed? The truth is – they did – and they’ve known for years. Here’s a rather revealing story in the local rag, the Bucks Herald from May 2019. It’s headlined…

The end of the article carries this rather revealing response from HS2 Ltd.

So, the memorial isn’t being bulldozed at all and the hyperbole about ‘desecration’ is just that. Yes, it’s unfortunate that services have to be diverted through a small part of the memorial wood, but compared to (say) exhuming graveyards, this is on a very different scale.

Funnily enough, the Bucks Herald seems to have suffered a strange bout of amnesia about their 2019 article when they published this new one on the 19th November. Its headline?

Notice two things. One, the old newspaper trick that – you can claim any old cobblers as long as you put it in inverted commas! Two, suddenly the memorial wood has become exclusively “a memorial site for children” The rag goes on to interview parents of a child who sadly died, who are quoted as saying ;

“If HS2 needed to use the site, they could have dealt with the matter sensitively, making sure that the families of the children whose memorials were there were given the opportunity to dig up their trees and remove their memorial stones.”

Hang on a minute? How would HS2 Ltd know which families are linked to the memorial woods? It’s not a cemetery remember, and the only people who would know anything about deaths at the hospice is – the hospice. So, did the hospice know this work was going to happen? Of course they did – as is revealed here.

This is the Facebook page of the Aylesbury and District news from the 6th January. It contains this page.

Once again, note ‘those who’ve died’ Not ‘children who’ve died’ And the entry underneath is?

Out of interest I contacted HS2 Ltd about some of these claims.

They told me that they gave the landowner and the hospice a month’s notice before they took possession of the woodland (notified 17th September, possession took place on 20th October). Their understanding is that the hospice sent out correspondence to all known donors on 20th September advising of the possession and the works They also told me that the public notice published on the HS2 community website that covers the area does confirm on page two under “preparation works” that trees will be cut down.

Now, I’m not in any way casting any aspersions on the Hospice here. It seems they’re completely innocent parties in this manufactured row and mischief making by others cynically using any stick they can find (or invent) to beat HS2 with – and damn the truth!

So what is the truth? Well, it’s that a small section of the memorial wood has had to be dug up to divert utilities. Once the work is done, new trees will be planted and the memorial woodland restored. It’s unfortunate, but it’s very different to the distorted picture being painted. The fact is, 85% of the woodland is still intact, as was reveled by this local resident on Twitter.

My problem with all this – apart from the obvious lies and distortions – is the way some people are stoking up a climate of hate against HS2 and anyone who works for it. People working on HS2 construction sites already have to deal with abuse and harassment from protesters, some have even been followed back to their hotels, but accusing them of ‘desecrating’ a children’s memorial has hit a new low. How long before a poor HS2 worker is attacked by some idiot fired up by stories like this?

It’s about time some sections of the media started telling the truth – and some ‘celebrity environmentalists’ too for that matter…

UPDATE:

Since I wrote this blog, new information has come to light which (yet again) exposes the hype and hyperbole behind this story. The information comes via ‘Planet Radio’ and you can view it in this link. The headline?

The article contains a statement from Tracey Hancock, Director of Fundraising for the hospice, part of which explains this..

Rennie Grove Hospice Care and the landowner were given a month’s notice of HS2’s intention to take possession of the land on 20 October 2020. Rennie Grove wrote to every family recorded as having a tree in the woodland to let them know that the area would be out of bounds after this date. The charity has since become aware of one family who did not receive their letter and who subsequently visited the woodland to find the tree planted in memory of their daughter and a memorial stone they had also placed by it were no longer there.

A spokesperson for HS2 was also quoted, saying this;

“We informed the Hospice and the landowner a month in advance, providing them with time to notify the families and friends of the deceased who may have wanted to remove any fixed items before work started.”

Despite the truth now being out, watch the tiny bunch of protesters who still think they can stop HS2 exploit bereaved families and the Hospice for their own ends and drag this out for their own propaganda purposes. This cynical attempt to exploit the issue is being circulated on various anti HS2 Facebook pages – and during the Covid lockdown too!

UPDATE. December 2022.

So, what’s happened to the wood, more than two years later? It’s still there as anyone looking at the area on Google maps can see.

Local sources tell me that the memorial stones that disappeared were due to a local person removing them for ‘safekeeping’ but neglecting to inform anyone! All the hype, distortions and misinformation never stopped HS2 of course. Now construction in the Wendover area is well underway and the protests have collapsed, but the wood remains.

2023 Update.

I visited the memorial woodland in April 2023. It’s intact, if looking very uncared for and unkempt. The only sign anything has happened to it is a narrow strip where it looks like some trees were removed. The place looks like few people visit or care for it. Trees have been neglected since they were planted. Supports and netting is overdue for removal as the tress have outgrown them and in some place debris litters the long grass. There’s certainly no sign that the place is visited by people on a regular basis, or of any individual markers for people’s trees. There isn’t even a bench for visitors to sit on. Of course, having cynically used the place to manipulate public opinion against HS2, the protesters have moved on and abandoned it as much as the locals appear to have…

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Crazy anti HS2 campaigner of the week. No 28.

14 Saturday Nov 2020

Posted by in Crazy anti Hs2 campaigner of the week, Hs2

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My earlier blog about the Green Party and their lack of honesty about HS2 provoked an amusing backlash from one Green Party member and former Parliamentary candidate that rapidly escalated from a simple car-crash to a multiple vehicle pile-up of epic proportions.

Step forward one Brent Poland, the serially failed Green Party Candidate for Erewash, which lies on the route of HS2 Phase 2B. Poland believes that the Green Party is beyond reproach and that anyone highlighting the party’s dishonesty is part of a conspiracy. The fact that if they didn’t make public pronouncements on social media that are complete bollocks they wouldn’t get called out on them is beyond him.

Then Poland chose a rather odd line of attack.

All nonsense of course, but “selling dresses online”? Who? Me? Having strapped himself in the driving seat Poland jammed his foot down hard on the accelerator. Later, he apparently saw an advert on my website that advertised new HGV’s. Thinking he’d found a smoking gun he began a barrage of tweets like this.

Really? Here’s another in a long (long) line…

Stop sniggering in the back! Yes, I know most of you understand how ads on social media are targeted at people, many people on Twitter do too. Along with several others on Twitter a (former) Green Party member pointed out to Poland what he didn’t understand and resolutely refused to grasp…Here’s a simple explanation of how internet advertising works.

Did this stop Poland? Nope. Like the Duracell bunny he keeps on going. He must have borrowed some superglue off Extinction Rebellion activists as his foot’s firmly stuck down on the accelerator and there’s no going back. We’ve now gone from a motorway pile-up to the final scenes of the film ‘Thelma and Louise’ as Poland is about to drive off that cliff….

“Can do it all day”? Dear oh, dear…Well, he got one bit right. It’s certainly embarrassing – just not in the way he thinks! He was still at it several hours later…

This is a man who puts himself forward for election to Parliament as a Green Party candidate. Sensibly, the voters of Erewash have gracefully declined that offer. After all, we have enough duds masquerading as MPs as it is, without any more. You would have thought that, not having had the reaction he wanted and having had several people explain to him where he’d gone wrong – and with me laughing, Poland might just have stopped to think “what am I missing, why are they laughing?” – but no, so I have no hesitation in awarding Poland the award of this week’s ‘crazy anti HS2 campaigner’! There is an irony in this as Poland displays the same blindness and unwillingness to listen to facts that I highlighted in the blog he took exception to.

There is one last, final irony…

He’s a Schoolteacher.

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UPDATE.

It’s now 22:36 and I’m about ready for bed. Having checked social media I find that Poland is still at it – much to the amusement of the Twitterati… Here’s the latest example.

2023 update.

Poor Poland never learned. He tried this line of attack again and fell flat on his face as usual. His next farce was to invent and bang on about imaginary floodplain at Toton but that didn’t have any more success! He never had any success in getting elected as a local Erewash Councillor either but is standing again in 2023. He recently gave this statement to a local news site. It contains a list of undeliverable policies, some way above a Cllrs pay-grade. Interestingly, the environment is last on their list of priorities, which tells you all you need to know about these ‘watermelon greens’ (green on the outside, but red all the way through).

I predict that he won’t be elected…

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More depressing nonsense from the Green Party…

14 Saturday Nov 2020

Posted by in Hs2, Railways, The Green Party

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Well, the Green Party of England and Wales anyway. The Scottish Green party is a separate entity and seems to be far more sensible and less dogmatic than the GPEW.

As someone who fits the profile of what looks like a natural Green party supporter and who’s voted for them in the past, I now find myself actively opposing them. Why? Because of their dogmatic and dishonest stance on railways and especially the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project. It was this stance that made me look deeper at GPEW policy several years ago. It led to a long blog where I dissected their policy and the outright misrepresentations it contained.

Sadly, nothing has changed since. If anything the Greens leadership has become even more hardline about HS2 – and even more dishonest. That’s often the problem when you get caught up in a lie. You either come clean and admit it or you double-down on it. The Greens have taken the latter course.

The truly sad thing is this lie completely undermines everything the Green Party is meant to stand for. Why? Well, the UK’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide nowadays is transport. The details can be found in this Government paper. As it points out –

As such, you’d expect the GPEW to have a laser-like focus on cutting transport Co2 emissions, wouldn’t you?

Exactly the opposite. Because, whilst the Greens have a mealy-mouthed policy of supporting UK High-Speed rail ‘in principle’, they vehemently oppose it in practice. In other words, they’re nothing more than hypocrites. But they don’t just stop at hypocrisy. Take a look at this Tweet from Caroline Russell. “Who she?” I hear you ask? Well, amongst other things, Russell is the GPEW Spokesperson on Transport.

As you can see from Russell’s list of roles and the fact she lives in North London, this is no rural Green Party Councillor living out in the sticks, who cycles to local meetings in-between knitting her own yoghurt. Russell is at the centre of things and has access to transport experts and a wealth of knowledge. So how can she come out with something as unutterably stupid as this tweet?

HS2 “shaves minutes” off ‘the’ journey between two major cities? Seriously? Has Russell ever bothered to look at a map of HS2? Because if she had, you’d expect her to have noticed that (from day 1) HS2 serves more than just two cities!
“Two cities”? Oh, please…

As for the “shaving minutes” nonsense, let’s have a look at a few sample times.

“Shaving” a few minutes? Hmm…

Not only does this point out that HS2 will serve 8 out of 10 of our largest cities, it looks beyond Russell’s obsession with London and Birmingham to highlight some rather spectacular journey time cuts. For example, Birmingham to Manchester is cut by 52% and Birmingham to Leeds is cut by a whopping 58%. Rail’s market share on both these routes is small because the existing journey times are slow and the trains are cramped Cross-Country ‘Voyagers’ of 4-5 cars. The services via Leeds also start/finish way beyond the core route and are often crowded before they reach either location.

Such journey time cuts are ideal to get people out of their cars and onto trains -as will be the new trains as they’ll be far superior to the product on offer now. Then there’s the massive increase in capacity HS2 adds to the existing rail network (for both passenger and freight services) that’s the real winner, because without it our rail network can’t cope with any shift from road/air to rail. Remember, before the pandemic, our existing rail network was creaking at the seams as it tried to cope with record numbers of passengers travelling on record numbers of trains running. It simply couldn’t cope with huge numbers of new passengers.

But surely? That’s what the Greens want, isn’t it? If we’re going to get people and freight off roads to cut transport Co2 emissions we need to provide the rail capacity to be able to do it?

Not according to the GPEW! According to Russell, some local electric buses and a few more local trains will do it! Quite how we’re meant to fit those local trains through choke-points like Birmingham New St, Leeds or Manchester Piccadilly is never explained – because the Greens don’t do explanations. Nor do they listen to the experts who point these things out.

Russell’s tweet begs the question, is (despite her being the Green’s Transport Spokesperson) she spectacularly ignorant and ill-informed, or – is this deliberate misinformation? But it’s not just Russell, you’ll hear this misinformation from many other ‘Green’ leaders too – like Bartley, Jones, and Bennett. It’s endemic and institutionalised.

It illustrates exactly why I won’t touch the Green party with a barge-pole, and I’m not alone. Their blind dogma and refusal to deal with the fact their policy on the railways and HS2 in particular is a dishonest mess that actually prevents them being credible (never mind actually tackling Climate Change) is maddening, but it’s so deeply ingrained in them I believe the GPEW is a write-off.

Sad to say, if you want genuine Green solutions to tackle climate-change. Don’t vote Green…

Another sorry tale from those opposed to HS2…

29 Thursday Oct 2020

Posted by in Hs2, StopHs2

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Those people opposed to HS2 are having a sorry time of it right now. With their numbers depleted by evictions, arrests, bail conditions and injunctions, along with their collapse on the political front, they don’t have much to crow about. That that they let that stop them of course! HS2Rebellion still pump out the sort of ridiculous propaganda about ‘winning’ that would make ‘Comical Ali’ blush.

Of course, the reality is rather different. Whilst HS2 Ltd have noted in the board minutes that the protests escalated over the summer and have cost many millions of pounds of public money (enough to fund a new school) the delays they’ve caused are not significant. And now – the summer’s over…

How farcical the protests are was highlighted today. Remember that phase 1 of the HS2 railway that’s being built at the moment stretches over 140 miles from London to Birmingham – and a bit beyond. That’s a huge number of worksites and construction compounds, as well as areas of utility diversions, vegetation clearances, road widening schemes and the odd new motorway bridge! Arrayed against this are five ‘protection’ camps and a rag-bag of a few dozen protesters who come and go.

Today, the only protest involved 2 young women climbing aboard a wood-chipper that was being delivered on a low-loader to the HS2 site at Grims Ditch near Wendover. They boarded it on a public highway just before it entered a compound which is securely fenced so no no work on the site was stopped. In fact, two other protesters had been arrested earlier in the week for trying to prevent the fencing being built. They failed.

The dozen or so people ‘supporting’ the young girls by filming the escapade and livestreaming it to social media were very soon heavily outnumbered by the local constabulary and HS2 security. By 2.30pm today the police had safely removed the women, arrested them and taken them away to be charged – probably under Section 241 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 – and the wood chipper was delivered to the site unharmed.

So, what did the women achieve? Nothing, apart from getting arrested! The chipper might as well have been delayed in traffic! No work was stopped. Now the women will have bail conditions imposed which will prevent them from being involved again. They may even be banned from the country, depending on where they come from. It’s a kamikaze tactic and a complete waste of time, but that’s the anti HS2 campaign on the ground for you. It seems to be focused on phyrric victories that can be filmed for social media, but no-ones watching!

Here’s a screen-grab of the video filmed by serially failed Green Party candidate Mark Keir (who’s injuncted, banned from the protest at Harvil Rd/Denham and now facing a £3000 fine for ignoring the injunction!)

This was 90 minutes of tedium and daft polemics on the voice-over, although it did show what was happening. But wait – how big an audience did it draw? The eye symbol at the top gives it away. Just 38 people watched. That’s less than the combined total of police and Hs2 security staff attending!

This sort of stunt will stop Hs2? To quote a famous tennis player. ‘You cannot be serious’!

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Thank you!

The stopHs2 campaign’s a gift to Lawyers (but no-one else).

24 Saturday Oct 2020

Posted by in Hs2, Joe Rukin, StopHs2

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The other day I was blogging about Joe Rukin and his StopHs2 group, remarking how little visibility they have now they’re redundant, then this pops up – but I’ll bet you won’t see it mentioned on their website!

Why? Because it’s yet another expensive legal fiasco!

Apparently, Rukin had filed for a Judicial Review of the Government’s decision to proceed with the High Speed 2 railway. There was just one teeny, tiny problem. He never offered a shred of evidence to back up his claim – as the court decision reveals.

Not only was no evidence produced, Rukin’s landed with a legal bill of £4234! Only he isn’t really, because – like all the other spurious and futile legal cases brought against HS2 over the years, this one has been funded by donations from gullible members of the public. Of course, the final bill will be much higher as this doesn’t account for monies paid to Rukin’s solicitors, so just how many thousands of pounds has been wasted in total is a good question.

Over the years, anti HS2 campaigners have wasted millions of pounds of other people’s money on these lost causes (including taxpayers, as the Government can’t claim damages). The only people who’ve benefitted are the legal profession, who’ve been happy to trouser the cash.

For many years the leaders in this field were the Chiltern Nimbys who called themselves the High-Speed 2 Action Alliance (HS2AA). They took out dozens of Judicial Reviews against HS2 back in the early 2010s. In 2012 they took out 10 and lost 9. Only the most minor judgement was upheld and it had no meaningful impact on the progress of the project. You can find details here. They tried (and failed) again in 2014, this time with Hillingdon Council.

Of course, HS2AA are history now, the group folded years ago. It was left to ‘celebrity’ environmentalist Chris Packham to pick up the challenge of wasting people’s money, which he duly did with his 2020 judicial review, along with his solicitors ‘Pay Day’ (don’t you mean Leigh Day? Ed). The ruling when it came was excoriating, sparing neither Packham nor his solicitors blushes. People’s money wasn’t spared either as Packham had raised the ackers to throw away through a crowdfunder which reached £140,000.

Of course, over the years we’ve heard lots of bluster from other anti HS2 groups threatening judicial reviews, none of which have materialised.

One that did was another 2020 failure by Camden Resident Hero Granger Taylor, which was also Crowdfunded.

Ironically, Rukin’s has been kept quiet, with no mention of it on the StopHs2 website, but then that’s probably no surprise as it was a woeful attempt that was doomed to failure as he couldn’t offer any evidence to back up his claims! I’ll bet his humiliation won’t get a mention either…

I almost feel sorry for the people who’ve been mugged for money by these campaign groups or people like Packham (trading on his celebrity). They’ve spaffed* hundreds of thousands of pounds up the wall. My ire is saved for the people who launch these futile cases, knowing that they can con the money out of people to fund them. I also take a dim view of the legal firms like ‘Pay Day’ (you mean Leigh Day! Ed) who’re quite happy to trouser the cash on the basis that they’re helping to ‘test’ the boundary’s of the law. I’ve yet to hear of them turning round to anyone to say “look folks, you’re wasting your money, you haven’t got a chance of success”

Hopefully, we’ll see people less keen to throw their money away on lawyers and futile attempts to stop Hs2 now – but I won’t hold my breath..

*copyright Boris Johnson

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More trouble at t’stophs2 mill…

23 Friday Oct 2020

Posted by in Hs2, Railways

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As we slowly descend through autumn towards winter the anti HS2 campaign follows a similar trajectory from failure into farce. All the protesters bluster that bloomed in the Spring as they set up new ‘protection’ camps has blown away like dandelion seeds. The name ‘protection’ camp was always an oxymoron as they never protected anything. From a peak of eight camps they’ve gradually been whittled down to five, some of which are now redundant, whilst others are just refuges for the remaining rag-bag of protesters as many have already buggered off home.

I wrote about their early financial shenanigans and internecine warfare in this blog. That warfare has continued as HS2Rebellion never did account for the £36,000 plus that was raised through crowdfunding. Instead, they came over all pained and ignored the calls to be open and accountable. But (to their credit) some activists in the camps wouldn’t let the matter drop.

This week was meant to be HS2rebellion’s ‘big push’, both on social media and outside Parliament, as this daft poster explains.

*Narrator* – only they didn’t rise up, few participated and the decisions are made by an anonymous few…

Anyone on social media like Twitter could be forgiven for missing their ‘online action’ as it was as big a flop as when The Hs2 Action Alliance (remember them?) once tried to organise a ‘Twitterstorm’. A handful of teenagers Tweeting stuff they don’t understand and who react badly to being challenged does not an ‘action’ make.

Worse was to come outside Parliament an online yesterday. Their ‘big event’ attracted just a few dozen people, many of whom were the same old faces, Middle-Class Nimbys from the Chilterns who’ve nothing better to do and a few self-styled ‘eco-warriors’ who think posting overly long rambles where they just make stuff up on social media actually changes anything.

“What are we doing here? Shouldn’t we be up trees – or something?”

Then the excrement hit the air-conditioning live on the HS2 rebellion ‘livestream’ when one of their controllers got into a public spat with a camp protester.

Asking where the £35k plus went is classed as a “ridiculous conspiracy theory” apparently, because the person blocked was no other than Hayley-Marie Pitwell (see my other blog for the lowdown) – as she explains herself…

It seems HS2Rebellion and many of the protesters are breaking out into bit of good, old-fashioned class warfare! The ‘posh boys’ (and girls) who make up much of the hierarchy of groups like Extinction Rebellion and HS2Rebellion do seem to have a knack of alienating some of the troops like Hayley-Marie! Now, I may disagree profoundly with her on HS2 as well as her world view, but I have to admire her persistence in following the money on a matter of principle.

As you can imagine, battle-lines were soon drawn as supporters of either side rallied around. If you so desire, grab some popcorn and browse the HS2 rebellion and associated Facebook pages to watch the fun. It’s better than many TV soap operas!

Whilst the farce unfolded on social media and outside Parliament you may be forgiven for asking the question “whilst they’re parading around outside Parliament, who’s actually trying to stop HS2”? It’s a question some of their activists were asking too. Here’s several rather revealing examples. Firstly, this one about the hopeless and hapless Denham ‘protection’ camp which is rapidly becoming redundant as the National Grid crack on with preparations for installing their new High-Voltage pylons.

It’s very true. All that’s coming out of Denham nowadays is a stream of videos showing what the protesters have utterly failed to stop. It’s akin to the old TV game show where the presenter used to tease losers with “here’s what you could’ve won!”

Meanwhile, over at Crackley camp, a lone protester managed to get atop a digger for a bit and sent this, which rather neatly encapsulates the futility of what they’re doing.

No ‘ground support’ means that she was on her own. What did she achieve (apart from getting arrested and having bail conditions imposed?). Nothing. More was to follow…

Does this sound like the ‘growing’ campaign HS2Rebellion like to bluster about? This was rather revealing too as reality is finally starting to sink in to some people

I suspect ‘holiday’ is a euphemism for people sodding off back home as many won’t return. Looking at some of the early photos the protesters used to post of their gatherings in the spring/summer is a bit like looking at old photographs of soldiers from WW1 where the dead, wounded or missing in action are labelled, only in this case it’s injuncted, arrested or gone home! With this rate of attrition and with the onset of winter I can’t see the protests achieving anything other than becoming more and more of a farce, especially as HS2Rebellions rhetoric and daft lies becomes more and more out of step with reality. The cognitive dissonance is strong there. You might compare their PR tactics to those of Goebbels, the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it. In truth, they’re more Comical Ali than Goebbels!

Remember when Joe Rukin and StopHs2 were a thing? Until Extinction Rebellion came along, they *were* the anti HS2 campaign. Now they’ve all but disappeared. Joe Rukin’s phone still rings on the odd occasion a friendly media outlet need a quote, but that’s it. Their website tells the sorry tale. Compared to the heady days when there could be several posts a day and dozens a week there’s been one since early September, and that’s a very brief one to tell people where the remaining protest camps are!

Politically, the anti Hs2 campaign (and I use that word loosely) is finished. All that remains is a dwindling rag-bag of protesters who’re spending more and more time on infighting. How anyone thought this bunch could stop the largest construction project in Europe (spread over 140 route miles) is a mystery and an exercise in just one thing. Hubris.

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High Speed 2 (HS2) update number 2.

07 Wednesday Oct 2020

Posted by in Hs2, Railways

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Blimey! I’d hoped to write monthly updates but pressure of other work means my last one was in July, so there’s a lot to report! Construction of HS2 has continued to pick up speed as work on the ground continues and a whole host of contracts have been signed that have created jobs around the country. This isn’t an exhaustive list as I’m bound to have missed things, but I hope it’s a useful round-up of major events.

On the 27th July a major milestone was reached on the OLd Oak Common site. After 2 years of demolition and clearance work, the site was handed over to main contractors, the Balfour Beatty VINCI SYSTRA Joint Venture, who will be building the massive 14 platform station.

At the end of July HS2 Ltd highlighted the fact Lydney based Mabey Bridge Ltd had won a contract to supply 10 modular bridge to the project. Mabey employs 130 people at its head office and factory in Lydney, with many local people working on the HS2 contracts. Extensive preparatory works are now underway to allow for piling activities and the construction of the diaphragm wall for the main HS2 station, which will be built 20 metres below ground.

All pictures used in this blog are courtesy of HS2 Ltd.

On the 9th of August the M42 motorway reopened 24 hours early after a   2,750-tonne bridge structure was carried along the motorway on a self-propelled modular transporter and fixed into place. The 448-wheel transporter took just one hour and 45 minutes to move the bridge span 150 metres. This was the first major new structure that’s been installed as part of the HS2 project. Later this year a similar bridge will be installed over the A446, ahead of two more bridge structures being installed which will span the new high-speed railway line.

The next day (8th August) the race began to find contractors to install the railways high-voltage power supply systems. The winner will be responsible for  the design as well as manufacture, supply, installation, testing, commissioning and maintenance of the HV power supply systems.

Approximately 50 traction sub-stations will be built alongside the line between London and Crewe in order to deliver power from the National Grid to the trains. The contractor will also deliver a dedicated  HV non-traction power network that will provide power to stations, shafts, portals, depots and railway systems along the route. The contract is worth an estimated £523m.

On the 11th August HS2 released the winners of the competition to name the first two Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs).

The names – Florence and Cecilia – were suggested by students at Meadow High School in Hillingdon and The Chalfonts Community College, Buckinghamshire, inspired by female scientific and medical pioneers.

Around 4,500 people from across the UK took part in the poll to select the final names, with Florence taking 40% of the vote and Cecilia a close second with 32%. The schools that suggested the names are close to HS2’s South Portal site, from where the first tunnel boring machines will launch early next year.

The pace didn’t slacken and the next day HS2 highlighted the success of Port Talbot based Wernick Buildings in manufacturing, transporting and installing office and welfare accommodation to the M25 site where the TBMs boring the Chiltern tunnels will be launched from.

On the 20th August the striking design for the new Amersham vent shaft headhouse was released.

HS2 say “The circular single-storey building will be surrounded by a spiral shaped weathered steel wall designed to echo the shape of the site and the natural tones of the surrounding landscape. Robust and durable, weathered steel fades naturally over time to a dark brown colour. In order to let light through, the upper parts of the wall will be lightly perforated with a pattern inspired by woodland foliage”.

Below ground level, a 18 metre deep ventilation shaft will reach down to the twin tunnels below, with fans and other equipment designed to regulate air quality and temperature, remove smoke in the event of a fire and provide access for the emergency services.

On the 25th August the 1st of an estimated 15,000 freight trains that will carry spoil and construction materials ran. Operated by GBRf, the train delivered aggregates to the HS2 site at Washwood Heath. Over the next four months, more than 150 trains will bring up to 235,000 tonnes of stone from quarries in the Peak District, equating to keeping an estimated 13,000 lorry movements off the road.

A peak of around 17 trains per day will serve the Phase One programme beyond 2022. Other sites include HS2’s Rail Logistics Hub at Willesden which will welcome up to eight freight trains a day between 2020 and 2024. These will haul a total volume of around six million tonnes from the Euston approaches, including excavated material from tunnel boring machines – saving the equivalent of up to 300,000 lorry movements.

The next day Solihull Borough Council approved planning permission for the new landmark HS2 Interchange eco-station.

Next month, on the 4th September, the (largely symbolic) formal start of construction was announced, which generated a lot of media interest and certainly rained on the parade of the dwindling number of protesters who were still pretending they could stop HS2!

Throughout September several announcements were made about educational and technical tie-ups with groups and universities, all contributing to the growth in skills and employment that HS2 is helping generate across the UK.

On the 15th September a more tangible milestone was marked with the completion of structural work on the temporary pre-cast factory which will produce wall sections for the 10 mile long Chiltern tunnels. The 1000s of tonnes of steelwork for this and other buildings is being supplied by specialist steel fabricators, Caunton Engineering, from their base near Moorgreen, Nottinghamshire.

As well as the precast plant, family owned Caunton Engineering are also delivering structural steelwork for the general warehouse, workshops, soil treatment plant and the viaduct pre-cast plant. In total, around 2,400 tonnes of steelwork will be delivered from their factory in Moorgreen, Nottinghamshire, on the site of the former colliery. You can read more here.

On a more spiritual note, the next day HS2 announced that the company, working with the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England, had agreed with Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey for reburials as a result of excavations at St James’s Gardens to take place there. Some of you may have seen the BBC2 TV programme that documented the archeological work at both Euston and Curzon St. If you haven’t, it’s a fascinating delve into the past and the history of the industrial revolution in Birmingham and well worth viewing.

If you’ll excuse the pun, there was more concrete news (literally!) on the 22nd September, when details were released of the new low-carbon Vertua Classic Zero concrete that was being trialled at the HS2 site at Euston. This provides a reduction of 42% in CO2 in comparison to a standard concrete. HS2 has set a carbon reduction target of 50% target for its contractors on construction baselines for Phase One civil assets (such as tunnels, viaducts and cuttings), stations and railway systems. You can read more here.

Continuing with the theme of carbon-cutting, on the 25th September HS2 announced it HS2 had trialled solar and hydrogen powered welfare cabins across its work locations run by enabling and main works civils joint ventures CSjv (Costain, Skanska) and SCSjv (Skanska Costain STRABAG) including Camden, West Ruislip and Uxbridge. HS2 say that data gathered from 16 Ecosmart ZERO cabins over a 21 week period on HS2 sites in Camden, Ruislip and Uxbridge showed that 112 tonnes of carbon were saved – the equivalent of what would be absorbed by over 3,367 trees over a whole year. In comparison, a standard diesel generator running would have used 40,000 litres of diesel fuel. You can read more here.

On September 29th details of a £36m contract awarded to Booth Industries of Bolton, which will supply high-pressure safety doors for the internal passages linking the high speed rail project’s tunnels. more than 300 units manufactured at a new purpose-built facility in the town, and create up to fifty jobs over the next ten years.

OCtober got off to a bang when on the 5th HS2 revealed that the contract for the modular slab track system for Phase One and 2a had been awarded to a partnership which includes PORR UK Ltd and Aggregate Industries UK. The deal will see the slab track segments manufactured at a new factory near Shepton Mallet in Somerset helping to create up to 500 jobs over the life of the contract. The deal – worth £260m – will see the PORR consortium manufacture all of the track (excluding tunnels and some specialist structures) between London and Crewe, where HS2 joins the existing west coast mainline. More here.

OK, that’s the round -up for now. You can find more announcements at the HS2 website, but this will give you an overview of just what’s been going on and the progress being made building HS2. In the next few weeks expect to see more announcements, including a real landmark – the arrival of the first Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) from Germany.

If you want to read more about HS2’s progress I can recommend two links. This one to HS2’s media centre, and also this one, to the company’s ‘HS2 in your area’ webpage. The page has a wealth of detailed information on programmes, events, consultations and schedules of work covering all the HS2 routes.

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You have to laugh! Anti HS2 protests go from farce to worse!

06 Tuesday Oct 2020

Posted by in Hs2, Rail Investment, Railways

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As the construction of the new HS2 picks up more and more speed with new contracts announced almost every week (a detailed blog on these is coming shortly), the tiny bunch of anti HS2 protesters lurch from one disasterous defeat to another as their numbers continue to dwindle due to a combination of arrests, injunctions and the fact the schools and colleges have gone back. Oh, and the weather! The ‘fair-weather’ anarchists like to pose and posture to their friends on social media in the sunshine – but muddy fields, cold mornings and heavy rain really aren’t their thing.

Nowhere has this become more obvious than the ongoing (but soon to end) eviction at Jones’ Hill wood in Aylesbury Vale. The protesters had been left alone in the woods for several months as they weren’t in anyone’s way. Lulled into a false sense of security they built several tree houses and boasted how they would ‘hold’ the wood against HS2 as the wood was the inspiration for a Roald Dahl story, “Fantastic Mr Fox”. There was only one problem. None of it had any basis in fact!

The Roald Dahl museum – who are the real authorities on the man – say the wood that inspired the story is another one that’s nowhere near HS2!

The protesters boasts were about ‘holding’ the woods were just as baseless. Within 48 hours of moving in the bailiffs had evicted the majority of the tree houses and established that the claim of protesters in tunnels was just another empty boast.

Worse was to come, the protesters reinforcements failed to arrive, despite the media coverage the evictions received. There was one, Daniel Hooper, better known as ‘swampy’, who gained minor celebrity status during the roads protests of the 1990s. There’s only one problem. He failed then – and he’s failed now…

Meanwhile, another small protest camp containing just four people on the Rugby Rd near Cubbington was evicted with alacrity, whittling down the protesters eight camps down to six. As usual, HS2 Rebellion made all the usual ridiculous accusations about violence towards the protesters – all of whom were seen to be in rude health shortly after when they forgot they’d meant to have been beaten up. Funny, that!

This number will fall even further in the next few months – although some of the camps (like Crackley) are already redundant as the work they were trying to stop has already happened! Other camps will linger on as they’re on private land and not obstructing building HS2 in the slightest.

As the protests have failed to actually stop anything the protesters have little left to do but spread massive misinformation about the alleged ‘destruction’ HS2’s doing to wildlife reserves like Calvert. Sadly for them, this keeps getting exposed for what it is – complete bollocks. Here’s an example. Someone flew their drone over the work at Calvert Jubilee reserve a few days ago and stuck the resulting video on Youtube. .

It’s painfully obvious to anyone with an open mind that the reserve is hardly touched, with work concentrated on clearing vegetation on the route of the old railways, including the former Great Central.

As we’re now into autumn and the wildlife nesting season’s behind us HS2 is ramping up the speed of the vegetation clearance work that it needs to do before major construction starts. This means there’s a huge number of active sites and a tiny bunch of protesters to go round. ‘High profile’ events like the eviction of Jones’ Hill Woods drag them in as they waste their time trying to stop the inevitable – meaning work at other sites is undisturbed. It’s farcical to listen to the claims some of them make on social media about ‘winning’ but this is the post-truth era and first major infrastructure project that’s been conducted in the new media age. I’m sure there’ll be a fascinating thesis for a student in all this next year!

In my next blog I’ll compile a list of the HS2 contracts that have been awarded since my last update. They total hundreds of millions of pounds, creating thousands of UK jobs from Somerset to Teesside.

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There’s trouble at t’stophs2 mill (pt 2)…

19 Saturday Sep 2020

Posted by in Extinction Rebellion, Hs2

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On 26th of August my blog exposed the internal ructions, corruption and shenanigans in the anti HS2, campaign and the secretive agenda of many of the campaigners which has little to do with the environment (despite their claims) and everything to do with a wider political agenda.

That blog certainly caused consternation and opened a few eyes amongst the protesters supporters. Several have now make their Facebook pages private (which is rather counterproductive to a campagn that’s desperate for publicity). So here’s another update to the murky goings on within their failing campaign – which is anything but sweetness and light.

It seems that more than a few people are sick to the back teeth of Extinction Rebellion’s attempt to takeover the anti HS2 campaign, and also some of XR’s ‘star’ campaigners, like Larch Maxey, who certain media outlets like the Guardian love to publish puff-pieces about that are devoid of any analysis or background. Not everyone falls for it – including some of Maxey’s fellow protesters, as this Facebook post exposes.

I suspect some of the protesters who’re desperately scrabbling around for funds (as they never even got a sniff of the £37,000 donated to XR’s crowdfunder.) will be even more pissed-off to know that Larch is apparently paid a monthly salary by Extinction Rebellion – as he alluded to in one of his Guardian puff-pieces. This one, in fact. Maxey is heavily involved in Extinction Rebellion, he’s been named as one of their “Rapid Response Team” in this very interesting analysis of XR by centre-right ‘think tank’ Policy Exchange.

Now, I’m no great fan of ‘think tanks’ – especially ones that refuse to reveal who funds them, but one of the co-authors of their report on XR is Richard Walton, a former Head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command (SO15), so I have no reason to question the validity of their report. I also share their disquiet over XR’s ambitions, aims and tactics. Initially, I was sympathetic to them. Claimate Change is the most pressing probelm the planet faces and we’re not taking it seriously, but the more I saw of XR’s tactics and learbed about its imossible aims, the more I realised that it’s actually damaging, not helping the ‘Green’ movement. But then, I’ve long argued that the UK’s ‘green’ movement isn’t fit for purpose.

Of course, it’s not just Chris Wilson who’s hacked off with Extinction Rebellion, their control freakery and paaid ‘stars’ like Maxey. A long, rather rambling post from ‘Nick Smith’ has appeared on the StopHs2 Facebook page that’s come from him and some of the protesters down at Denham/Harvil Rd. You can find it here, but I’ve copied the text as it lifts the rock on the murky activities and tensions.

“Extinction Rebellion have finally decided to refrain from trying to take over control of the STOP HS2 protection camps between London and Birmingham, and instead they are offering to HELP the front line activists who actually live there, and to LEARN direct action from them, according to unconfirmed reports from the camps.Some of the eco-warriors at the Harvil road and Denham camps in Colne Valley near Uxbridge invited Extinction Rebellion to join them at the protest sites last year, and HS2 Rebellion was the name that was eventually chosen to be used by the new recruits.Unfortunately a power struggle developed fairly soon, with HS2 Rebellion apparently insisting that they controlled some kind of hierarchy and were in fact the “leaders” of the climate movement, and all the protesters were obliged to take orders from them.Extinction Rebellion released a statement about how HS2 Rebellion was becoming the umbrella organisation for all the protection camps and they listed their “criteria and values” which they claimed all the activists had to agree to and abide by.This was regardless of the fact that the eco-warriors had originally started the camps with the Green Party four years before XR came along to attempt to take them over and control them.HS2 Rebellion started their own fundraiser with £32,000 being donated for the Colne Valley protest by more than 1000 people. The fundraiser stated that the money would be distributed to all the protection camps, but HS2 Rebellion refused to share anything with camps that did not agree to join Extinction Rebellion and obey their rules.Two camps which agreed to join Extinction Rebellion and obey them were given £16,000 between them, but the Harvil road and Denham camps at Colne Valley near Uxbridge which remained autonomous and independent got absolutely nothing. The STOP HS2 organisation which started the local residents protest campaign in their own local communities against the high speed rail link 13 years ago asked for financial support but HS2 Rebellion did not want to help them so they also received nothing. Some activists objected that HS2 Rebellion was crowd funding off the back of a 12 year protest campaign and saying to the public who were donating that the money was going to actions and legal fees for all the camps, yet the activists were having to start a crowd fund for their own legal fees.Activists at the camps were being told they needed to meet the XR “criteria” to be able to get access to the money raised, and they said they never had this problem for three years “until the XR control freak fascists who wanted to cause disruption and bullying came along”.Eventually HS2 Rebellion produced the receipts for the money that was allocated and spent, and they showed that two camps got a total of £16,000 but the Colne Valley camps got nothing.Some activists accused HS2 Rebellion of illegally obtaining money by false pretences or even fraud, since the fund raiser page had made it clear that the money donated would be distributed to all the camps without any terms and conditions involving joining Extinction Rebellion and obeying their rules.Extinction Rebellion originally came to a protest march that they tried to get the Harvil road activists banned from, and then they started HS2 Rebellion in May 2020 which failed in their attempt to monopolise the campaign. Extinction Rebellion tried to impose a great deal of authority and control and to police other people’s behaviour according to their “values and principles” which were designed to dominate, control, and ostracise those activists who think for themselves. Extinction Rebellion gathered a lot of “intelligence” and expected everything to be run past them, and once the protest started building momentum with direct action HS2 Rebellion attempted to move into the camps, creating camp agreements which were rules the eco-warriors had to live by and which were policed by XR members.They then tried to kick off any activists who were not living by their rules, which pretty quickly failed especially as all the camps were started by local residents and eco-warriors who lived full time at the camps, and HS2 Rebellion would have made them homeless, so that did not succeed either.Extinction Rebellion tried to police everything that anyone who wasn’t a member of XR did, whilst controlling the behaviour of all those who call themselves XR, giving the impression that Extinction Rebellion may well have been infiltrated by undercover police and agents working for corporations (like HS2) and the oil companies.Some eco-warriors believe that if Extinction Rebellion had it their own way everyone would just wave flags and sing songs whilst being escorted by the police, and the sooner the genuine activists become autonomous the better.However the biggest concern for a lot of climate activists is that XR is fake astroturfing controlled opposition being funded by banks, hedge funds, and oil companies to negotiate with the government and promote the false solution of “net” zero emissions which would allow fossil fuel industries to continue to pollute the Earth and kill humanity.One of the Harvil road and Denham activists at Colne Valley reported that she had spoken to journalists that she knew when XR would not show them the receipts for the money they had raised in the name of the eco-warriors’ protection camps.”HS2 Rebellion tried to have a monopoly on the fund raising and the media. “We have never needed people’s money. “It just makes things safer in trees and tunnels when we have A grade equipment. “We are all doing dangerous things and that makes us all family”.Another eco-warrior said “each camp has it’s own set of rules and very different sets of people, it’s a very wide cross section that needs to be catered for without judgement or favour, all come from different places with a common aim which is to stop HS2 and the destruction of the environment”.Some of the activists from the STOP HS2 camps sent a message to HS2 Rebellion in May 2020 as a result of the claim by Extinction Rebellion that all the STOP HS2 activists were members of HS2 Rebellion and were under the control of XR.What actually happened subsequently at the STOP HS2 camps was exactly what some of the front line activists had predicted would happen.Following is the message that was sent to HS2 Rebellion in May 2020:”We feel any response, in the interests of openness and collectivism is best made in the open forums rather than to any specific individuals. “We have a statement we wish to put out, which isn’t responding just specifically to the individual ‘Rebel Action Agreements and Principles Values’ etc, but a broader statement.”At the point of writing this message there are ten people sat around a camp fire on the front line of resistance, living in occupation, with several concerns and criticisms to raise about what is developing around us. “Firstly, we feel like we are being spoken on behalf of.”We believe these parameters aim to homogenise this movement. “We believe that this struggle’s strength lies in its diversity and creativity.”The parameters set out in this document aim to homogenise the movement under the banner of HS2 Rebellion – we must ask, who are you?”The persons involved in making these decisions are unknown to many of us – even some who have been on the front line for more than a year now.”Who are you speaking for when you create these parameters within which those who oppose HS2 are being told to act?”We welcome HS2 Rebellion as an affinity group in the same way that we see ourselves as an affinity group within the movement – but reject what feels like an attempt for HS2 Rebellion to become the movement itself.”We will not stand for the co-option of this movement and for its monopolisation by a single ideology.”We are concerned as to how these rules and expectations will play out – namely the allocation of capital, both social and financial. “If HS2 Rebellion continues to monopolise the movement, funds, and media, the security and safety that these bring will be consolidated to the groups branded as HS2 Rebellion and reduced in others.”There are certain things in the parameters set out which feel oppressive and disempowering, replicating the very state that we are fighting against, such as:”# Limitations to who is and isn’t allowed to talk to media (citing the select group contacted to be ‘spokespersons’) – this is inherently exclusionary and runs the risk of preserving and furthering class division.”# We do not identify as ‘Rebels’ or ‘Tree Protectors’ – we find those labels dehumanizing and limiting.”Ignoring the deeper and broader intentions of people in this fight the reason the emphasis on the correct media/language is effective for this specific campaign is that it is respected within the eyes of the law/current capitalist/patriarchial/imperialist paradigm.”We do not want to be reduced to winning only this particular campaign. “We are focused on building a long term movement for social change, that does not and cannot rely on receiving the system’s respect due to it’s oppressive nature. “# Decisions about asking people to leave camps or actions are serious decisions made with potentially huge implications for the individuals targeted – this is exclusionary and counter to creating reformative systems. “This is not an exhaustive list, but simply a reaction and critique in the moment. “We do not wish for this campaign to be fractured into factions, but equally we cannot allow the whole movement to be co-opted into a homogenized package.”One group will not win this alone, HS2 is one symptom of the many ailments of our society, there is not one single way that this fight will be won – if and when this fight is won, the struggle will not end there”.

So who is Nick Smith and how’s he in a position to knw? Here’s the answer…

RU was Rising Up, the organisation that became Extinction Rebellion.

Needless to say, these revelations are starting to have an effect on some of the younger and more naieve people who were attracted to the anti HS2 campaign in the belief it really was all cuddley and united and about saving the planet.

Ignoring the levels of paranoia and fantasy (they’re going to stop Hs2? Seriously?) Smith’s post does give an insight into the XR and HS2Rebellion’s wider political agenda. This isn’t a bunch of people who care about a few trees, that’s just an excuse. As we’ve seen, the protesters are not above trashing chalk streams as part of their protests and their new camp at Euston Gardens is a rubbish strewn shit-tip.

Meanwhile, what have they actually achieved? Nothing. Not a single thing. Their campaign has been an unmitigated disaster where the only success has been to keep courts busy! Talking of which, an informed source tells me that Thames Valley police have a warrant out for Larch Maxey’s arrest as he failed to turn up at a court hearing! Various courts have protesters up in front of them between now and December – and no doubt there will be many more as the ‘eco-warriors’ tactics are hopeless and wasteful. I won’t give away why, but I suspect many can guess. They have another problem too. Many of their supporters who would turn up at camp for a day or two have no gone back to school or college – shrinking their activist pool to a puddle. With winter approaching and HS2 ramping up the final woodlands clearences and more evictions planned, this is very much the last winter of discontent.

I expect the next few months to be the protesters version of ‘Custers last stand’ – only with mud and PPE rather than feathers and bows and arrows! Many of the remaining camps on HS2 land will be evicted and the protests squeezed as there’s no trees left to ‘save’. After all, locking yourself to a concrete block on some cold tarmac in the depth of winter when all you achieve is to get arrested doesn’t have quite the same allure as sitting in a tree or in a tent in the woods and posturing to people on social media…

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