Category Archives: Joe Rukin

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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The latest Stophs2/Green party debacle…

29 Friday Nov 2019

Posted by in Hs2, Joe Rukin, Johnathan Bartley, StopHs2, The Green Party

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Yesterday the Green party and StopHs2 held a joint demonstration outside the Department of Transport in London. To say it was a bit of a flop is an understatement. The event was widely advertised on social media by anti Hs2 groups and the Green party – for all the good it did. Here’s an example.

Notice that 27 people claim to have attended? This is a piss-poor number when you consider the number of people who supposedly oppose HS2. As is my habit, let’s crunch some numbers to get a bit of perspective.

Over 6.5 million people live in the 63 Parliamentary constituencies HS2 will pass through.

The Green Party are estimated to have a membership of 48,500.

StopHs2 have 11,849 Facebook followers. Many of whom will have seen this leaflet.

Now, allowing for the fact there’s clearly crossover between these different groups, you’d expect a reasonable turn-out, wouldn’t you? Especially as the demonstration was taking place in Central London, thus within easy reach of many of those supposedly up in arms about HS2, No?

No. Here’s a few pictures from the event, which was timed to take place between 3-4pm. The first one is the sort of tightly-cropped pictures that you’ll see the media use, making it look like there’s actually something going on.

Here’s Green party ‘co-leader’ Jonathan Bartley, (right) singing the praises of Mark Keir, their candidate in Uxbridge who’s standing against Boris Johnson. In the foreground is Sarah Green, another Uxbridge campaigner who’d been in court that morning to have (yet another) injunction taken out against her tiny protest group. In the background, dressed as a tree, is StopHs2 ‘campaign manager’ Joe Rukin.

Here’s what the media won’t show you. This is a view of the full event, which shows you just how pathetically small is was! I count a total of 15 people, including 3 members of the media. Even the police didn’t bother showing up! The only security is a couple of DfT staff stood discretely in the background.

Here’s another shot, after the media had left but including one innocent passer-by on her phone. This is the best both the ‘combined might’ of the Green party and StopHs2 can do – in Central London! Quite where the others out of the 27 who claimed to have gone were is a mystery. But then it’s like the social media ‘keyboard warriors’ who spend all their time ranting about Hs2 on Twitter or Facebook – but never get out of their armchairs when it comes to doing anything else.

Here’s a short video, just in case stills aren’t convincing enough!

I’ve not seen any media coverage of this as I’m assuming it wasn’t considered newsworthy, which is hardly surprising. Bartley gave a speech to camera in which he trotted out the usual scaremongering nonsense about ‘ecocide’ and ‘concreting over’ the countryside. mark Keir also spoke to the camera. What he said was more interesting because of what he let slip. He appealed for more people to turn up to the Uxbridge protests because they’re desperately short of bodies on the ground. If you follow his and the other protesters farcical antics on Facebook it’s easy to see why!

The whole protest reveals something about the UK green party, which is that they’ve very little credibility as anything more than a protest group – which is clearly what they’re happiest being. They have several credibility issues, one of which is the calibre of their candidates and Mark Kier is a good example of this. I’ve no doubt of his commitment, but there are serious questions about his fitness to be a candidate. OK, it’s fair to say that the whole Brexitshambles has exposed the fact Parliament has more than it’s fair share of people with the intellect of an amoeba on both sides of the floor, but the Greens are meant to be offering something better. Here’s an earlier blog of Kier giving an interview. Does this sound like someone you’d like representing you in Parliament? remember, he stood in Uxbridge in 2017 and managed to reduce the size of the Green vote!

I’ve no idea how the Green Party chooses its candidates, but I have to say they really need to up their game if they expect to be taken seriously. That said, their ridiculous ‘co-leader’ policy doesn’t help either. It may play well to the membership, but out in the real world? Oh, please…

The tragedy of all this is the UK desperately needs a credible Green party, but this lot ain’t it. When I see the impact their German counterparts have on politics I do go green – but only with envy! The German party manages to grapple with national and international issues whilst the UK party is obsessed with localism and can’t actually see the woods for the trees, hence their mad opposition to HS2, because the hard truth is without HS2 we simply don’t have the rail capacity for the future to get people and freight off roads and cut transport Co2 emissions to tackle Climate Change. Stopping HS2 isn’t ‘green’, it’s exactly the opposite.

Today’s West Coast/Hs2 franchise award exposes Joe Rukin’s lies yet again

14 Wednesday Aug 2019

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Joe Rukin, Railways, StopHs2

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A few days ago, StopHs2 ‘Campaign Manager’ Joe Rukin was given a platform by the Independent newspaper to spout his usual dishonest rubbish about Hs2 without the slightest challenge. There was no interview, just a polemic written by Rukin. In it, he doubled-down on some of his old lies, such as the claim that there will be billions of pounds worth of service cuts on the conventional network to fund Hs2. Here’s the quote.

rukin

Rukin knows this is a lie as it’s been pointed out to him over many years by many people. But he can’t resist retelling it, just like his many others, because Rukin will never admit his dishonesty and dishonesty is all he’s got left now their ‘campaign’ is up shit creek without a political paddle. I first exposed it here way back in February 2015. Of course, in those days, Joe claimed it was only £8.3bn! Here’s what I wrote at the time.

“Joe’s totally unsubstantiated claim that this means “£8.3 billion of cuts to classic services” might be considered suspect by the most innocent of readers. And they would be right. It is true that in the Economic Case analysis (table 9 on page 78) is a figure of £8.265 billion, labelled “classic line savings”. So what’s that all about? Well first, it refers to the full network in Phase 2, not Phase 1. Then, it’s a Present Value, that is, 60 year’s worth of annual sums all rolled into one. So the annual figure relevant to Phase 1 will be a lot – and I mean a lot – smaller. Which is why Joe doesn’t quote it.

But whatever it is, is Joe right to paint this as “cuts”? Got it in one, no he isn’t. Go back to the beginning, and remember that, apart from the new Curzon St services, the HS2 service for Phase 1 is basically the present Virgin pattern unplugged from the WCML at Handsacre and plugged into HS2 to Euston instead. So we have, for instance, an HS2 train every hour that runs from Liverpool, calls at Runcorn and Stafford, and then on to Euston on HS2. The cost in terms of fuel, maintenance, crew and fleet leasing should be charged to HS2, no-one would dispute. But that train replaces a Virgin service that calls at Runcorn and Stafford, then to Euston on the WCML. So of course the saving from replacing that train with the HS2 service should be deducted from the cost of running the HS2 train. Same stations, same destination, and faster. What has been “cut”? Nothing.”

Since Rukin first told this lie many new rail franchises have been let. Most recently the Greater Anglia, Northern Rail, SouthWest Rail, Transport for Wales, East Midlands Rail franchises and from today – the new West Coast partnership which will cover the west Coast Main Line and phase 1 of HS2 as the new franchise will run until March 2031.

So, where are Joe’s cuts? Not a single franchise that has been let since HS2 was first mooted has contained ANY service cuts. Exactly the opposite in fact, they’ve all introduced new services and new trains. In the case of Greater Anglia they’re replacing their entire train fleet! It’s the same with many others, who are expanding, not contracting their fleets! So, where are the cuts, Joe? Take this snippet from todays West Coast announcement. Some of these new services will be run by brand-new bi-mode trains!

wc

Whichever way you look at the evidence, it’s clear that Rukin’s a serial liar who will say anything. Oh, you might have noticed something else. This new franchise covers the West Coast Main Line and HS2 phase 1 until 2031. Why would the Government let a franchise for a new railway that it’s about to cancel?

Joe has a big problem, he can lie as often as he likes about these things, he can ignore the facts – but the facts keep coming back to expose him for what he is – a man whose pants are perpetually on fire!

The fantasy world of Joe Rukin and Stophs2

11 Thursday Oct 2018

Posted by in Hs2, Joe Rukin, Railways, StopHs2

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I’ve been a bit busy recently so I hadn’t seen this load of rubbish from StopHs2’s pet windbag. No, not ‘Ellie’ the inflatable elephant, but their laughably titled ‘Campaign Manager’ Joe Rukin!

Stophs2 have been punting this YouTube video of Rukin lying through his teeth on ITV – not that it’s doing very well as it’s only had 70+ views.

Rukin doesn’t ‘genuinely believe’ any such thing. He’s a practised liar who’ll claim anything and he’s lots of form for trotting out outrageous porkies in the hope people are gullible enough to fall for it. Remember his previous lie that Hs2 will cause £8.3bn of ‘cuts’ to rail services that I exposed here?

So, no rail investment for the next 20 years “anywhere on the network”eh? That will come as a huge surprise to Network Rail who’ve already got an ambitious programme of work planned for Control Period 6 (CP6) which starts in 2019. Back in October 2017 the DfT published the SoFA (Statement of Funds Available) which says “we expect around £47.9 billion to be spent on the railway across control period 6”. Earlier in July 2017 they also published the High level output specification (HLOS).

Not that Rukin will have ever read any of these of course. I doubt he even knows they exist as they show what a liar the man is. The SoFA contains this statement.

enhancements

Oops! Joe’s fallen at the first hurdle here. The announcement of ‘new enhancement’ schemes rather gives the game away.

Meanwhile, what’s in Network Rail’s Strategic Business Plan which was published earlier this year? Well, lots of enhancements actually. There’s a huge investment in digital signalling for a start. Oh, then there’s the £237m remodelling of Kings Cross station approaches, which is planned for 2020. Not to mention the £3bn Trans-Pennine route upgrade which begins next year.

Did I mention Scotland? The Scottish Government has committed to a rolling programme of route upgrades and electrification, including Aberdeen-Inverness. and bringing high-speed rail to Scotland. In Wales the new franchise is introducing lots of improvements between now and 2024 which includes new trains, stations and depots.

Oh, there’s also a small matter of fact that there’s 1000s of of new train cars either already being delivered or on order. So, as you can see, Rukin’s bare-faced lies sinply don’t stand up to any form of scrutiny – and that’s without me shredding him any further by mentioning East-West rail, the ECML Peterborough ‘dive-under’ at Werrington Jn, the Midland mainline upgrade and many, many more…

Rukin reminds me of the old joke about politicians. How can you tell when he’s lying? His lips move! Even his ‘fans’ must be getting sick of being deceived by now.

But it’s not just that. This highlights why I’m unhappy with some of my fellow journalists and their standards. Rukin was allowed to broadcast this travesty of the truth thanks to ITV who had no-one ask him the slightest question – much less any of the one’s I’ve highlighted in this blog. Where was the professional (informed) journalist challenging him on camera and saying “but hang on Joe”…This is why we’re in such a mess now. When did the mainstream media like the BBC and ITV let this rubbish pass through their filters? Since when did journalism get this lazy?

That said, we’re in the throes of the Brexit shambles, which the BBC seems to have aided and abetted, so maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised….

 

Joe Rukin’s pants are on fire (again).

23 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by in Canals, Hs2, Joe Rukin, StopHs2

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As there’s nothing going on with the Stop Hs2 campaign as they’re not actually doing anything, it’s no surprise that there’s sod all on their website and Facebook pages anymore. What there is nowadays is moaning about Hs2, or railways in general, or anything that can be remotely connected (no matter how tenuously) with the two. Of course, it won’t stop Hs2 in the slightest but it allows Rukin and Gaines to pretend that they’re still doing something and there’s still a point to their ‘campaign’.

One such load of tosh was penned by Joe Rukin yesterday in which he claimed that the Shropshire Union Canal had collapsed into a sinkhole and that Hs2 would be in danger of suffering the same fate as it will pass nearby.

There was only one problem. It was just another of Rukin’s porkies, a complete fabrication. Here’s his ‘report’ which claims that:

“Well, as of last week this is surely an issue they can no longer ignore in Cheshire, following the opening of a gigantic sinkhole that drained the Shropshire Union Canal at Middlewich, just a couple of hundred yards from where HS2 is intended to cross”.

Gosh! A ‘gigantic sinkhole’ eh? No, not really, there is no sinkhole. There never was. The problem was caused by the canal bank giving way – as this website and host of pictures reveals! Plus, all this information was known BEFORE Rukin penned his rubbish yesterday.

http://middlewichdiary.com/2018/03/a-serious-breachmarch-16th-2018.html

“The bank above the aqueduct burst, spilling the canal’s water into the river.”

There’s another interesting comment from the website which shoots another of Rukin’s foxes: “When the bridges on the Middlewich Branch were constructed in 1827, just at the beginning of the railway age, construction techniques had improved so much that, as we have seen, these later structures can withstand a lot of rough treatment.”

As techniques have moved on a hell of a lot from 1827 I don’t think Hs2 has much to worry about!

There’s more details on the breach here.

Rukin also repeats the lie that then Chancellor George Osborne ‘ordered’ that the route of Hs2 be diverted around his Tatton constituency. He doesn’t offer the slightest shred of evidence for this claim of course. There is none because it’s not true, but then Rukin has a long history of telling lies.

Now it seems Rukin’s flair for dishonesty is starting to annoy even his own campaign’s supporters. This comment has appeared under the article on the Stophs2 Facebook page!

canal

Will someone please pass Rukin a fire-extinguisher to put out his pants?

There’s deluded, then there’s Joe Rukin…

29 Saturday Apr 2017

Posted by in 2017 General election, Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2aa, Joe Rukin, StopHs2

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A few days ago, StopHs2 campaign manager Joe Rukin was frantically circulating this email to the scattered remnants of the Stop Hs2 campaign.

“An urgent message from Joe Rukin:
You will hopefully have seen the news since the weekend about the possibility of the Tories going soft on HS2 in some way in their manifesto, whether that is a pause, cancellation or review.

The first thing I want to make absolutely clear is that this is completely true.

In fact the situation is rather better than reported, as whilst Messrs Gillan & Bridgen along with other MPs went to see George Freeman about a list of issues including HS2, it turned out the team writing the manifesto had already picked up HS2 as an something they might change their minds on. I cannot stress enough that this is totally serious. Whilst it may have been dismissed by 3 Andys; Jones, Street & Percy, they aren’t the ones writing the manifesto. Personally I would doubt they would go as far as saying there would be a cancellation/pause/review in the manifesto, more likely they’d go for no mention at all which would them give the space for any of those three options. Then again, as they’ve already been willing to hint at tax rises, what do I know?

I covered this in todays article https://t.co/XgUiEIpMLN but have decided to leave it a bit more speculative in public, as whilst there is now work to do in terms of trying to influence this decision, I’d rather try and not let on that this is really up for grabs in public for as long as possible.

So that leaves a fortnight to try and influence the Tory manifesto, and indeed the Labour one. We’ve had a conference call today to get things going with other campaign groups and there will be meetings with Labour next week, but as Deanne has mentioned before, it continues to be ASLEF & TSSA which are heavily behind Momentum that are the problem with Labour.

For now please go to Conservative Home and fill in the survey below. When it comes to the rankings, please vote “Continuing with HS2” as zero, and try not to give anything else either a top or bottom score, as you’ll effectively be voting against yourself:

http://www.conservativehome.com/…/what-should-be-in-the-con…

Attached are some of the banners we used at the last election. We may still have some physical ones left.

I cannot stress strongly enough that it really is game on, but in reality it’s not six weeks we have at this point in time, it’s two. More will follow in the next few days. Any ideas welcome!

Joe Rukin,
Campaign Manager, Stop HS2.”

There was only one problem. Like most stuff that emanates from Rukin, it was complete bullshit – although it did fool one of two desperate antis. Hs2aa, who gave up campaigning against Hs2 last year (they abandoned social media in June and their website’s not been updated since November) were forced out of retirement to cobble a page of ridiculous claims for their website (see link). Even AGAHST, an organisation that hasn’t been heard of for years made an appearance in the form of it’s one time Campaign Director, Deanne Dukhan.

It was all a complete waste of time, as most antis realised. Rukin had tried to sell this pup via the StopHs2 Facebook page on April 23rd, when MP’s Gillan and Bridgen had managed to flog their dead horse to a couple of the national newspapers (see my previous blog here). The problem was the claim was met more with derision than expectation. You can see their replies here but I’ve added a selection for your delectation.

g1

g2

And my absolute favourite, which sums up the scepticism and derision this claim met with, is this one!

g3

It was only going to be a matter of time before Rukin’s house of cards came crashing down around his ears. That happened today when Teresa May gave an interview to the Yorkshire Post under the headline “THERESA MAY has slapped down Conservative backbenchers in the South with a commitment to deliver the HS2 rail line to Yorkshire”. So, there’s no room for any dissembling there! She went on to say –

may

May’s statement was soon picked up by the nationals, with the Guardian running it here.

So there you have it. As I predicted, you won’t be seeing any mention of cancelling Hs2 in the Tory manifesto. Rukin, who’s lied through his teeth so often, has ended up looking a complete fool yet again. His stock was never high with other anti Hs2 campaigners anyway (Hs2aa Director Hilary Wharf was overheard being particularly scathing about Rukin’s relationship with the truth a few years ago). Now it must be at rock-bottom.

I wonder how long it’ll take before any of this is mentioned on the StopHs2 website, or will this load of bollocks written by Joe disappear first? I’m not going to be holding my breath…

Another body blow for the anti Hs2 campaign

04 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Joe Rukin, StopHs2

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Anti Hs2 campaigners are remaining very tight-lipped about their latest setback. Well over 200 individual petitions have been listed by the Hybrid Bill committee as ‘not appearing and to be recorded as associated with others’. This means their template petitions have been lumped together with others, thus cutting down on the amount of time the Committee have to spend hearing them. You can find the full list here.

Another significant development is this;

Petitions

As the Committee have already rejected the idea of a long tunnel all the way under the Chilterns, petitions which call for it are regarded as redundant. The exact numbers of petitions this affects aren’t recorded, but it will be significant.

In light of this, the Committee have also published a revised timetable for hearings. Now, instead of hearing well over 1000 in September & October, the number has dropped to less than half!

No wonder we’re hearing less & less from the anti Hs2 campaign. Talking of ‘hearing less’ – one other thing the Committee must be pleased about is that these revisions have spared them the ‘delights’ of having to listen to StopHs2’s Joe Rukin droning on. None of the petitions he was meant to be presenting have survived. Still, it’ll give Joe time to start looking for a proper job as he’ll soon be out of this one!

Classic media hysteria & Stop Hs2 deceit from the Sunday Express.

26 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in Crap journalism, Hs2, Joe Rukin, StopHs2, The Daily Express

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The Sunday Express, a newspaper well known for hysteria & inaccuracy has published this piece on Hs2.

“Isambard Kingdom Brunel may be the father of British railways but it might not save his grave from being dug up to make way for HS2″

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/593825/HS2-given-permission-exhume-the-dead-build-new-train-line

And the evidence for this is?

There’s none, it’s complete bullshit, as anyone who actually bothers to read the article & use their brain will realise – which probably rules out a goodly percentage of Express readers.

Hs2 spokeswoman Katherine Button explained the truth: “We have made one precautionary application as we are doing some ground investigation in Kensal Green Cemetery in London. The cemetery manager does not believe the site we have chosen contains burials but we have agreed a specific careful excavation process to prevent the unexpected disturbance of human remains.”

So, not only is Brunel not in danger of being being dug up, no-one else is either.

Tucked away in the article is this rather salient fact. ‘The tunnel under Kensal Green Cemetery is expected to be between 80ft and 115ft down’ All Hs2 Ltd are doing is drilling a test bore to assess the ground they’ll be tunneling through, nothing more.

Not that you’d get StopHs2s resident ranter Joe Rukin to admit the truth. Given the opportunity to comment he comes out with his usual deceitful rubbish, claiming that;

““It is not a great surprise they haven’t told anyone about this. The whole project has been a catalogue of mistakes.

“You don’t make an application like that if you don’t need to do it. It is clear they have strong suspicions that they will need to exhume bodies.”

Not told anyone? Hs2 Ltd have gone through a formal application process & got all the relevant permissions from the authorities concerned, they’re not exactly turning up in the dead of night like some modern Burke & Hare! There’s also the small matter that all this has come to light beforehand precisely because of that formal process. Needless to say, in a further effort to scaremonger, Rukin also completely ignores the fact that if you’re tunnelling 80ft underground, there’s no need to dig anyone up.

Clearly, Rukin & the Express are well suited. Both love scaremongering & have a cavalier attitude to facts. Perhaps Rukin can get a job with the Express when Joe Elliott finally sees sense & pulls the plug on funding Stophs2.

Joe Rukin & Stop Hs2 are living on another planet.

01 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Joe Rukin, StopHs2

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If evidence were needed that the anti Hs2 campaign has completely lost the plot then look no further than this piece of self serving nonsense from Joe Rukin published in today’s Bucks Herald.

http://www.bucksherald.co.uk/news/more-news/hs2-reasons-to-be-cheerful-following-election-1-6772919

Headlined ‘reasons to be cheerful’ it’s straight from the Comical Ali school of reality denial & wishful thinking. It’s no co-incidence this daft piece of propaganda appears in local rag the Bucks Herald. The Herald is a semi-official mouthpiece of the anti Hs2 campaign that’s happy to churn out any old rubbish the antis feed it (hardly surprising then, that its circulation is diving).

What’s particularly sad about Rukin’s desperate attempt to save his own neck & non-job is that some poor folks affected by Hs2 may well be given false hope by this breathtaking piece of reality denial masquerading as informed comment. Although, what’s interesting is -if you read behind the lines, Rukin is tacitly admitting that there’s nothing they can do to Stop Hs2, they’re simply praying someone else will. Mind you, before the election they though UKIP would be the cavalry riding to their rescue – and look where that got them…

Meanwhile, what are the likes of Stophs2 actually doing? Nothing. They’ve no events planned at all. No rallies or demo’s, no gatherings – nothing. They’re reduced to an internet presence that few see or care about – or the occasional uncritical article in friendly local rags like the Bucks Herald.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the Transport Minister, Patrick McLoughlin is in Leeds today,along with Hs2 Chairman Sir David Higgins. McLoughlin will be talking not just about accelerated progress on Hs2 but also Hs3. I’ll add more on this later but you can be sure of one thing. They won’t be giving Rukin any reasons to be cheerful…

You can find McLoughlin’s bullish speech here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/transport-has-power-to-change-the-north

As predicted, there’s not a single crumb of comfort for Rukin & the rest of the anti Hs2 mob. For example:

“Thankfully, the northern electorate didn’t listen to those who tried to play politics with HS2 during the election campaign.

Neither did the people of the west and east Midlands.

So the argument’s been won.

HS2 will be built.”

Or this:

“Start preparing now.

Because HS2 is coming.

It’s coming to Leeds.

To Manchester.

To south Yorkshire.

And the east Midlands.

The time to debate the various merits of high speed rail is over.

Now it’s time to get our cities ready.

Ready for construction.

Ready for investment and regeneration.”

Now, Joe, what was that about reasons to be cheerful?