Category Archives: Politics

A history of stop Hs2 petitions and their failures.

04 Saturday May 2019

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2 petitions, Politics, Railways, StopHs2

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There’s been a real embarrassment of riches recently. We’ve had not one, but three petitions on the Government website about trying to stop Hs2! The first one closed on the 24th April, having received just 16,356 signatures. I’ve not had the time to crunch the numbers on it yet, but the map makes it very obvious where the most signatures came from, and yes – it was from a tiny bunch of Nimbys on the route! It’s easy to trace where phase 1 of HS2 is going on here!

map 1

Just before that petition closed, the Editor of the Bucks Herald started another, which runs until the 17th October (see this blog). After just 16 days it’s already run out of steam and underperforming on its daily target. At the time of writing it’s received just 7,802 signatures. Let’s have a look at what the signature map tells us, shall we?

map 2

My, what a surprise – it’s almost identical to the first! The constituencies Hs2 phase 1 are clearly visible, along with a couple that Phase 2 passes through! So much for the idea those opposed to Hs2 aren’t Nimbys! Now, lets have a look at the very latest petition which was started by Joe Rukin of StopHs2 six days ago. So far it’s not reached ‘peak Nimby’ and it’s been touted by some environmental groups and celebrities like Chris Packham. Now, on that basis you expect it would have far greater coverage, wouldn’t you? Let’s have a look at the map then…

map 3.PNG

Well, well, well, it’s almost identical to the other two! The only major difference is the numbers of constituencies (in grey) where no-one’s signed it! Yet again, the route of Hs2 Phase 1 sticks out like a sore thumb!

Bear in mind that 6.5 million people live in the constituencies that Hs2 passes through. So, if all these people are against the project, why are the numbers of signatures so small? Even the last doomed petition which closed in 2018 didn’t make it to 30,000 signatures (link).

Just for a bit of fun, let’s have a look at the map for the 2018 petition. Can you guess what it’ll look like?

map 6

Well, blow me down with a feather! Spot the route of HS2!

The only question now about the two active petitions is what number they’ll fail at. Rooting through some archives I came across an even earlier petition, started by Rukin back in 2012. That closed on the 4th August after getting a measly 26,262 signatures!

map 5

These petitions do make me laugh, all they ever do is expose the fact the Stop Hs2 ‘campaign’ is (in reality) driven by a tiny bunch of people living close to the route of the line. Despite all their claims about the ‘majority’ of the UK opposing Hs2 they can never get more than a few thousand signatures on a petition, but they never learn…

HS2: the story the BBC managed to miss.

18 Thursday Apr 2019

Posted by in Hs2, Politics, Railways, The BBC

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This morning the BBC has reported that Hs2 Ltd have spent £600m buying up properties on the route of the new railway. As is usual with a lot of BBC reporting nowadays, their superficial reporting only tells half the story. Here’s a link to the piece by the BBC’s Dan Rhodes, which has the headline “More than 900 properties worth nearly £600m have been bought by the company responsible for delivering High Speed Rail 2 (HS2), figures show.”

The piece contains all the usual predictable stuff, an interview with someone who claims “we was robbed” because their home was allegedly undervalued and a few comments from those opposed to Hs2 to satisfy the BBC’s unhealthy obsession with ‘balance’. But Rhodes fails to mention several things. One is that this process has been going on since 2011 (although that’s obvious from the chart he uses) and in that time Hs2 has actually made tens of millions for the taxpayer by renting out the properties it’s bought – as the Times reported way back in December 2016.

FT

Imagine what that figure must be now, several years on!

Another thing that Rhodes fails to mention is that many of the homes purchased aren’t scheduled for demolition, they will be resold at a later date – at a profit, to people who really aren’t bothered about living near a railway, just like all those people who buy new homes on old railway goods yards right next to railway stations!

The other thing that has escaped Rhodes attention is there’s another story here. That of a dying anti Hs2 campaign. Let’s look at the chart.

homes bought

The anti Hs2 campaign has always been strongest in the Chilterns and one or two other locations on the phase 1 route. Essentially, it’s always been a Nimby based protest (with a few political types trying to exploit the issue for their own ends). But those Nimbys have been bought out in their hundreds – and not just on phase 1. By buying them out, Hs2 has poured weedkiller on the grassroots of the campaign which is running out of people and money. As a consequence, many local Stophs2 ‘action’ groups have shut up shop. This is reflected on their social media presence as people stop Tweeting or posting on Facebook as Hs2’s no longer their concern. As each month passes, more are bought out and move on and the lifeblood of the campaign drains away, never to return…

Forget the bluster of the few remaining activists who claim opposition to Hs2 is ‘growing’, the real numbers tell a very different story!

 

What to say?

15 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by in Brexit, Musings, Politics, Railways

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It’s been another of those days. Parliament is in recess over Easter whilst the country burns through Brexit and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Yes, they’re humans who need time with their families and they’re entitled to a break like anyone else, but there happens to be a clock ticking that they chose to set in motion. The only reason it’s not struck midnight is because the European Union has agreed to reset it. But it won’t be to British summer-time…

Meanwhile, there’s no end to the Brexit shambles in sight. Oh, there’s plenty of fatigue and short attention spans. But this isn’t TV. You can’t change the channel ‘cos you don’t like the programme. We’re stuck with this and to paraphrase glam rocker band ‘The Sweet’ and their 1970s hit Blockbuster’s lyrics “we just haven’t got a clue what to do”…

Away from all this I’ve been ploughing on with work, editing pictures for various clients and also sorting out historical pictures in a drive to get the damned things on my website after all these years. Here’s one of them.

5106. 304032. 12.54 to Coventry. Wolverhampton. 28.7.95crop

Here’s a old slam-door Class 304 electric unit ready to work the return 12.54 from Wolverhampton to Coventry on the 28th July 1995. They were as old as I was as we both came into the world at the same time. Thankfully, I’ve outlived them. Their end came in 1996. Mine’s yet to be written!

Juggling…

09 Tuesday Apr 2019

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After yesterday’s travels today’s been spent at home to catch up on the huge volume of pictures that I’ve taken or scanned over the past week. That’s the only downside to pictures – they have to be edited and labelled and grouped before being transferred to my website. It’s a surprisingly time-consuming process that’s not helped by me trying to be more active this week as scanning all these old slides means I’m sitting around on my backside for much of the day, developing corns on my bum rather then getting some exercise.

There’s also the temptation to pay too much attention to social media and the latest news of the country completely losing the plot over Brexit. OK, I take that back. The country lost the plot ages ago. Now we’re completely through the looking glass! Having jst about exhausted their list of people to blame for the failure of Brexit (other than themselves), Brexiters have come up with an absolute stunner. The Queen’s to blame! No, that wasn’t a typo – They. Are. Calling. The. Queen. A. Traitor! Why? Because yesterday she signed the bill delaying Brexit beyond April 11th that was passed by err, Parliament…

Now remember, these are the people who’re always bleating about ‘democracy’ and ‘Sovereignty’, two concepts that most of them clearly know zip about! If it wasn’t so tragic (and dangerous) it would be a superb comic moment. As it is, the satirical website ‘The Poke’ has poked fun at them – and very effectively too (link) – aided and abetted by furious readers of the Daily Mail! Some of the comments on the Mail’s website make me seriously question the sanity of their readers, never mind their intelligence…

So, another month and another date we should have left the EU passes. Anyone with half a brain can see what an utter shambles this is. The UK’s a laughing stock around the world. Now the EU’s having to save us from ourselves and (hopefully) set a much extended date for article 50 whilst we try and sort ourselves out – which is going to be no easy task because the lunatics (of all political shades) are still in charge of the asylum and haven’t got a clue what to do. Even some of the hardline Brexit supporters (well, those one’s who haven’t been lobotomised) are starting to think – hence Peter Oborne’s volte face here.

The wrangling and the humiliation continues in Brussels, where Teresa May is, yet again, making a fool of herself and the country with EU leaders. Luckily for us, they seem to care more about the UK than she does, and seem poised to insist on a year long extension of article 50 in the hope it’ll give us chance to sort out our own mess. We shall see…

Right, it’s time for me to return to scanning a few more old slides. Here’s one from the latest batch, taken at Warrington Bank Quay station on the 20th June 1995.

04994. 87017. Working to Preston. Warrington Bank Quay. 20.6.95crop

Class 87 No 87017 ‘Iron Duke’ calls at Warrington Bank Quay whilst working a Euston to Preston service in BR days – long before Pendolino’s were even though about.

You can find the rest of the old slide scans as well as all the new pictures by following this link to my Zenfolio website. It’ll take you to the ‘recents’ section and show you which galleries have been updated.

Midweek miscellany

03 Wednesday Apr 2019

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Today’s been one of those mixed days, full of promise that never quite lived up to expectations. I was up early in order to edit another batch of old slides that I’d scanned the pervious evening. Whilst I kept one eye on them the other eye was on the weather forecast, which was all over the shop! Whilst the thermometer genuinely hovered around zero we were promised anything from snow to lightning storms by the weather reports. Sadly, neither arrived, despite my constant trips from my office to keep a watchful eye out across the Calder Valley from the bedroom. The camera bag and I stayed in the warm, whilst my mind was cast back 20 years as I looked at pictures where many of them I hadn’t seen since I took them.

All in all, it’s been a productive day as it wasn’t just about scanning slides. My email inbox is now several pages lighter whilst my diary’s put on weight. The most bitterly frustrating thing is not to know how to reply to a press invite to an event in Austria at the end of April. Neither I nor some of my UK colleagues have a clue how to respond due to the Brexit shambles as our status as accredited EU journalists is up in the air. Will we need work permits? We haven’t got a clue and no-one can tell us. We’re just another group caught up in the infernal Brexit mess that shows every sign of ending badly for the UK.

I’m so utterly pissed-off with those of my fellow citizens who see this all as some jingoistic game that we’ll ‘win’ purely because we’re British, so obviously ‘superior’.  After all, didn’t we ‘win’ two world wars? The political and economic illiteracy is frightening, as is the hubris. Part of me has got to the stage where I really can’t blame the other EU members for wanting to say “oh, just f**k off then” in order that we get the reality check we richly deserve and Parliament desperately needs. Because, whatever Brexiters claim, we’ve not taken back control – unless you think deciding when to blow your own brains out is ‘control’. The EU’s in the driving seat now and will be for the discernible future. Very soon the penny’s going to start to drop that we’re the supplicants. Not only that, but we’ll be the country at the mercy of everyone else as our weakness will be obvious to everyone but the jingoists. And the really dumb thing? This is just the start of our problems. The ‘divorce’ from the EU should have been the easy bit! Now we’ve got to negotiate a new relationship, which isn’t easy when you’re the ones who’ve just shat in the bed…

OK, enough of this political and economic omnishambles for now. Here’s one of the latest batch of slides I’ve been scanning. This is Barnetby (Lincs) on the 3rd August 1999.

06999. 56063. 6D66. Immingham - Doncaster Enterprise. Barnetby. 3.8.99crop

This is classic ‘old railway’ despite the change of traction power from steam to diesel. Class No 56063 heads West past the impressive array of old semaphore signals at Barnetby East with 6D66, an Immingham – Doncaster ‘Enterprise’ mixed freight working. The semaphores and signalbox lasted until December 2015 when they were finally replaced with modern colour-light signalling controlled from York ROC.

Tonight I finished the last of the slides from the 1999 album I have to hand. They’ll appear on my Zenfolio site tomorrow. Next I step back in time to 1995…

Welcome to life in a failed state.

01 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by in Brexit, Politics

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I really don’t know whether I should laugh or cry at the news that Parliament is so screwed up that it’s not managed to find a way out of the absolute shit-show that’s Brexit tonight. Saying that the lunatics have taken over the asylum doesn’t do it justice as the lunatics have been in charge ever since the result of the Brexit referendum back in 2016. We’re ruled by a significant part of Parliament and the Lords that has absolute shit for brains – and that’s not a party political point. I’m an equal opportunities cynic so I can see MPs (and Lords) from all parties who fit that bill. Some of our elected members – and also Lords appointees – have completely lost the plot. Right now I could really let rip at the cakeism and venal opportunism that infects our Governing bodies. None of them are thinking about what’s best for the country. Instead we’ve been caught up in a perfect storm. We’ve got a Tory party who’ve let an internal brawl over Europe spill into the streets via a flawed and corrupt referendum – and at the same time we have the weakest and most dogmatic Labour leadership in living memory. All of them are playing politics. None of them are doing what’s best for the country. Instead, they’re pretending they can make Unicorns exist. It doesn’t matter if it’s a blue or a red one – all you have to do is believe – and vote for them!

Looking at this utter shambles, and how an old and out of touch (but arrogant) democracy can be so easily reduced to this would actually be a salutary lesson – if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s my country and that of some 66 million other souls. We’re not a banana republic, but that’s what we’re reducing ourselves to. Right now I can’t help thinking that the best thing the EU can do is cut us adrift in the hope that will (eventually) allow common-sense to intrude on a county that clearly is in desperate need of a reality check.

What the events of the past few years have shown is that our political system and the old allegiances are broken. We have nutters to the left of us as well as to the right. all are driven by dogma, not what’s best for the country – and that’s what needs fixing. The old joke that you could stick a red/blue rosette on a pig (depending on the constituency) and it would get elected has come back to haunt us.

Meanwhile, if I were you – I’d keep stockpiling those tinned goods…

 

The Brexit shambles goes on, and on and…

27 Wednesday Mar 2019

Posted by in Brexit, Down memory lane, London, Politics, Railways

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I’m losing the will to live…

Right now I’m sat at home in front of the laptop, scanning more old slides and listening to the live debate on Brexit in Parliament, where MPs are playing a political game of ‘It’s a Knockout’, gradually showing support (or not) for various propositions which included crashing out of the EU and a second referendum. The result was that disaster wasn’t averted, it was merely delayed. No resolution had a majority to pass so all failed. Instead, they can be graded by the number of votes.

The problem is that we can see that, despite everything that’s happened over the past few years, there’s still a significant number of MPs who are away with the fairies – or should that be Unicorns? A subtext of all these machinations has been that some of the main Brexit players on the Tory side are ditching all their (claimed) principles for two reasons. Either they see Brexit slipping away from them (and their hope of financial enrichment) or they’re manoeuvring to bid for the role of Prime Minister now that it’s painfully obvious that Teresa May is a ‘dead man walking’. Yes, I mean you Jacob Rees Mogg and Boris Johnson!

The only thing to come out of today is that the Brexit can has officially been kicked down the road – for what it’s worth. Now we have to wait until Monday to find out what Parliament mat decide to do. The one ray of hope is that the motion for a second referendum received the highest number of votes and may yet pass – although my personal preference is for Parliament just to revoke article 50 and save us all from the bloody hassle and uncertainty!

After seeing how useless some MPs of all parties are at sticking up for the best interests of the country and their constituents there’s a task of Augean stables proportions needed here. Voters need to stop voting for pigs just because of the colour of the rosettes pinned to them. Instead they need to ditch the old tribal allegiances and vote for candidates who genuinely want to serve their country instead of themselves or their narrow political dogma.

Finally, the house adjourned for the day and I could concentrate on other matters. I’ve managed to scan another 40 old rail slides today, which include the early days of privatisation. I particularly like these two. This is London Kings Cross on the 29th July 1997 when GNER had stamped its image on the East Coast Main Line. Well, it’s early image, because if you notice, their logo’s in white, which gave way to gold lettering after just a few months. In the foreground is the unique 89001 which was brought back from store to add extra capacity to the fleet. GNER really sweated the fleet compared to BR. If I remember rightly, they ran double the number of services with the same fleet. Now, 22 years later, the scene is set to change even more as the existing Intercity fleet (now run by LNER) is being replaced by the new Hitachi built ‘Azuma’ trains, the first of which will enter service in May.

06767. 89001. Kings Cross. 29.7.97crop

A couple of days later I was over at Clapham Junction, where engineers were renewing track through platform 10. In those days safety standards were a lot more relaxed. The worksite was separated from the operational railway by a bit of plastic tape and the PPE (Protective Personal Equipment) that rail staff wore – whilst better than it was 15 years earlier – was nothing compared to today’s standards! Another thing to notice is how tatty and run-down the overbridge was compared to today.

06776. Relaying track in platform 10. Clapham Junction. 31.7.97crop

Right, that’s enough from me. Now it’s time to call it a day…

 

 

 

 

Another day in Brexit Britain…

26 Tuesday Mar 2019

Posted by in Brexit, Food, Musings, Photography, Politics, West Yorkshire

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The farce that is British politics shows no sign of allowing reality to intrude at the moment, despite it knocking at the door – and shouting through the letterbox. The band of Brexiters are tying themselves in knots to justify both Brexit, and themselves. One of the maddest statements came from a supposed Labour MP, Kate Hoey, who said in a Parliamentary debate that “I don’t call it a no deal, it’s not a no deal, It’s a different type of deal”. Presumably in the same way that being dead is a different type of living…

This is the level of batshit crazy we’ve come to expect from the rabid Brexiters, for whom no mental gymnastics are out of bounds in their efforts excuse the complete and utter shambles they’ve helped visit upon us.

Away from the craziness, I’ve been busy editing pictures at home. First up were some more old slides, such as this, taken at Clapham Junction in June 1997. Nothing in the picture remains today. The old Kensington sidings that 33026 is using to run round an engineers train have vanished under a new platform for London Overground services. 33026 survived until 2003 when it was cut up at Eastleigh, having been withdrawn in August 1998, just over a year after this picture was taken.

06707. 33026. Clapham Junction.15.6.97crop

As well as scanning more old rail slides I’ve started on pictures from the anti Brexit rally in London on Saturday. You can find those pictures in this gallery.

This evening has had more of a domestic focus. Dawn’s accelerating her training for the Huddersfield half-marathon, so I’ve been stepping up to the plate on the cooking front and trying some different recipes from a new ‘Hairy Bikers’ cook book. The prawns I cooked tonight have seemed to go down well anyway. Here’s the basic ingredients all ready for cooking.

This is what the prawn curry looks like when it’s ready. No, those aren’t green chillies you see, they’re sugar snap peas, which give the curry a delightful crunchiness.

Back to the grindstone…

25 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by in Brexit, London, Photography, Politics

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After a fabulous weekend back in London I’m home and getting back into the routine (well, as routine as my life ever gets) of paperwork, picture editing, and preparing for the future.

I’m currently editing the hundreds of pictures that I took at the anti Brexit march on Saturday, followed by shots at a friends 50th birthday celebrations in Clapham later that evening. Here’s a couple of some of the brilliant banners and placards people carried on the day.

DG320235crop

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Hopefully, by Wednesday I’ll have the full selection sorted. There’s also one or two new rail shots to add. Beyond all this work a chunk of the day was spent with a financial advisor to try and ensure my investments are as ‘Brexit proof’ as possible. I can’t believe we’re in this position, but there you go.

Whilst I’m doing what I can to protect dawn and I from the effects of the Brexitshambles, a lot of people are still signing the Revoke article 50 petition, which has almost reached 5.7 million this evening. Please, add your name by following this link.

petition

The petition’s already having an effect as some Leave supporting MPs with small majorities are looking at the number of their constituents who’ve signed it and started thinking ‘oh, shit’…

Whilst I’ve been busy typing Parliament’s been embroiled in more drama. MP’s have ignored the Government, voting to allow themselves more votes on a way forward – which May has said she’ll ignore as they’re only ‘indicative’. Three more of May’s Ministers have resigned too. Meanwhile, the Brexit clock’s still ticking and no-one has done anything to reset it. So, by simple operation of law, we crash out of the EU on the 29th of March, in 4 days time…

Phew, what a day!

24 Sunday Mar 2019

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We’re having a slow start to the day after a heck of one yesterday. First there was the elation and the fun of being back of the biggest demonstration in the UK’s history as over 1 million of us took to the streets of London to protest at the Brexit madness. Later we had a lovely evening celebrating a friends 50th birthday over in Clapham, I’ll add a load of pictures tonight when we get home, but here’s a few to whet your appetite.

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The gang’s here. A mix of rail staff and journalists gather for the march.

DG320262. Anti brexit. Match. London. 24.3.19copy

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As with any good demonstration, part of the fun is in the inventive banners and placards some people come up with. I’ll add a selection later.

Right now we’re off to meet up again for lunch. I’ll blog more on our return trip.

11:53

It’s a beautifully sunny day here in Croydon with an almost cloudless sky. We’re currently on a Southern service which will carry us back to Clapham. Despite it being Sunday the train is still paying its way.

We’ve weaved our way through the maze of lines around Selhurst, a junction that’s facing a major redesign in the future in order to add extra capacity to what’s a complex bottleneck.

17:49

Well, the day’s flown! Back in Clapham a few of us met for lunch at the Windmill pub on Clapham Common, which is a popular place for lunch with people determined to walk it off afterwards. The pub’s also ‘dog friendly’, which adds to the attraction. Afterwards we strolled across the Common back to the Junction to catch trains across the capital to Kings Cross, where we selected an option to get home. Our preferred choice, Grand Central’s 15:58 was absolutely rammed! The company’s a victim of its own success nowadays, so they’re rapidly outgrowing their 5-car trains. My concern is that their excellent passenger performance results in the annual National Passenger Survey (NPS) must be in danger of taking a tumble.

LNER’s 15:53 Leeds service was equally rammed, so we decided to flag both and go for a libation in the Parcel Yard and catch a later train.


We’re now on LNER’s 17:53 to Leeds, where we managed to blag a couple of table seats in the quiet coach. It’s worked by this wee beastie: 91130. The loco’s showing it’s age and the fact it’ll be going off-lease soon. Lòok at the bodywork over the right hand buffer!