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Paul Bigland

Category Archives: Politics

Some people’s politics are as weird as ever…

25 Monday Nov 2024

Posted by Paul Bigland in Elon Musk, Musings, Politics

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Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Musings, news, Politics

I was going to title that British people but there’s quite a bit of evidence that the latest UK government petition that’s setting the right-wing world aflutter has been signed by a lot of people who’re neither British, or real.

You may ask what I’m talking about. Understandable, if you don’t live in the UK or if you don’t hang around on social media (especially the cesspit that Twitter has become nowadays) as this petition has only really existed in a social media vacuum chamber until the past 24 hours, when the mainstream media (especially the right wing outlets) have decided to cover it. So, let’s start at the beginning.

An e-petition calling for yet another general election was started on the Government’s petitions website 5 days ago, by someone called Michael Westwood. Here’s a link. Now, most of you will remember that we only had a general election back in July. Labour won it with a landslide and currently have a working majority of 259.

The petition would probably have died a death, but it’s been picked up and amplified by Elon Musk and many other right-wing commentators. So, as I type this, the number of ‘signatures’ stands at 2.4 million. It doesn’t take much to sign it. All you need is a UK postcode and a valid email address.

The right-wing are cock a hoop at the numbers and are flogging this like it actually means something. But there’s several problems – not least the fact the numbers are suspect. OK, let’s leave that one aside and pretend (just for the sake of argument) that the numbers are genuine.

In the last general election, 6.8m people were daft enough to still vote Tory. Another 4.1 million even more deluded souls voted for the ‘Fagash Fuhrer’ (Nigel Farage) and his private limited company (major shareholder, N Farage) known as ‘Reform’. That’s 10.9 million right-wing votes. So, less than a quarter of them signing a petition is hardly a popular revolt against the government!

There’s another thing. These petitions are meaningless. It’s clear some clueless souls think they lead to a vote in Parliament with a vote that could order a new general election. The reality is, they’re not even debated in the House of Commons, nor is any vote taken afterwards. They’re held in Westminster Hall and they’re little more than a talking shop. MPs are under no compunction to turn up either, which means they’re often very sparsely attended.

Now, even *if* this petition was debated in Parliament and *if* there was a vote, the Government have a working majority of 259. There wouldn’t be a cat in hell’s chance of it passing.

It seems some people are realising that this petition is pointless and have pivoted to saying it’s sending the Government a ‘message’. They’re not quite sure what that message is of course, but hey ho…

In truth, the message it’s sending isn’t the one they think it is. The real message is one of breathtaking hypocrisy, on several levels.

Remember, in 2016, almost all of these people (well, the real ones anyway) will have voted for Brexit. They’ve spent the past 8 years telling those that voted to remain that ‘you lost, get over it’. According to them, an advisory referendum that was 52-48% (with a huge number of abstentions) is inviolable and written in stone forever more, and petitions like these, which were signed by millions, had to be ignored. Only theirs is valid. Hypocritical, much? Damned right it is.

And yet, the result of a general election that Labour won by a landslide just 4 months ago should be overturned, now, despite the fact there will be another general election in just under 5 years time. So much for the ‘will of the people’, eh?

It seems that for the right-wing ‘democrats’, election results only matter when they win. Remind you of anyone? Oh, yes, the orange rapist and felon who’ll be re-entering the White House next year. And of course, who’s behind amplifying all this nonsense on social media, Trump’s chum Elon Musk! Now, hang on a minute, why are so many supposed British ‘patriots’ so happy that there’s foreign interference in UK politics? Weren’t these the people who railed against the ‘unelected bureaucrats’ of the EU or anyone from another country (Obama, Biden, et al) who had the temerity to opine about what was happening in the UK? But Musk, actively interfering? Come on in! The hypocrisy is weapons-grade.

PM Sir Keir Starmer has already burst their balloon by pointing out the fact that this “isn’t how our system works.”

There’s another interesting bit of fallout from this petition. It’s demonstrating just how irrelevant the Tory party are now. The agenda is being driven not by them but by constant noise from the right-wing media and vested-interest billionaires like Musk. It’s no wonder politics is in such bad shape nowadays.

I’ve no doubt the froth about the petition will die soon. It’s going nowhere. The right have the attention-span of a goldfish, the bots will be reprogrammed and move on to the next thing their masters deem worth their time. Besides, it’s almost the festive season. The right-wing always get outraged about Christmas and someone trying to ‘ban’ it. Imagine living your life in a state of permanent outrage, the way many of these right-wingers do?

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Unbelievable…

06 Wednesday Nov 2024

Posted by Paul Bigland in Climate Change, Musings, Politics, The USA

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Climate Change, Donald Trump, Musings, Politics, russia, The USA, trump, ukraine

This morning I woke up to the news that the convicted felon and rapist Donald Trump has managed to persuade over 50% of American voters to elect him the 45th President of the United States of America.

Or, to put it another way – we’re all fucked.

Because this is not just about America. Not at all. This is about the most powerful country on the planet falling into the hands of an imbecile, a narcissist opportunist who doesn’t believe in democracy, or climate change, or any of the values that are the glue holding the world together. Only himself and his cronies.

We’re all in for a dark few years. Oh, Trump will only be around for four years. It’s the blink of an eye in many ways, but the damage that he can do in that time is incalculable. The only winners in this are the billionaires and dictators like Putin. The people who’re increasingly setting the agenda and paying the piper – only in the end the money will be taken from all of ordinary mortals, as it always is.

There’s fools in this country (like Farage) who’ll be cock-a-hoop at the news. The right-wingers and supposed nationalists who are dumb enough to believe Trump is someone the UKs ‘friend’ when the opposite is true. There’s going to be some very hard lessons being learned over the next four years.

I fear for Ukraine right now. Putin will be breaking open the champagne in the Kremlin. Trump was his investment, the best President his money could buy. The EU needs to get it’s act together now and realise that NATOs biggest member is about to become a sleeping partner. Europe can no longer rely on the US for its defense against Putin’s warmongering and expansion. I hate to say this, but Europe needs to re-arm because there’s a very real danger that if Putin wins in Ukraine, he won’t stop there – as he’s made clear. NATO (and that means us, the UK) could well be in a shooting war with Russia before Trump is gone.

But this isn’t just about America, or Europe. It’s about the whole planet.

Climate change is out of control. Politicians made a commitment to limit global warming to an increase of 1.5degrees. We’re nowhere near hitting that. The current projections are that by the end of the century temperatures will have increased by 3.1 degrees. Most people have no idea how disastrous that will be – for everyone living on this rock floating in space. No-one is going to be immune. With a climate-change denier in office for four more years the chances of getting on track are the worst kind of net zero, so go see places like the Maldives (or, ironically, places like Clacton) now, because they won’t be there when your grandchildren become grandparents.

The world has just become a very much darker and depressing place…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

The politics blog…

05 Tuesday Nov 2024

Posted by Paul Bigland in Donald Trump, Kemi Badenoch, Musings, Politics, The USA

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keir-starmer, Kemi Badenoch, Musings, news, Politics, The USA, uk-politics

I’ve not really commented on politics much recently. That’s mainly for two reasons. One is that since Labour won the general election we’ve had a tsunami of speculation and hyperventilation over what Labour are (or aren’t) doing and I’d rather wait and see the reality. Most of the commentary has been utter dross. Even once respectable news sources like the BBC have indulged in (non)stories that in a more reasoned age wouldn’t even have seen the light of day. Then there’s the increasingly down-market Telegraph newspaper, which is sinking to new levels of batshittery daily. It feels like it’s trying to out red-top the red-tops nowadays. Adding to the problem has been the decline of Twitter. Until Musk bought it and bastardised it in his own egotistical image it was a pretty good place to find political comment, from all sides. Now Musk has turned it into a right-wing cesspit where you can’t trust anything as, anything goes as long as it’s right-wing and designed to fulfill his and Donald Trump’s interests.

Which brings me rather neatly on to the American elections, where voting is taking place now. From a European perspective it’s difficult to understand how America has got itself in such a mess politically that the choice is between a convicted felon, rapist and dayglo pile of incoherent word-soup – and an ordinary person. Yet a large chunk of the American population (whichever way it goes tomorrow) see Donald Trump as ‘normal’, like him and will vote for him in their millions.

Thankfully, Europe (well, most of it) saw through demagogues like Trump years ago, back in the 1940s. one of ours ended up committing suicide in a bunker whilst the other ended up hanging from a lamp post, but not before Hitler and Mussolini had caused the death of millions. Do we as a species ever learn? Sadly not it seems. Whilst Labour have come to power and are gradually (and fitfully) getting to grips with 14 years of Tory misrule, we still have people in the UK who idolise the likes of the ‘fagash Fuhrer’ Nigel Farage (who’s yet again abandoned his Clacton voters to brown-nose Trump in America).

Still, it’s not all bad if you like a political joke – which is what the Tory party seem intent on becoming. The Tories have just elected Kemi Badenoch as their new leader. Well when I say ‘the’ Tories – only 1/3 of their remaining MPs backed her, the turnout in the membership election was less than 73% and of those Badenoch won by 56.5% compared to Jenrick’s 43.5%. Not exactly what you’d call a ringing endorsement, is it? Badenoch’s first interview as leader was with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg who’s known for giving Tories an easy ride. Despite that, it didn’t go well. Badenoch came across as arrogant, graceless and with no sign of having learned a single thing from the Tories election defeat.

Then she went on to choose her shadow cabinet (shouldn’t that be shallow cabinet? Ed), most of which have been announced today. Admittedly, after their electoral decimation the talent pool has become a puddle, plus many experienced Tory MPs are keeping their powder dry so that they’re not tainted by Badenoch’s failure when it happens and can step into the breech. So, who did she choose? The one that’s outstanding for me is ‘Penfold’, sorry Mark Francois, the MP (although why is a mystery) for Rayleigh and Wickford, a man whose ego is in reverse proportion to his stature. One of the pro-Brexit fanatics and trouble-makers of the ‘European Research Group’ Badenoch has appointed this former member of the TA as….Shadow Defence Minister!

The reaction on social media has been swift – and merciless!

As you can imagine, there’s many many more like that.

Badenoch’s claims that this is the Tory party learning and listening after its humiliating defeat is looking hollower by the day – and she’s not even been Leader for a week! I can’t help wondering how soon the first rejection letters from MPs are going to be going in to the 1922 Committee. On the bright side, the numbers of letters required to trigger a leadership election has increased from 13 to 40. As the Tories are reduced to 121 MPs that means Badenoch may be around long enough to cause some real credibility problems.

The champagne corks must be popping in No 10!

Let’s hope that the rest of us moderate, sensible people will be able to raise a toast to American President Kamala Harris on Thursday, closing the door on a political shit-show that includes not just Trump, but Putin…

God (of your choice, or none) bless America!

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

2nd November picture of the day…

02 Saturday Nov 2024

Posted by Paul Bigland in Cumbria, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics

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Cumbria, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day

The pair of us have had time at home here in Bigland Towers and made the most of it in different ways, although it wasn’t one that went quite to the schedule we’d mapped out – mainly because we both slept in! Having started later than planned our schedule slipped further (but in a positive and pleasant way) when we were contacted by an old friend who was passing through the area so popped in just as Dee’s parents were popping out!

Social visits over we knuckled down to doing some work around the cottage. Having spent so much time away recently I’d neglected the gardens which meant I’d plenty to catch up on – especially as we’re at the height of the leaf-fall season. The front garden looks a lot neater now as I’ve trimmed the Acer, cut back the Iris’ and disposed of a Jasmine which had climbed up the front of the building but was blocking a lot of light. The back received a lot of attention too with herbs harvested for winter, ferns trimmed and leaves disposed of.

Whilst I was doing all this Dee had decided to tackle the front room which doubles as her office. Having cast a critical eye over the leather settees (which double as her filing cabinets) they were given a full polish across all sides, whilst the rest of the room received an Autumn clean. Today’s been a good day for working around the house as the weather remains remarkably mild – and dry, which makes a change! That said, the skies have been leaden, leading to dull weather. Not necessarily a bad thing as I’ve not been tempted to venture out with the camera.

Tomorrow we’ll be having another day at home cracking on with getting the cottage ready for winter whilst also catching up with work we both need to do. Next week promises to be busy and we’re away in Nottingham at the weekend. Plus, I’ve a couple of blogs I want to write. One’s a critique of the latest Simon Jenkins nonsense about HS2 in the Guardian, the other’s some thoughts on politics and the election of the latest next former leader of the Conservative party – Kemi Badenoch. Better set the alarm clock then as tomorrow’s going to be a full day!

In the meantime I’ll leave you with today’s picture, which is from our recent Lakeland travels. Here’s the view across Thirlmere from atop Raven Crag.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

HS2 will go to Euston.

01 Friday Nov 2024

Posted by Paul Bigland in Euston, Hs2, London, Politics, Railways

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Euston, Euston station, Hs2, London, news, Politics, Railways, Travel

There’s been lots of stuff to unpick in Wednesday’s budget which was the first one from Labour for 14 years. Much of the endless speculation running up to it proved to be wrong. What wasn’t wrong was an expected announcement that High Speed 2 will be running to Euston.

Chancellor Rachel Reeve confirmed that the Government will directly fund the roughly £1bn cost of completing the 5.4-mile tunnel drive from Old Oak Common. The Tories has said this would only go ahead if private finance funded it. The new Labour government knows this was just an excuse for more dither and delay, so has committed to funding the work from Government funds.

Some people have expressed surprise that – whilst the tunnels will be built, there’s no announcement on building the HS2 station at Euston. There’s a reason for this.

The TBMs to bore the tunnels are already being assembled on site at Old Oak Common. There’s a tight window for launching them as any delay would impact on the construction of the HS2 station at Old Oak Common, so the decision had to be made quickly and the budget was a handy event to include it in.

The announcement of Euston station is much more complex. Plans for the station had changed a number of times due to the Government changing its mind on the size of the oversite development (OSD) and latterly, due to the station being designed by a Committee, the Euston Partnership Board. There’s an old adage that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. It’s similar in intent to ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’. All the different partners in the partnership wanted their needs and aspirations included in the station design and the costs escalated massively as a consequence. Now the new Government has redrawn plans yet again. Another budget announcement was the appointment of Bek Seeley to chair the Euston Housing Delivery Group which will be involved in Euston station design and the surrounding area. Meanwhile, funding for Euston station redevelopment isn’t expected to be announced until the March 2025 spending review. As things stand, there’s still considerable uncertainty over what the actual HS2 station will look like, many platforms it will have, or even when construction will begin – only that HS2 WILL get to Euston. For the rest, we’ll just have to wait and see…

Before the Tories dithered and delayed to waste 100s of £ms on HS2 at Euston…Here’s a 20th October 2021 view of the station’s Western wall under construction.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Rolling (ish) blog. Liverpool Labouring…

22 Sunday Sep 2024

Posted by Paul Bigland in Liverpool, Photography, Politics, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel, World car-free day

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Liverpool, Photography, Politics, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel, World car-free day

11:05.

Bliss! I could have a lie in this morning for the first time in ages! But now it’s no rest for the wicked as I’m back on the rails, heading for Liverpool on an assignment at a Labour party conference fringe event as today’s also world car-free day. Right now I’m heading for Huddersfield aboard a 2-car 158. I’ll pick up a service to Liverpool from there.

The first of today’s chariots…

OK, time to go. I’ve some writing to do – I’ll be back soon.

13:30.

I’m back! I didn’t really notice much about the trip from Huddersfield to Liverpool as I was too busy writing. All saw saw was the weather getting worse. Now I’m here at a very busy Lime St. The station’s positively abuzz with people and some events to do with the Labour party conference – as you’ll see from the pictures. I’m glad I’ve brought my golfing umbrella as I suspect I’m going to need it. The forecast suggested there was a 50-50 chance of rain. The weather’s decided to ignore those odds. All I can do is hope that it clears up in the next couple of hours…

A Rail Delivery Group stall on the station reinforcing rail’s green credentials.
This poster greets you as soon as you leave the station. As you can see, the weather’s rather wet!

18:30. Well, that was a fun day, just about everything that could go wrong did. The gig was actually two banners and two groups of people that were tied together plus a group of walkers as well as cyclists. Only the weather didn’t play ball, there were issues with the location as well as people being late. And talk about herding cats! Still, the job got done in the end and the clients seem to be happy so that’s what matters.

Now I’m heading back East as there’s no point in hanging around. Besides, it’s Sunday the supposed day of rest and whilst I’ll be home based next week (sadly) I’ve a lot of work to do. I’ll add a couple of pictures later. Right now it’s time to relax in the dry aboard my TPE service to Huddersfield.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

The green party vote to support building HS2.

09 Monday Sep 2024

Posted by Paul Bigland in Climate Change, Hs2, Politics, Railways, The Green Party

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Climate Change, Hs2, Politics, Railways, The Green Party

The green party of England and Wales that is. The Scottish greens (who already support building HS2) are a separate party.

This policy change came about yesterday at the party’s conference in Manchester, when a vote (previously delayed by several years) was held. The motion to support was passed by 52 to 48%. (hmm, where have I heard that ratio before? Ed). You can read the full details of the motion passed and the amendments agreed here on the Greens for HS2 website.

The motion ends 15 years of the party’s hypocritical opposition to building a new green railway which had left the party looking very silly. It simply wasn’t credible to say that they supported building high speed rail ‘in principle’ but then vehemently opposed it in practice.

The change is a credit to the hard-working members of the party who’ve spent years trying to get this policy altered and give the green party its credibility back when it comes to railways.

Now, a cynic might say that it’s funny how this has come about now that the opposition to HS2 in the wealthy South (where a lot of Green members live) is moot as the project is well on its way to completion, but that shouldn’t detract from the success of the pro-rail party members.

What effect will this policy change have? In some ways very little. Yes, it give the party its credibility back, but as the Greens now have 4 MPs in Parliament it adds another pro HS2 group to the Commons. This could put pressure on the new Labour Government to begin to undo the disastrous decisions by the previous Tory government to cancel the 2nd phases of HS2 that render what’s being built unable to deliver the capacity increase our railways so desperately need to get modal shift from road/air to rail. This chart sums things up in a nutshell.

This is why (despite my strong criticisms of the party in the past) I welcome the party’s change of heart.

However, I still have some concerns. It’s clear that some of the old guard in the party aren’t taking this well – especially those members in the Lords (Natalie Bennet and Jenny Jones) who’ve been such avid and intransigent opponents of HS2. They’re bound by party rules to support party policy but Bennett has already gone on record in saying she won’t do so on HS2. Not that it really matters as HS2 has massive support in the Lords so Jones and Bennett are in a tiny minority, but it does pose a problem for the party’s internal discipline. What matters more is that the green party leadership and its MPs support the policy. of course, there are the more ‘but, trees!’ eco-fundamentalists and the old hard-left who saw HS2 as an extension of fighting the class-war still in the party, but I’m optimistic that the Greens per se are starting to appreciate that the party’s position on HS2 was unsustainable.

All in all this is a very welcome move.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

8th August picture of the day…

08 Thursday Aug 2024

Posted by Paul Bigland in Law and order, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, West Yorkshire

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Law and order, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, Travel, West Yorkshire

It’s been another day of staring at computer screens for me as I continue my picture editing marathon ready for my next series of articles. I’ve also managed to clear the decks of some slightly older pictures to go out to another client – and add a few dozen images to my Zenfolio picture website. You can find which galleries have been updated by following this link. Mind you, the weather’s been pretty naff today, so being stuck indoors hasn’t been too much of a hardship. Whilst temperatures have been reasonable we’ve had grey skies and enough hours of rain to make you think twice about venturing anywhere. On the bright side – at least I haven’t had to water the garden.

This evening I’ve been catching up with the news of the aftermath of the riots. I’ve refrained from commenting on them so far as they happened whilst I was away and I had other things to talk about. I’ll admit to a personal interest. I grew up in Southport, where the horrible murder of the three children were used as the excuse the far-right had been waiting for to kick-off. I know the Hart St area well. I went to school nearby. I had an aunt who I’d stay with who lived on Hart St.

I share the opinion of others that this was a concerted effort to destabilise the new Government, only that hasn’t gone as planned. What we’ve seen since has been a Government of experienced adults who didn’t let things run away with them. Entirely the opposite, when you consider our current Prime Minister is a former Director of Public Prosecutions. Instead, the government moved quickly to ensure the police and courts had the resources to mete out swift justice to rioters and looters.

There’s another side to it too. The people who were intent on stirring up trouble, the Farage’s, the Tommy Robinsons and the right-wing journalists and ‘social influencers’ overplayed their hand and the backlash was swift. Revolted by what was happening, ordinary decent people came together to clear up the mess and protect their own communities from what was a tiny gang of racists who’d wildly overestimated how much support they had. They’d fallen for their own rhetoric and assumed that all those social media bots and trolls were actually real and would join them on the streets. You could see the bemusement in the faces of the handful of people who turned up in Brighton, Blackpool and elsewhere, only to find themselves vastly outnumbered. Now the prosecutions are well under way. There’s been nearly 500 arrests already and the first (tough) sentences are being handed out. 2-3 years, and there’s many more to come. What’s also been revealing is how many of those sentenced already have convictions for other offences. The Metropolitan police reckon it’s roughly 70%. These are no ordinary citizens, supposedly outraged at the senseless murder of three children, these are career criminals and racists, who’ve followed the call of Farage, Yaxley-Lennon and Co.

Now the rabble-rousers are starting to get arrested too. The woman (Bernie Spofforth)* who started sharing the claim that the murderer was a Muslim ‘asylum seeker’ has been arrested. She won’t be the last – hence the frantic rowing back of the likes of those involved, including Yaxley Lennon (aka ‘Tommy Robinson’), Farage and some of the mainstream media. Suddenly, the Daily Mail, a newspaper that’s spent decades running scare stories about immigration – is praising the counter-demonstrators! The Editors of certain national newspapers shouldn’t be let off the hook here. They’ve spent decades fearmongering about immigration and asylum seekers, making the phrase ‘illegal immigrant’ commonplace. Their reach is far larger than a few people on Twitter, or Facebook. They’re just as complicit in this.

My hope is that the prosecutions for incitement and posting hate continue and they don’t stop with Spofforth. I’d like to see some more well-known names be charged and convicted too. Then (maybe) some of those poisonous voices in the mainstream media (as well as on social) media will learn that the old adage ‘fuck around, find out’ (FAFO) should never be forgotten.

Right now, it looks like the rioters teeth have been pulled. There may be one or two more ‘events’, but the arrests, prosecutions and convictions will continue – and continue to deter. A lot of people are going to be jumpy every time there’s an unexpected knock on their door for quite some time yet…

Anyway, away from all that, I’ll leave you with today’s picture, which relates to a rather important sporting event that’s going on right now. The Olympics. When I passed through Hertford last week I saw these knitted postbox covers in several locations across the town, made by locals to celebrate the medals being won by the UK team in Paris.

*Spofforth is no random member of the public who just shared something. She’s a long history of climate change denial and opposing Covid restrictions and has appeared on right-wing ‘talk’ TV channels espousing her views.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
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Dorset. Day 4…

04 Thursday Jul 2024

Posted by Paul Bigland in Dorset, Politics, Railways, Travel

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Dorset, Photography, Politics, Railways, Travel

We’ve had another great day down here in Dorset, but also one where we’ve not travelled to far in distance, instead we’ve travelled back in time with a trip on the Swanage railway behind the only surviving Southern Railway U class locomotive, no 31806, which was built in 1926. We drove down from Wareham to the Northern end of the line at Norden where were began our trips. First call was the end of the line at Swanage where we enjoyed a wander around the seafront in glorious sunshine but with winds that really took the shine off the seaside. Still, it was lovely in the lee of the wind when you could find shelter and the heat in the sun could come through.

Back on the train we headed up to Corfe Castle and another visit to the Bankes Arms where the sheltered beer garden provided a real oasis. Tempting as it was, we didn’t linger too long as we needed to get home and prepare for the evening as we’d a table booked at a local restaurant. Thai Jasmine (as the name suggests) is a Thai restaurant on North St. I long-ago gave up on trusting restaurant reviews on the internet, I’d rather trust my own opinions, and I have to say, we all thought the food was good. I had the salmon in a rich, spicy sauce (chu chee) which was gorgeous. It was an ideal way to round off the day.

Now I’m back at the ranch, watching the election results as they come in. The BBC’s exit poll suggests a Labour landslide, although the Tories are suggested to cling on to far too many seats (131) for my liking. Reform are predicted to get 13. Let’s see what actually happens…

Ine the meantime, here’s a few pictures from today.

31806 runs round its train at Swanage. I’ve always thought these Southern engines had graceful lines.
The remains of the Swanage tramway. Originally standard gauge and later converted to narrow it was used to move stone shipments to the pier
Looking along the town beach at Swanage.

01:00

I’m sat here with beer and crisps, watching the election results come in. The first half dozen are in with no real surprises. They’re all Labour holds apart from Swindon South, where Labour’s Heidi Alexander (a talented politician) has made a return. I’m flicking through TV channels where much of the media commentary seems to focus on Reform beating the Tories to come in 2nd place – but ignoring the fact that – if that continues, the exit poll has underestimated the size of the Tory rout.

04:00.

The results have come thick and fast. Reform have gained two more seats – those of Farage and Tice. God help their constituents who think electing millionaires who don’t give a shit about them will make their lives better. There’s a few Tory MPs who’ve survived who were expected to lose – partly due to the fact the Reform vote was meant to be higher. Kemi Badenoch, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Iain Duncan Smith were re-elected. But then Michael Fabricant lost in Lichfield – although I’m not sure if he can be claimed as a scalp by Labour!

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Election day. Get out and vote!

04 Thursday Jul 2024

Posted by Paul Bigland in Politics

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Politics

Today’s the day. Polls opened at 7am and close at 10pm.

Remember to exercise your right to vote today. It’s no use wishing for a change in Government – you’ve got to make it happen. Don’t rely on someone else to make your wish come true – they might be relying on you!

I’ll be staying up to watch the results so will be blogging about some of the results as they happen.

Today’s a historic day. It’s our change to really make change happen. It’s time to ditch 14 years of Conservative corruption and incompetence. It’s time to put adults back in charge.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

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