Category Archives: Politics

Parliament’s back to work & the HS2 Bill moves on

27 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, General election, Hs2, Hs2aa, Politics, StopHs2

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Today’s Queen’s speech means Parliament is back at work & progress on the Hs2 Hybrid Bill will pick up where it left off – with a slight amendment. One of the Hybrid Bill members lost his seat at the election so a replacement will need to be found for the former Lib-Dem MP for Eastleigh, Mike Thornton. There’s speculation in some circles that his replacement will come from the SNP as they’ve replaced the Lib-Dems as the 3rd largest. We shall have to wait and see…

Continuity is also the name of the game over at the Department of Transport where Patrick McLaughlin remains in post as Transport Minister. This is good news for the rail industry and Hs2 as there’s no need to get a new Minister up to speed with what needs to be done.

Of course, all this is bad news for the anti Hs2 camp who don’t seem know which way to turn now their ‘great white hope’ (UKIP) has vanished in a cloud of voting papers – taking a huge chunk of the anti Hs2 tweeters with them. The anti Hs2 mobs Twitter campaign has descended into farce since the election. There are still a few blowhards hanging on from the old days who think ranting on the internet changes anything but many of them are isolated individuals with no backing, or what can be charitably called ‘special people’. Here’s a typical example of the isolated Tweeter from that well known hotbed of anti hs2 activism. Err, Lisburn, in Northern Ireland (‘hotbed’? Are you sure this is right? Ed).

Busker

The folks who are noticeable by their absence nowadays are the supposed ‘action group’ network although this is hardly surprising. They’ve been in decline for years & really have nowhere to go anymore. The Hybrid Bill petitioning process has drawn any sting they might have thought they had – and the election results have shown they’ve no political clout (even at a local council level). Their public rallies have been abandoned as an embarrassment as so few folks turn up. So there’s little reason for their existence any more.

I do genuinely feel sorry for the people who are affected by Hs2 & who’ve been gulled into thinking the anti campaign really could stop Hs2. They’ve been given false hope & some of them have thrown away both time & money. The election results have shown that the scales have dropped from quite a few eyes. Sadly it’s too much to hope that the people who cynically exploit them (StopHs2 & Hs2aa) will suffer an outbreak of honesty, realism or contrition. However, the good news is that as their activist base dies a source of funding dries up too. As StopHs2 funds come predominantly from one man – it’s anyone’s guess when he’ll see sense & stops throwing his money away.

As another example of a campaign going nowhere fast I’ve updated the antis ‘scores on the doors’. These show their social media growth (or not!) on Facebook & Twitter.

Hs2

The usual caveats apply. Not all followers are supporters etc…

Looking through social media the anti’s sense of aggrieved bewilderment is obvious. Some of them had bought into their own hype so completely they still can’t admit what had really happened at the election. There’s complete denial over the implications of their general election no-show & risible ‘no votes for you with Hs2’campaign (which influenced no-one at all). What none of them will talk about or deal with is the awkward question of ‘how are we going to Stop Hs2 now’? Because the answer is staring them in the face. They can’t. At the risk of falling in the trap of Godwin’s law – I can only compare them to the last days of the Third Reich & the mentality inside the bunker as the Russians closed in, with UKIP in the role of General Felix Steiner’s Army Detachment.

No doubt there’ll still be media speculation & a fair bit of froth in the next few months as the Hs2 Hybrid Bill continues its course through Parliament but the position is clear. There’s no credible opposition to Hs2 & there’s even less of a credible alternative. Rail passenger growths continues apace as the economy picks up – and look out for some interesting statistics & comments to appear from Virgin Trains on their West Coast business.

More election dishonesty from Hs2aa.

03 Sunday May 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, General election, Hs2, Hs2aa, Politics

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Having blown all their money (and that of a lot of taxpayers) on futile attempts to stop Hs2 in the courts the High Speed 2 Action Alliance (Hs2aa) is doing very little nowadays. However, it has produced a card to help support the ineffective ‘no votes for you with hs2’ campaign. It’s their usual mixture of spin & lies in the form of 5 loaded ‘questions’ that are supposedly meant to put MPs ‘on the spot’.

HS2_5QuestionsForAnyoneWhoWantsYourVote-724x1024

I’ve dissected each for the benefit of those MPs who might not know how to deal with these loaded questions.

1). 452 MPs have already answered this by passing the Hs2 Hybrid Bill with a massive majority! Contrast that thumping total to the 41 MPs who voted against the bill. As Hs2 remains the policy of all the major political parties & all those likely to form the next Government I don’t think this one will bother any MPs.

2). “Hs2’s absurdly high speed, faster than any other train operating in Europe” – claims Hs2aa. Like most of their other claims it’s load of deceitful rubbish. Hs2 is designed to allow trains to run at 400kph in the future when the technology allows. In the meantime, they’re expected to run at 360kph. In fact, that technology already exists and started running in Italy last week. TRENITALIA launched its new flagship high-speed train on April 25 -the Frecciarossa 1000. Also known as the Zefiro 300, this Bombardier built train has a design speed of 400kph;

Here’s the technical details of the train;
http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/frecciarossa-1000-very-high-speed-train/

Here’s an article on the launch of the Italian service;
http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/high-speed/trenitalia-launches-frecciarossa-1000.html?channel=

At the moment the Frecciarossa 1000 will be limited to speeds of 300kph. Sound familiar? Yes, it’s exactly what Hs2 have in mind. It’s worth remembering that Hs2 won’t be up & running until 2026 & who knows what speeds the next generation of high-speed trains will be capable of by then. So Hs2’s planned speed of 400kph is an eminently sensible choice that future-proofs the line – and Hs2aa are being dishonest with their claims (again).

3). ‘Adequate’ compensation. Ignoring the irony of Hs2aa (a group that’s lost dozens of court cases) talking about a lost court case, let’s remember one thing. That court case wasn’t about the amount of compensation, it was about the methodology of the compensation scheme. For some people, no level of compensation will ever be enough. In truth, the Hs2 compensation scheme is more generous than previous ones. No-one would want to see people compensated unfairly, but what all this is about is a cynical attempt to load more costs onto the Hs2 bill to make it seem unaffordable.

4). Cuts – yet another cynical ploy. We’re the 6th richest nation on the planet. The cost of Hs2 is spread over 18yrs at less than 0.17% of GDP (or around £2.5bn pa at the height of the projects spending). The idea that scrapping Hs2 will stop cuts elsewhere is nonsense. Where to cut is a political decision more than a financial one – and the different parties have different ideas on how & when to do it.

5). Hs2 ‘cuts £8.3bn of existing rail services’ This is Hs2aa’s biggest & boldest lie. I’m copying my original exposure of this to save you having to look for it.

“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.”

The cuts lie has also been nailed by the plans that have published to EXTEND rail services after Hs2 is built. As usual HS2aa ignore such inconvenient evidence as it shows them up for what they are, nothing but a deceitful bunch incapable of telling the truth.

So, next time somebody waves around Hs2aa’s ‘5 questions’ card, feel free to link to this.

The anti Hs2 campaign in the last week of the election.

02 Saturday May 2015

Posted by in General election, Hs2, Hs2aa, Politics, StopHs2

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As we’re in the final week of the election campaign I though I’d take a look at how the anti Hs2 campaign’s going. The answer is – very badly indeed.

Their laughable ‘no votes for you with Hs2’ campaign has got absolutely nowhere. It’s not even persuaded individual politicians to backtrack on their support for Hs2 never mind the actual parties. Instead, all the major players (including the SNP) have restated their support for the Hs2 project in no uncertain terms. Take this example from Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, who gave an interview to the Liverpool Echo;

Ed Balls

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/general-election-2015-ed-balls-9148898

Or this, from Labour leader Ed Miliband, who was talking to the Yorkskire Evening Post:

Ed Milliband

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/labour-will-back-hs2-miliband-1-7194044

All political parties know that (in reality) the anti Hs2 campaign is tiny. It has little real support & commands fewer votes. To illustrate this fact here’s the latest antis social media ‘scores on the doors’. These are a record of the leading anti Hs2 groups & leaders following on social media (Twitter & Facebook). Note the usual caveat. Not everyone following them opposes Hs2. Some followers are pro’s there just to keep an eye on them!

Scores

To say the results are pathetic is an understatement. They started off from a ridiculously low base and have hardly made any progress since February.There’s been no election effect at all. To put their campaign numbers in perspective, the total number of UK parliamentary electors in 2013 was 46,139,900. I’d work out what % of the electorate is actually following StopHs2 or Hs2aa but I don’t have a calculator that works to that many zero’s!

That’s not all. The main players (Stophs2 & Hs2aa) have been almost absent from the fray. Having run out of money & with a shrinking activist base they’ve relied on both UKIP & the Greens to make all the running. Their problem is – both parties are slipping in the polls.

What will be interesting to watch is what happens to their campaign after the results of the election come in and it becomes obvious they’re a disaster for them.

Watch this space…

On the road again..

30 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by in Politics, Railways, UKIP

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– well, rails really, but you know what I mean!

After a day at home I’m heading South on Grand Central’s 08:04 from Halifax to Kings Cross. I’m actually on my way to Norwich as Abellio Greater Anglia are showing off the first of their refurbished Mk3 sets to the press tomorrow. Norfolk’s county town isn’t the easiest place to get to from West Yorkshire so I’m heading down a day early & using the time to get pictures for my library. For once I’m not working over a bank holiday & I’m looking forward to having some quality time at home on my return.

Before I left this morning I remembered to get my postal ballot in for the general election. The list of candidates caused a wry smile. Despite the range of parties they all (bar one) had something in common. They all live in Yorkshire. The one that doesn’t is (yep, you’ve guessed it) the UKIP candidate, who actually lives in that well known Yorkshire town of Canterbury, Kent!

20150430_065014

I dunno, coming up here, taking our votes…

The latest scores on the anti Hs2 mobs doors.

23 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2aa, Politics, Railways, Scores on the doors, StopHs2

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It’s that time of month to look at the anti Hs2 campaign’s ‘progress’ when it come to getting their message out to all those imaginary millions who oppose Hs2 in the run up to the election. As there’s only 2 weeks to go – you’d think they’d be seeing support swell.

Of course not. It’s all a figment of their imaginations. I’ve shown the Twitter & Facebook followers with % increases or decreases and once again, the news for their campaign isn’t good..

Anti scores Capture

The usual caveat applies. Not everyone following them is a supporter. Many will be there just to see what they’re up to.

To put these numbers into perspective, in 2013 the total number of UK parliamentary electors was 46,139,900….

The election campaign goes from bad to worse for the Hs2 antis…

15 Wednesday Apr 2015

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As if the fact all the major political parties have now endorsed Hs2 in their manifestos there’s yet more disastrous news for the anti Hs2 campaign, c/o newspaper ‘City AM’ & polling company electionforecast.co.uk. They’ve looked at how UKIP are polling in their 12 target seats.

Here’s a link to the ‘City AM’ article:

http://www.cityam.com/213755/general-election-2015-how-are-ukip-and-nigel-farage-doing-peoples-armys-target-seats?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Email&utm_campaign=150415_CMU

The result that is especially interesting is Aylesbury. It’s this:

Aylesbury

The relevant percentages are Tories 54% Labour 16% LD 16% UKIP 11% Greens 2% others 1%

Hang on, UKIP on 11% and the Tories on 54%? This is meant to be a bastion of the anti Hs2 campaign, a veritable hotbed of irate citizens itching to show their displeasure at the ballot box. For weeks they’ve even been insisting that the anti Hs2 vote could swing the election! Now it seems it can’t even swing a seat in their very heartland…

All this shows is what I’ve been saying for years. The anti Hs2 campaign has lied about how much public support it really has and UKIP fell for it. There’s going to be one hell of a reality check coming for the anti Hs2 campaign after the general election.

Talking of reality checks. I hear that the Hs2 Action Alliance haven’t filed any accounts since 2013. I wonder why? That can’t be good for their credit rating…

Stop Hs2’s Vicky Pollard moment.

14 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Penny Gaines, Politics, StopHs2

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The anti hs2 mob are having a terrible election. Their ‘ no votes for you with Hs2’ has been as much use as a chocolate teapot. None of the major parties (or even a single MP) have been persuaded to change their minds. Yesterday it went from bad to worse as the Labour party released their manifesto containing a clear commitment to build Hs2.

Desperately looking for any crumb of comfort Stop Hs2 Chair Penny Gaines had a hilarious ‘Vicky Pollard’ moment – along with one another anti (who’ve featured here before).

'What,the labour party still support Hs2? Yeah, but no, but yeah but no...'

‘What,the labour party unequivocally support Hs2? Yeah, but no, but yeah but no…’

Here’s the ludicrous press release from Pollard – sorry, Gaines:

Labour’s support for HS2 leaves a get-out clause

“they claim to support HS2, but their support leaves a large get-out clause in the form of costs” Thunders ‘Vicky’, neatly falling for her own spin.

Why? Because Hs2 costs haven’t actually risen. What has happened is the economic case which contains detailed costs & revisions after some projects have been scrapped hasn’t been re-issued yet. And remember, those costs already contain a huge contingency. Hs2 are designing the line without using that contingency in their calculations. So, when Labour talk about costs, they they know they’re on pretty safe ground.

Poor ‘Vicky’ can’t mention this as it would expose StopHs2’s years of deception on ‘rising’ costs. Instead, she tries & fails to find some political tea-leaves to read & give false hope to the poor people who still fall for Stophs2’s lies & deceit.

Meanwhile, what does Labour leader Ed Miliband think about Hs2? His recent Yorkshire Post interview answers that:

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/labour-will-back-hs2-miliband-1-7194044

“But asked whether Leeds voters who back Labour can expect HS2 to be delivered on the current timetable if the party wins power, Mr Miliband told the YEP: “Yes.”

He continued: “We support HS2, absolutely, we support HS2. We are not backing off it, we are not changing our position on it. We are supporters of HS2 and that’s clear.

“What Ed Balls has said is that we need the east-west link as well and that’s right.”

Mr Miliband’s commitment on the issue means the election campaign has now produced unequivocal backing from both major parties on pushing ahead to connect Leeds to London and to Manchester and Liverpool with high speed rail.”

Now,’Vicky’ Gaines. Which bit of unequivocal’ don’t you understand?

‘Yeah, but no – but yeah, but no…’

The anti Hs2 mobs campaign continues to head for the rocks

10 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by in election2015, Hs2, Hs2aa, Politics, Railways, StopHs2

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As we’re now well into the general election campaign I thought it would be interesting to have yet another look at the anti Hs2 campaign’s social media influence.

No doubt they’ve been hoping that the *cough* ‘millions’ they claim are affected by & who oppose Hs2 would be flocking to their banner. As usual, the truth is very different.

I’ve previously looked at their Twitter & Facebook performance in February & March. This looks at the groups themselves and the individual ‘main players’. I’ve added today’s scores in this little spreadsheet, along with the percentage change.

Anti Hs2 mob stats

As you can see – it’s abysmal. They’ve hardly moved from a very low base & in some cases they’ve even gone backwards! Bear in mind that ‘followers’ doesn’t automatically mean supporters. Many folks will be following simply to see what they’re up to. No wonder the main political parties don’t see them as anything to worry about with such abysmal numbers as these. That said, UKIP & the Greens should take note too. They’ve been conned into thinking there’s lots of votes to harvest by opposing Hs2, which is pure moonshine.

Let’s put these numbers in perspective. The total number of UK parliamentary electors in 2013 was 46,139,900. I hate to think how many zeros would be on the figure if you calculated what percentage of that number the anti Hs2 campaign is reaching!

There’s another problem for the anti Hs2 mob. As the election campaign progresses it’s becoming clearer that voters are starting to seriously think about who they want to see in Government. It’s all very well considering placing a protest vote with UKIP or Greens but neither have a snowballs chance in hell of holding power. Polls are showing that voters are realising this, with votes transferring back to the main parties.

This is yet more bad news for the anti Hs2 campaign. Their ‘no votes for you with Hs2’ campaign’s been an embarrassing flop & they’re failing to persuade anyone who could stop Hs2 to do so. It’s not hard to see why. Their Twitter campaign is increasingly relying on the sort of people the PM once called ‘swivel-eyed loons’…!

When the election results become clear & the Hs2 Hybrid Bill Committee reconvenes, I suspect their campaign will go into another slough of despondency. I can’t see the people who bankroll it continuing to throw their money away forever. Perhaps it’s time Joe Rukin started looking for a proper job…

Hs2 & the Lords – a reality check…

24 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by in House of Lords, Hs2, Politics, Transport

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Tomorrow there may (or may not) be some media attention paid to a few elderly Lords publishing their report on Hs2, one of whom is a notorious climate change sceptic, Lord Lawson – not the sort of man to endorse green rail travel!

Whatever, I’m sure those opposed to Hs2 will be going into absolute paroxysms over it as we’re in the run up to an election and they’re desperate for some good news.

So, let’s have a little reality check, shall we?

The Hs2 Hybrid Bill was voted through by a massive majority of 452 MPs of all parties.

Hs2 is supported by all the major political parties – regardless of political persuasion.

Hs2 is supported by the ‘core cities’ group consisting of Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham & Sheffield.

http://www.corecities.com/news-events/core-cities-group-supports-high-speed-2-jobs-and-growth-britain

Let’s also remember what political & economic powerhouses those cities are.

Hs2 is also supported by the CBI, the British Chambers of Commerce & local government.

Billions of pounds of city regeneration schemes in London, Leeds, Manchester & Birmingham are riding on the back of Hs2, not to mention the thousands of jobs & wealth those will create.

Now, what was all that fuss about four unelected Lords?

Needless to say, I’ll be casting a critical eye over their report in the fullness of time…

In the meantime, Labour have come straight out and said the Lords report alters nothing!

http://press.labour.org.uk/post/114529592779/labour-supports-hs2-but-vital-economic-benefits

UPDATE: 25th March.

The furore has been strangely muted. Of course, the usual suspects have worked themselves into a frenzy, but I wonder how many of them have actually looked at a copy of the report? Hardly any, I’ll bet. Some sections of the media have reached for their book of trite phrases (Hs2 is ’embattled’), but what’s absolutely classic is judging the language of the hysterical antis with the words of the Committee’s Chair, Lord Hollick who has described their view in measured terms thus:” We are not (yet) convinced of the need for Hs2″

This is immediately run through the anti Hs2 spin machine to become (take your pick) “The House of Lords has” -‘damned/trashed/debunked/annihilated’ the case for Hs2. So, no hysteria there then!

The woeful truth behind the anti Hs2 campaign’s claims of expansion & ‘mass support’

21 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by in Hs2, Politics, StopHs2, Transport

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It’s a month on from my blog exposing how little real support the anti Hs2 campaign has so I thought it was time for an update. After all, we’re in the run up to a general election & Hs2 has been in the news. The 3 major parties have all restated their support whilst UKIP & the Greens have restated their opposition. Has this galvanised the anti Hs2 campaign? The immortal words of the TV character Jim Royle spring to mind.

Previously, I’d highlighted the fact that all their claims of ‘mass support’ & being a ‘growing campaign’ were nothing but hot air & I used their support on social media to illustrate this. Of course, since then the Jeremy Clarkson incident broke. That really went viral, both on social media & in the real world. Over 1 million folks signed a petition to get the presenter reinstated!

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/celebritynews/jeremy-clarkson-petition-soars-past-one-million-signatures-as-suspended-top-gear-host-warns-protest-never-works-10124676.html

This seems to have thrown anti Hs2 campaigners into a bit of a depression. After all, they’ve been trying to drum up support for years & got nowhere. Then along comes Clarkson & within days – bang – 1 million signatures! Ironically, 1 million is the number some anti Hs2 folks claim are blighted by the project…

Let’s revisit the original 22nd February ‘scores on the doors’ for the Hs2 anti’s on social media. Today’s updated scores are in brackets along with percentage changes.

Here’s the Twitter followers of the main anti Hs2 groups:

Hs2 Action Alliance (@hs2aa): 3,199 followers (today 3,237 + 38 = 1.19%)

StopHs2 (@stophs2): 4,112 (today 4,167 + 55 = 1.34%)

I’ve also included both of StopHs2’s leaders.

Joe Rukin (@joerukin): 1,857 (today 1,871 + 14 = 0.75%)

Penny Gaines (@penny_gaines): 399 (today 401+ 2 = 0.5%)

51M (@51M_Hs2project): 610 (today 613 + 3 = 0.49%)

Here’s AGAHST’s ‘leader’

AGAHST’s Deanne DuKhan (@DuKhanD): 654 (today 654 + 0 = 0%)

Meanwhile, over on Facebook (used by over 30 million Britons);

Hs2aa: 2,168 (today 2,154 – 14 = minus 0.65%)
https://www.facebook.com/HS2AA?fref=ts

StopHs2: 6,415 (today 6,325 – 90 = minus 1.4%)
https://www.facebook.com/STOP.HS2?fref=ts

51M: 393 (today 387 – 6 = minus 1.53%)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/51m_HS2project/218611348167462

It’s worth noting that 51M’s FB account still hasn’t been updated since the 1st June 2011.

Hmm, so much for that expanding campaign! Expanding? It’s actually shrinking on the media with the biggest penetration (Facebook) and hardly moving at all on Twitter (a medium widely regarded as stagnant). Not only are they failing to get their message across, they’re actually in retreat. Perhaps they should sack Joe Rukin & give his job to Jeremy Clarkson?

Of course, in real life – things are even worse. Hs2aa has blown all its money on futile legal cases so isn’t even churning out misleading posters. StopHs2 isn’t in any better position. No-one has organised any demonstrations at Parliament because (frankly) the numbers showing up is plain embarrassing – I’ve seen more life in a tramps vest! What is also telling is that their annual gathering in Staffordshire has bitten the dust too. It failed to happen in 2014 & there’s no sign of it happening in 2015 either. Talk about failing to get your message across…

So,next time you hear a few lazy journalists trot out the usual trite phrases about how there’s ‘strong’ opposition to Hs2, feel free to ask them, “where”?