Category Archives: Politics

11th March picture of the day…

11 Monday Mar 2024

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, Yorkshire

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Some days it’s difficult to take this country seriously anymore. Today’s been one of them. One section of the media has been hyperventilating over a badly photoshopped picture of a member of the royal family and her kids, whilst another has been following the latest political psychodrama as a former Conservative deputy Vice-Chairman (Lee Anderson) defects to the Reform party, giving them their first MP.

Try as I might (and I’m really not trying very hard) I can’t get excited about the photograph. There’s an awful lot of things to be bothered about in the UK right now – and this isn’t one of them. Watching the Conservative party falling apart however, is becoming quite a spectacle.

Lee Anderson (or ’30pflee’ as he’s known to many) was always a disaster waiting to happen for the Tory party. Supremely unfitted to be an MP, he was elected in to represent Mansfield as part of the 2019 ‘red wall’ collapse of Labour seats. He could have remained in political obscurity until he was booted out in this years general election but Rishi Sunak had other ideas and (over)promoted him to the job of Conservative Party Deputy-Chairman. This says little about Anderson but a huge amount about how useless Sunak’s judgement is.

Needless to say, Anderson was a disaster and got himself suspended from the Tories after refusing to apologise for Islamophobic remarks he made about the Labour Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. Now , having originally defected from Labour to the Tories, Anderson’s jumped ship to Reform, where he’ll no doubt provide plenty of popcorn moments before the voters of Ashfield have chance to eject him at an election. He’s already gone full fascist at the press conference, saying he wants his country ‘back’. I almost feel sorry for Reform. They’re cock-a-hoop at having recruited him (don’t you mean ‘bought him’? Ed) as they now have an actual MP, their problem is they’re got yet another ego the size of a planet competing for attention with Tice, Farage and Habib (who failed to get elected in Wellingborough recently). I predict this will not end well! On the bright side, it’s going to cause just as much consternation in the Tory party as Sunak will come under even more pressure to drag the party further to the right – which is only going to end in tears (and electoral oblivion). Will any other Tory MPs follow Anderson to Reform? Possibly, but it won’t save them. Remember Chuka Umunna and the other breakaway MPs who formed ‘Change UK’? That went well. Or Douglas Carswell, the only UKIP MP? He’s now playing his banjo for a right-wing ‘think-tank’ in Mississippi, USA!

I have a feeling that the next round of political polls could be very interesting! The Tories have already sunk to 18% in one recent poll whilst YouGov has seen then regularly poll around 20% (27 points behind Labour). As for Reform, sections of the media are really trying to big them up but the truth is they’re nowhere near hitting the polling heights UKIP did at their Zenith – and they still didn’t win a single seat at a general election! This polling tracker in the Guardian shows the extent of the Tories woes…

My advice? Go buy some popcorn to enjoy whilst you watch the state of UK politics. Really, it’s no laughing matter, but at the moment there’s not a lot else to do but watch the Tory infighting until Sunak finally plucks up the courage to call an election. I still think it might be May. If so, we’ve only got 16 days left to find out as March 27th is when the announcement has to be made by. If not, then this farce will likely drag on until the autumn at the earliest – God help us!

Away from politics and despite the gloomy weather it’s been a productive day here at Bigland Towers. We’re gearing up for the Community Rail Awards which will take place this time next week. Plus, the pair of us have booked a four night break in North Yorkshire shortly afterwards for some ‘down-time’. In the meantime I’m hoping to say ‘sod the weather’ and get out with the camera tomorrow. For now I’ll leave you with today’s picture, which is a view of one of the places we’ll be revisiting soon. Whitby. Here’s the first glimpse of the town you get as you approach over the moors…

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

6th March pictures, links and musings…

06 Wednesday Mar 2024

Posted by in Hs2, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, Railways

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Bugger, I have ‘man flu’. I woke up in the early hours with a throat that felt like I’d been gargling with sandpaper. After a restive night I decided a day of rest was in order. As a precaution the flag over Bigland Towers is flying at half-mast and we’ve painted a red cross on the front door. This time it’s Dawn’s turn to wear the nurses uniform. Mind you, it fits her far better than me – especially the stockings…

Whilst I’ve taken to my sick-bed I’ve not entirely given up the ghost and I’m continuing sorting out bits and bobs in-between having my fevered brow mopped. My Zenfolio website’s been updated with all the pictures from the last week’s travels and events which you can find in the following galleries.

HS2

Siemens

TfL/Crossrail

Southwestern Railway

GWR

London Underground

West Midlands Trains/London NorthWestern (includes a look inside the new Class 730s)

Southern

Chiltern railway

Avanti West Coast

Railway stations

Railway people

There’s still plenty of pictures for me to sort out as well as writing for a living which I’ll be doing later. What I’m not doing is listening to Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt deliver his latest budget. I heard enough flannel and buzzword bingo (“hard choices”…”growing the economy” etc) from him in person on Monday.

Insert own caption here…

I’ll wait for the expert analysis which always picks up what matters but is never mentioned in his speech. Judging from the reactions I’ve seen so far, the idea that this budget is going to somehow improve the Tories electoral chances and ‘shift the dial’ of their piss-poor performance in the polls is a forlorn hope. Just like when you grow up and stop believing in Santa Claus or the tooth fairy, voters have stopped believing in the Tories – at last! Now we have to wait to see if Sunak will call a May election. The last day on which he can do that is when Parliament goes into recess on the 27th March. There’s no point in trying to second-guess him as that’s applying logic to a man who’s proved to be immune to logical though and decision-making.

On that same lack of logic vein, I’ve been amused to see how the far-right English racists have embraced AI on social media – always with unintentionally hilarious results as what most of ’em actually know about English (never mind British) history could fit on the back of a postage stamp. As for their lack of fluency (both written and oral) in their mother-tongue – or dear! Here’s an absolute classic, but not untypical of the genre as they do love cosplaying Crusaders…

What’s so funny here is that the Knights Templar were actually French! Oh, and only 10% of them were actually knights. So what this buffoon is really calling for is a million people marching through London led by Frenchmen! It’s not gonna happen. Wetherspoons could never cope with the rush, and as for trying to pee through chainmail after twelveteen pints of foreign lager…

Needless to say, the best of British humour has been deployed in spoofing these idiotic IA images, with producing some absolute corkers featuring (amongst other things) knights and lions, golf and Greggs!

Right, one last thing before I go. As it’s another month I’ve restocked my eBay account with more railway memorabilia and old slides for sale. You can find it here. This is a sample of one of the new additions.

See you tomorrow – if the ‘man flu’ hasn’t seen me off!

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 Rishi Sunak ‘released funding from cancelling Hs2’ con – part 6.

23 Friday Feb 2024

Posted by in Hs2, Politics, RAIL magazine, Rishi Sunak, Wales

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Today, the Department of Transport tweeted this ridiculous claim.

I actually feel sorry for the civil servants at the DfT. They know this is a con but their political masters are using them to push Government (read Tory) propaganda out in an election year. This is a naked abuse of what the civil service is there for, but there’s no low this Government won’t stoop to – including politicising the civil service.

Why tweet this? There’s no supporting press release or announcement of anything happening on the DfT website, or through the DfT’s normal press releases, there’s just this tweet. So why put this out now? Oh, wait. Rishi Sunak was in North Wales yesterday on his pre-election campaign ‘grand tour’. What a co-incidence!

So, what’s happening with North Wales electrification, announced as being funded by scrapping Hs2 phase 2 by Sunak last years and included in the risible ‘Network North’ not even the back of a fag packet plan?

Nothing. Zip. Bugger all. Last month RAIL magazine carried an excellent article detailing why nothing is likely to happen before 2030. You can read it here.

For a start, the £1bn is a con. There’s no HS2 money to ‘release’. It doesn’t exist. It wasn’t due to be borrowed for years yet. It sure as hell isn’t say in a pot in the Treasury labelled ‘for HS2’ that’s just waiting to be rebadged. It’s classic ‘jam tomorrow’ politics. Cancel something you *were* building that had a business case, planning permission and even spades in the ground and announce utter vapourware for sometime in the future instead.

Before a spade enters the ground in North Wales there needs to be a business case for the work. That doesn’t exist. There *was* one, but that dates from 2015 and is hopelessly out of date. That £1bn figure is assumed to be based on that now-defunct business case. Since then, construction costs have increased by roughly 7% per annum – meaning that there’d be no spare change from £1.5bn.

As you can see, the project exists on in the imagination. It’s not included in Network Rail’s future plans and budget which is known as CP7. Control Period 7 runs from April 2024 to March 2029.

The truth is, there’s not a cat in hell’s chance of ANY work planning/consultations being done before the next General Election, which could come as early as May this year. As for actual spades in the ground – don’t make me laugh…

This is nothing but a dishonest and deceitful election con by Sunak and the Tories. Don’t fall for it – or him.

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

16th February picture of the day…

16 Friday Feb 2024

Posted by in Hs2, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, West Yorkshire

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Today got off to a good start when I picked up my phone, logged on to the news and saw that Labour had trounced the Tories in yesterday’s by-elections – and by a significant amount – especially in Wellingborough. Of course, the media went into overdrive, although a lot of the reports provided far more heat than light. Speculation was rife amongst readers of runes, many of whom seemed keen to put their own spin on things to make the results seem far more equivocal than they were. Let’s face it, only the other day parts of the media were trying to make out that Labour were in trouble due to Starmer’s decisions over suspending candidates due to anti-semitism. The reality was – it didn’t make the slightest difference to either result.

Others were keen to talk up the impact of ‘Reform’, the rebadged Brexit party and inheritors of UKIP’s crown (minus the odious Nigel Farage of course). Some commentators have tried to make out that Reform getting 13% of the vote in Wellingborough is, somehow, a triumph. All I can say is – they obviously have short memories and no access to Google. Why? Well, here’s the 2015 general election result – when UKIP came second with 19.6% of the vote on a far bigger turnout.

2015 was UKIP’s electoral zenith. The 2016 referendum result burst their bubble and the party faded away in the 2017 election (they only got 3.5% here that year). Oh, but how many MPs did they get in 2017? Not a one. Yesterday Reform came 3rd, not 2nd. But this is first past the post, there’s no prize for 2nd – or 3rd.

Reform are no danger to anyone other than the Tories. In fact, they’re a double danger as so many Tories can’t read the room and insist they need to tack further to the far-right to appeal to Reform voters – which will alienate ordinary voters even more. It’s a death-cult in a death-spiral, all Reform will do is hasten the Tories demise. Still, they’ll keep media commentators in column inches as they try and make-out that the next general election is going to be more of a contest than it is.

Away from politics I’ve been busy out at the back of the house, cleaning down the moss and winter grunge covered steps and cobbles which meant that I emulated the Tories and ended up on my arse! I’d been scrubbing and washing down some wooden steps when a workman called to measure up for our new front door. In my haste to get to greet him muggins here slipped on the top step and ended up coming down the whole flight on my backside before sliding several feet to a watery stop (like a kid off a waterflume) at the gap opposite the back door – just as Dawn opened it to a surprised workman! Still, I made an impression on them both! it certainly gave us a giggle after it became apparent that the only thing hurt was my pride.

I’ve eschewed the opportunity for Friday night in the pub as the pair of us have a busy weekend planned (and an equally busy week after that). Instead we’re having a quiet night in, enjoying each others company and maybe a film or two – hence this blog being earlier than usual.

All that remains now is to leave you with today’s picture. I wasn’t sure what to use today, but I’ve decided to give you a clue as to what I’ll be up to early next week.

In the meantime, enjoy your weekend!

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

15th February picture of the day…

15 Thursday Feb 2024

Posted by in Calder Valley, Climate Change, Musings, Picture of the day, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Today feels like one of those days where you don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the state of the country – or planet. To say it’s been unseasonably mild here in the Calder Valley would be an understatement. According to various registers we hit a balmy 15 degrees. There’s only one problem. That’s way, way above the seasonal average for Sowerby Bridge and (if confirmed) a new record. So, to those who say global warming is a myth. I have a two word answer – and the second word is “Off”…

The pair of us spent most of our day working from home apart from an outing in the car as Dawn had to drop off work papers at their accountants, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone to pop into our local Indian supermarket to stock up on various exotic herbs, spices and other goodies before doing the more mundane shopping at Tesco. Not that we bought crap you understand, just staples.

Back home I ploughed on with various work including a request for a selection of old railway pictures from the early 1990s that may (or may not) make it into a magazine. When I took them it was purely for pleasure. I never dreamed that one day they might make it into print, but that’s nostalgia for you. What seemed everyday on the railways back in 1990 looks anything but now.

Whilst I was working I did have half an eye on’t t’internet and the campaigning that’s going on in two by-elections today. Labour are widely expected to win both former Tory safe seats and in the case of Wellingborough it’s not hard to see why. Not only were the local Tory party stupid enough to pick the girlfriend of the ousted MP (Peter Bone) as their candidate, the other parties are making a mess of things too. ‘Reform’ – formerly known as the Brexit party, has put forward ‘man of the people’ (My arse: Ed) Ben Habib. Only it seems Mr Habib is about as familiar with his potential constituency as he is with the truth. Hence this, from Twitter – and it’s only one of many mocking examples!

The only saving grace of fools like this is that Reform don’t stand a chance of getting elected but they will abstract enough votes from the Tories to make it an easy Labour win. I’ll look forward to waking up in the morning to a very different future – in two constituencies at least. The rest of us? We’ll have to soldier on in a country that’s increasingly falling apart as it’s asset stripped by Sunak and Co to try and fund their election bribe – sorry ‘tax cuts’ in order to win the next election. Only they won’t win, and neither will we. The only people who will are the people rich enough to make money from such tax cuts and insulate themselves from what comes next. Hopefully, enough people will wake up to that fact before it’s too late.

In the meantime I hope to enjoy some short-lived schadenfreude at the Tories expense tomorrow. Oh, I’ve other plans too, but that’s for another blog…

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

Happy Mondays…

12 Monday Feb 2024

Posted by in Halifax, Musings, Photography, Politics, West Yorkshire

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Right – I’m back! My enforced absence from blogging is coming to an end. From now (and for the foreseeable future) normal service will be resumed. There’s plenty for me to blog about as my travels around the UK rail network will resume shortly, along with magazine articles and site visits.

On Friday I spent time with friends from the nearby Mytholmroyd station group who were having a planning meeting to give new members the chance to have their say and offer idea on the groups 2024 programme. This year sees the 150th anniversary of the opening of the station building they’ve worked so hard to restore and bring back into community use. Here’s a couple of pictures from the event.

Admiring a selection of vintage photographs of Mytholmroyd and the railway which had been brought in by one of the new members.
The results of the brainstorming was a plethora of suggestions and new ideas for activities in 2024.

A you can see, there wasn’t just food for thought on offer but an excellent supply of pies, quiches, sandwiches and other goodies sourced locally from Jo’s kitchen.

My weekend’s been spent at home, sorting out the contents of my office in order to have a good clear out of stuff I no longer need but that’s been hanging around for ages. In some cases since I moved here from London. Our shredder’s been working overtime to deal with a mound of old bank statements and other confidential paperwork. The local charity shops and our recycling centre are getting a fair share of trade too! Part of the clear out saw me having to take a trip into Halifax itself and a visit to the market, so I couldn’t resist trying out my new Nikon Z9 and 50mm lens I’ve just bought to get a few shots whilst the refurbishment of the building is underway.

The multi-faced clock which dominates the centre of the covered market in Halifax.

Meanwhile, Monday has seen me busy as Bigland Towers, continuing the office clear-out and lining up various activities for the coming week – although some are dependent on the weather behaving itself, which is looking doubtful. Mind you, it’s Valentine’s day on Wednesday so my focus (as you can imagine) will be elsewhere! To add to the weeks entertainment we have two by-elections on Thursday, one in Wellingborough and the other at Kingswood near Bristol. Both were Tory safe seats but with the Conservatives being as popular as a fart in a spacesuit the chances of both seats being lost is very real. Expect lots of wailing and gnashing of Tory teeth on Friday. My reaction?

Either way, I’ll try and keep you entertained with comment, analysis (and pictures) on a regular basis from now on. Cheers…

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

Economics 101. The difference between Capex and Opex, why you don’t spend the former on the latter – and why Rishi Sunak is perpetuating a con…

07 Sunday Jan 2024

Posted by in Economics, Hs2, Politics, Railways, Rishi Sunak

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

This is a rewrite on a much earlier blog which is now out of date due to a changing financial world, but where the basic economic rules still apply. Rules that our (hopefully soon to be Ex) Prime Minister – despite his time as Chancellor of the Exchequer – seems to be unaware of. More likely? He’s gaslighting you. Let me explain…

What are Capex and Opex – and why does the difference matter?

Capital expenditure is an expense incurred to create future benefit, such as buying new assets for a business – like buildings, machinery or equipment. Doing so generates profits for the future over several tax years. Hs2 is a very good example of the principle. It will generate jobs (which generate tax revenue), kick-start regeneration in some of our major cities and make the UK a more attractive place for businesses (which generate corporation tax). Capital investment on decent infrastructure is well understood as bringing economic benefits. This BBC article sums up the situation. As capital expenditure will generate tax revenue year after year it’s not just a one off. That income stream would enable the Treasury to spend money on many different things, from the NHS to social welfare, to more modern infrastructure and even tax cuts if it so chose.

Operating expenditure covers the day to day functioning of a business, like wages, utilities, maintenance and repairs. It also covers depreciation. It’s money needed every year. It’s not a one-off – and it doesn’t generate any extra income the way Capex does.

The UK has a poor record for capital expenditure on infrastructure. It’s why so much of the countries infrastructure is old and outdated (like the railways) and why our productivity is so low.

The OECD (Organisation Economically Developed Countries) recommends that baseline infrastructure investment is 5.5% of GDP annually for an economy with aspirations to growth. We’ve only spent this amount twice since WW2. This is especially relevant now as the UK desperately needs to invest in ‘green’ infrastructure to both tackle and be resilient to Climate Change. HS2 was one of the projects that ticked all these boxes. The importance of such investment has been thrown into the spotlight by the recent storms that have closed railways and flooded large parts of the country. We need modern infrastructure designed and built to cope with them.

Now to the present. Rishi Sunak has announced he’s ‘scrapping’ HS2 and diverting the capital expenditure to operating expenditure, like filling potholes and subsidising bus fares. It’s economic madness, but it’s also a con as the ‘diverted’ money doesn’t exist. There’s no pot of money sat in the Treasury labelled ‘for HS2’ that’s waiting to be diverted elsewhere. HS2 is funded from Government borrowing and the money for the sections of HS2 Sunak has cancelled isn’t on the Governments books as it wasn’t due to be borrowed for many years yet. It’s fantasy money, as real as the stuff you play Monopoly with. Sunak knows this, but he’s taking voters for fools as he also knows most people have no understanding of either economics or Government finances.

Sadly, much of the media is helping him perpetuate the con by lazily copying and pasting his claims and not once asking any awkward questions, informing people of economic basics (like Capex and Opex) or doing any analysis of his claims.

Don’t be fooled.

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 Tories are just taking the p*ss now.

21 Thursday Dec 2023

Posted by in Hs2, Levelling up, London, Politics, Railways

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Yesterday the Government was busy on social media, spreading a message so asinine that satirists across the country were immediately put out of work. Converted to electricity, the levels of derision this poster generated could have powered the UK for a day at least. Here’s how the message appeared on Twitter (bugger off Musk, I refuse to call it X).

Network North – London?

The ridicule was savage and widespread. It soon got picked up by the national media such as the Independent, who highlighted it here.

I’ve blogged many times in the past about this whole scam (there is no money to redirect from HS2, it wasn’t due to be borrowed for years yet) but unashamedly, the Tories keep doubling down on the lie. This particular stunt appears to be a pathetic attempt to prop up the flailing campaign for London Mayor of Tory no-hoper Susan Hall, hence this awful tweet featuring Transport Minister Mark Harper, exposing the fact that ‘levelling up’ the North-South divide actually means levelling up London’s roads.

Rather then fill in any holes Harper continued to dig them for himself with these follow up tweets.

Needless to say they went down like a cup of cold sick. Many commentators pointing out the gaslighting here. ‘Network North’ now covers the whole of the UK, apparently! None of this money exists and there’s a huge elephant in the room that Harper is deliberately ignoring. It was a footnote on page 24 of the risible ‘Network North’ fantasy list.

What business cases? Fantasy projects don’t have them and never will.

Clearly, the Tories have given up any pretense of being honest or credible. They really are just taking the piss out of people. No-one with half a brain falls for this stuff. You have to wonder what they were thinking when they produced this stuff. I feel sorry for the decent people working for the Department of Transport who’re having their reputations besmirched by association with this crap.

The derision at this idiotic attempt at currying favour with London motorists whilst alienating the rest of the UK is still spreading. I can’t wait to see what stupid stunt they come up with next! It’s worth remembering that Harper and Co recently announced they were giving Transport for London just £250m of the £500m funding TfL had requested. Now suddenly there’s another £235m available for London. Anyone smell a rat?

Meanwhile, if you’re a Tory voter who lives anywhere outside London and the South-East, all I can say is – what on earth are you thinking? They’re taking the piss out of you too…

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

19th December picture(s) of the day…

19 Tuesday Dec 2023

Posted by in Food and drink, Halifax, Hs2, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, West Yorkshire

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

It’s been another mixed-fortunes sort of day here at Bigland Towers. Unlike yesterday where I didn’t even set foot outside the door this morning I walked into Halifax in order to get the frames for my glasses changed. The old new ones had worn very rapidly, so Specsavers agreed to exchange them for new ones which (hopefully) wear a little better. Whilst I was in town I took the opportunity to have a wander around, enjoy the atmosphere and indulge in a spot of Xmas shopping. Nowadays Halifax has a far nicer feel to it than nearby Huddersfield. Partly due to the town’s new-found status as a tourist attraction thanks to TV programmes like ‘Gentlemen Jack and ‘Last Tango in Halifax – and of course the fabulous Piece Hall. That said, there’s still a lot of the old working-class Halifax left in the form of the towns denizens. One thing that struck me was the amount of smokers (admittedly, mostly elderly) sucking on fags as they wandered between shops. That’s something that was very different to my recent trips back to London. Sure, you have smokers there too but many are tourists – and the population’s numbered in several millions, not less than 100,000 the way Halifax is!

Having swapped my frames and found some presents by chance I called into the old market to pick up a rare treat. There’s a Thai cafe in the old market hall that sells the Northern Thai dish called Kow Soi. You rarely see it on Thai restaurant menus and it’s one of my favourites, so I couldn’t resist. Having walked back home I’ve spent the rest of the day sorting out various strands of work as well as updating old and publishing new blogs. I’ve a few more backdated scribbles in the pipeline once I can dig out the archive pictures but I suspect they’ll have to wait until the new year.

This evening’s been spent gritting my teeth to resist shouting at the TV following Rishi Sunak’s latest appalling performance in front of a House of Commons Committee. Sunak’s billed by his supporters as a ‘details man’. Yet, when questioned he has the attention span of a Goldfish (‘I can’t recollect’) or he just makes stuff up, then falls apart and blusters when questioned by someone with a bit of nous and persistence. He’s shifty and evasive, whilst acting like he’s the CEO of UK PLC and how dare anyone question his authority? He was hung out to dry several times, including over HS2, the rail union RMT tweeted this which hits the nail squarely on the head.

Sunak then on the make the outrageous claim that the bit of HS2 he hasn’t cancelled ‘triples’ capacity on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) which is a blatant lie – especially as Sunak’s done his best to make sure HS2 doesn’t get to Euston! There’s not one iota of factual evidence anywhere to substantiate that claim, but that’s classic Sunak. Say something that isn’t true then claim it was your ‘recollection’ (or not, if you’re denying something) – and the truth and facts be damned.

On the bright side, tonight there was more signs that the country is getting sick of these shysters. Whilst the media’s been concentrating on Miriam Cates, the latest right-wing Tory MP likely to fall foul of Parliamentary Standards, one of the other 7 Tory MPs under investigation has been booted out through a recall petition. Peter Bone, another rabid Brexiter and all-round bad egg had been suspended from Parliament for some weeks. 13.5% of his constituents signed the recall petition (the threshold is 10%) so he’s out and a by-election will be held in the New Year.

Right, time to go, so here’s today’s picture, which is of the Thai cafe in Halifax market. With prices like this for such delicious food and great portion sizes, why would you say no?

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

12th December picture of the day…

12 Tuesday Dec 2023

Posted by in Calder Valley, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, West Yorkshire

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

It’s been another day spent cooped up in Bigland Towers for me although Dawn’s gradual recovery from the lurgi has enabled her to fly the coop and head off to meet her colleagues at the Community Rail Network in Huddersfield for the day.

Mind you, I’ve not missed much. We’ve had thick, low cloud throughout the day here in the Calder Valley. Initially I thought it was fog but this afternoon, after finishing penning my latest article for RAIL magazine I ventured down into Sowerby Bridge. After dropping a hundred meters I realised that actually, it wasn’t fog – I’d been in cloud level all day! I must admit, I’m beginning to tire of the endless dull days and wet weather. It saps the soul after a while. That’s why I’m looking forward to being able to get out and about more from today. I’ve still got stuff to do that requires the mobile office, but that can be done on the move as I don’t need the reference materials that line my office shelves. The only question’s going to be – where to go? Where’s the weather going to play ball? The answer seems to be – go West…

An attraction in that direction is that whilst Northern trains no longer have any diagrammed work for their shrinking fleet of class 319 trains (more of the fleet have gone for scrap already) several sets still get pressed into daily use between Liverpool-Wigan-Manchester and Blackpool. Maybe one last spin and photographs?

As I type this the news has just come in of the latest Tory psychodrama in Parliament. Sunak’s managed to get his Rwanda bill passed with a majority of 44. This is no victory, there’s lots more stages in the process which will drag out for a long time yet. Parliament goes into Christmas recess on the 19th December and doesn’t return until January 8th. The farce will drag on for months, then there’s consideration of the bill by the House of Lords who are almost certain to reject it in its present form (if the Commons don’t beat them to it after the Committee stage). It’s madness – utter madness. How can the Tories govern the country when they can’t even govern themselves? Whilst the rest of the country is bothered about real issues, like the economy, climate change, the NHS and more, the Tories are now stuck in an endless Rwanda loop. Of course, some backbench Tories will be very happy about this as it brings them into the limelight – especially those ‘red wall’ Tories like Miriam Cates (Penistone and Stocksbridge) with wafer-thin majorities who’re going to be binned on current polling projections. They know the Government’s toast. They’re just hoping a spell centre-stage might just save their own skins.

Expect little political or economic cheers this Christmas. The Government’s caught in a death-spiral and Sunak doesn’t have the nous to get himself out of it. Just look at his recent evidence to the Covid enquiry. Sunak was ‘bigged up’ by the Tories as a man with attention to detail. In contast, his evidence to the enquiry showed up a man with none at all. A man with such selective amnesia he couldn’t remember going to meetings, what was said in briefings, or even what direct advice he was given. As for Whatsapp messages – FFS! How is it Sunak and Johnson are the only people on the planet whose Whatsapp messages disappear when they change phones? They’re taking the piss! If Sunak ever writes his memoirs it’s going to be the thinnest book ever as the man can’t remember a bloody thing…

OK, time to go. I’ll leave you with a picture taken a few years ago. This is what the Calder valley is meant to look like – when it’s not got its head in the clouds! This is the view over Sowerby Bridge and the valley looking West from atop the Wainhouse Tower adjacent to our house, taken in August 2019.

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