As we’re two weeks into the eviction of the final Hs2Rebellion shit-tip – sorry, ‘protection camp’ I thought I’d give you a brief update of what’s been going on as even the tunnelers supporters have got bored and stopped turning up on a regular basis.
Three days ago the bailiffs gained access to the single tunnel’s down shaft and continue with the preparations to remove the handful of occupants. There’s no rush, because the useless tunnelers aren’t in anyone’s way as the tunnel isn’t anywhere near an active HS2 worksite!
Despite all their bluster and braggadocio it seems pretty clear that the penny’s dropped with the muppets in the tunnel and they’ve twigged that protests against HS2 have been a complete waste of time. Now they try and make out that their protest is more about new Government legislation and well, ‘stuff’. It’s reminiscent of Marlon Brando in the film ‘The Wild One’ where Mildred asks his character (Johnny) “Hey, Johnny, what are you rebelling against?” and Johnny replies “Whaddya got?” These people are serial protesters who have a rag-bag of ’causes’ which they switch between without any intellectual coherence or real understanding of the issues. It’s one of the reasons they’ve always been so ineffective.
Talking of ineffective, our old fantasist friend Mark Keir finally turned up again to record an overlong diatribe (12 minutes of repetition, deviation and hesitation) from outside the camp. Keir’s latest obsession was the fact that piling work was to be carried out adjacent to the Chiltern railway running alongside the site of the squatters old camp. Keir couldn’t see any piling rig, so in a masterpiece of pointless speculation decided that the work must have been called off by HS2 Ltd due to the proximity of the tunnel and its occupants, but how dare they still keep the railway closed as this would inconvenience the locals! As usual, this has left Keir with enough egg all over his face to have fed the tunnelers all weekend!
Hmm, 46 shares. Not exactly setting the world of social media alight, are they?
Why? Because the piling rig was already parked up a few hundred metres away. Work’s begun on schedule and is progressing without any interruption, as one local resident’s pointed out. Poor Keir, he just can’t help himself! The rule of thumb now is that as soon as he asserts something you know the opposite will happen!
Meanwhile, HS2 contractors continue to clear up the mess these ‘eco-warriors’ have created (as highlighted by @bucksmart) although this will take some time as there’s tonnes of the stuff – as I illustrated in my last blog on the subject.
Bereft of anything positive to report and keep their bored followers entertained the protesters Facebook and other social media channels are being filled with as much crap as the Wendover camp was! Part of their problem is the tiny group in the tunnel (estimated at 4 in number) aren’t producing any content as they’re completely cut-off from any outside support so are running low on battery power and any other form of resupply. Instead, pre-recorded, garbled messages of justification are mixed with short snips of new footage of them trapped like rats (see above) or other stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with the HS2 protests at all, just adverts for other causes. At this rate GBNews (‘the gammon channel’) will have more viewers than HS2Rebellion!
So, the farce drags on. The fat lady’s gone for a fag and a wee between acts, but the finale can’t be long coming…
24th October UPDATE.
Bailiffs have been busy and broken into the protesters useless tunnel from a separate shaft, leaving the handful down there hopelessly compromised and with nowhere to go. The fat lady’s reaching for the throat-spray…
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
There was always a dull predictability about what was going to happen at the last remaining anti Hs2 squatter camp, laughably named the Wendover ‘active resistance’ camp. How a tiny handful of people retreating into a hole in the ground until they’re dug out by bailiffs can be classed as ‘active resistance’ is a mystery but then everything about the protesters campaign has been about them writing metaphorical cheques they couldn’t possibly cash. They boasted they were going to stop the biggest construction project in Europe, but in reality, they couldn’t even stop themselves being evicted from any of their squalid camps, much less stop HS2!
The eviction of Wendover began eight days ago. Last Sunday in fact. In that time, the three sites that made up their camp have all been secured by bailiffs and the handful of occupants have been evicted, bar the small group who are now holed-up underground, who look to number less than half a dozen people. All their boasts about holding out for ‘months’ are looking increasingly hollow. The tower they’d built over their sole tunnel (the boasts of more than one tunnel were false, as usual) lasted less than a week, despite their claims that it was so reinforced with barbed wire and other obstacles that it would be a real challenge to demolish. The truth is, a few upper middle-class kids playing ‘eco-warriors’ was never going to be a match for a team of bailiffs – many of whom are ex-military. Yesterday, the final occupant who remained above ground was cut free from his ‘lock-on’ and given his marching orders. The young man, whose name is Tristan (why do I get the impression he’s not from a working class background? Ed) was interviewed for a ‘livestream’ on the HS2Rebellion Facebook page by the increasing ridiculous sounding Mark Keir. Tristan (who sounds every bit as posh as his name suggests) was hardly impressive and seemed to be very happy his jolly jape was over so he could collect his car from the nearby car park and drive home!
With the last protesters holed-up in their tunnel the bailiffs and HS2 contractors have been examining the camp to ensure there’s nobody left. I’ve obtained some pictures of the site which show that these ‘environmentalists’ have left the place a shit-tip. It looks more like a junkyard than the eco-nirvana they pretended they’d turned it into. Take a look.
Needless to say, taxpayers (local and national) will end up paying to have this vermin attracting mess removed and disposed of in an environmental way. Not that this is the first time. Every camp these ‘environmentalists’ have been evicted from or abandoned have looked like this to a greater or lessor extent. The damage these people have created compared to their grandiose claims about ‘protecting’ the environment is a joke. I wonder what some of the mugs who’ve been persuaded to fund the protesters through various crowdfunders think about the reality shown in these pictures, rather than the ‘cute, cuddly and eco-friendly’ image the squatters try and project? Of course, one could also ask what damage the useless tunnel they’ve dug has done to the root systems of the trees around it? A number of trees have had to be severely pruned (at Denham) or removed (at Euston) because of the actions of these people.
No doubt the joke will continue for a little while yet, although it’s obvious from the viewing figures for Mark Keir’s livestreams and the hits on the HS2rebellion Facebook page that most people have lost interest. I’m sure that many people who log on to listen to Keir speak are only doing so to see what ridiculous lie he’s going to come out with next! One of the latest bits of craziness is Keir’s claim that HS2 is going to cause the Grand Union canal to dry up!
The numbers of people turning up to ‘support’ the protesters by standing on the side of the A413 has been rather embarrassing too. Most days it’s been around a dozen – and all the usual suspects whose faces are familiar from other pointless protests around the Chilterns. I expect this number to dwindle even further now there’s nothing to see as the tower’s demolished, the protesters are hiding in a tunnels and the fence has been covered over to block the view. Now, the only question is how long this farce will drag out for before the last few in the tunnel give up or are dug out.
How many days of work on HS2 have been lost because of this. A big fat ZERO as the Wendover camp isn’t even on the route of HS2 – as this map shows. The location of the camp is circled in red.
Sandwiched between the A413 and the existing Chiltern railway it’s outside any of the HS2 construction sites. The protesters could stay in their useless tunnel till Doomsday without affecting HS2 in any way!
Away from this circus HS2 construction’s really ramping up. On Wednesday I’ll be visiting the construction sites at Euston to bring you updates on the work there. I doubt I’ll be blogging about Wendover again until the waste of time protest is over. The fat lady’s song will soon be coming to an end. I’ll bring you an update from her curtain call…
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
It’s just as well I promised not to give you a day by day account of the eviction of the Wendover squatters as I’m not sure I could have sat through hours of their turgid ‘livestreams’ and rambling commentaries that would make GBNews (the ‘gammon channel’) seem interesting.
Most of the videos posted on the HS2rebellion Facebook page have come from that fantasist Mark Keir. I did recommend that *if* you had to watch them to do it with the sound turned down. Sadly for me, I’ve had to endure his unhinged ramblings so that you don’t have to. Apart from the general lying through his teeth about the impact of HS2 on the environment the general rule of thumb with Keir is that if he asserts or suggests something in his commentary you know the opposite will actually happen. A few days ago he claimed that the bailiffs were packing up for the day because they were moving a cherry-picker. A short while later they’d plucked the last remaining tree protesters out of a bath stuck up said item of foliage. The other day he claimed an Inspector from the Health and Safety Inspectorate was going to stop all the work because it was ‘dangerous’. A few minutes later the cherry-picker was back in action, resuming demolishing the only Tower on the site! Oh, and never trust a man who spends so much time laughing at his own (unfunny) jokes! One thing I’ve noticed and a trend that’s continued since the start of the eviction is how few people tune in to watch these tedious livestreams. They never get into triple figures. When you consider that some of the folk dipping in to observe will be supporters, not opponents of HS2 these numbers are appalling, but predictable. A lot of HS2rebellion supporters have moved on after defeat after defeat.
Frankly, the last few days have been an embarrassment for HS2Rebellion. Despite all the ‘calls to arms’ from people like Keir, no-one, apart from a handful of the usual suspects, have turned up to stand helplessly on the opposite side of the A413 to ‘bear witness’. Whilst Keir and Co have focused on the slow demolition of the tower over the only tunnel on the site which is held by less than 10 people, they’ve deliberately ignored what’s happening on other areas of the three sites that make up the camp but one of their number let it slip in his livestream. Iain Oliver (aka ‘Pirate’), who’s been evicted from several camps (most recently the completely useless Wormwood Scrubs squat) filmed the dereliction and destruction of what appeared to be the main camp through the fence. This part of the camp was allegedly meant to remain untouched as one of the protesters – who faces several serious charges unconnected to her HS2 activities – had been remanded on bail to that address. The fact the bailiffs are now taking possession of that part of the begs the question as what’s happened to said person, as the other protestors aren’t even mentioning them anymore. Has ‘Yogi’ done a runner?
This leaves the ‘tower’ and the only tunnel on site which lies beneath it. Both appear to be occupied by around half a dozen people. The bailiffs are taking their time scrapping the tower before they can get to the tunnel, but why wouldn’t they? There’s no hurry. The camp isn’t in the way of any work. It’s not stopped any HS2 construction anywhere. Plus, there’s only ever going to be one result.
Because half a dozen people cut off from the real world on a site that’s not even needed to built HS2 was always going to stop HS2…
No doubt this farce will drag on for a while yet, but it’s achieving nothing other than wasting time and money. If anything of any note happens I’ll do an update. In the meantime expect a blog next week from somewhere where the real action is – the HS2 construction sites at Euston…
Meanwhile, the fat lady’s in fine voice and enjoying her last hurrah…
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Tempting as it is to lapse into a ‘Big Brother’ style spoof (“it’s day two in the Wendover house”) I refrain from succumbing! This is only going to be a short blog anyway as little of interest has happened. The bailiffs and police have the site secured with a literal ring of steel, having it all fenced off. Access was always made difficult by the fact the squatter camp was bounded by the Chiltern railway to the West and the A413 to the East. Sneaking in was never going to be easy and now the remaining occupants are cut off from their tiny bunch of supporters, few of whom turned up today.
This morning less then a dozen of the usual suspects (Keir, Thompson-Smith et al) spent their time in a pointless stunt outside Bucks County Council offices ‘demanding answers’ as to why the CC had leased the land to HS2 to carry out the eviction.
The selection process for the Golgafrincham B Ark – sorry – the HS2Rebellion protesters outside the Bucks CC office this morning. I’ll bet staff were quaking in their boots! As for ‘local’ Mark Keir (one of the 9) lives in West Drayton in the London Borough of Hillingdon. Who knows where some of the others have been drafted in from.
It was the same tired and trite diatribe and bluster about how everyone, HS2, the County Council, the bailiffs, the police, the courts – and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all – were colluding and acting ‘illegally’. In fact, the *only* people who were supposedly acting legally were the protesters! It’s a bit like an unfunny version of ‘Carry on Cleo’ with Keir in the part of Kenneth Williams, shouting “infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it infamy!”
A weary Council Officer was sent out to talk to the protesters and listen to their nonsense. No doubt a reply will be drafted laying out in legal detail the reality of the situation – to which Keir and co will respond in true pantomime fashion with ‘oh no – it isn’t’! – and the curtain will rise on the next farcical act as none of this will change a thing.
A video has appeared on Youtube with Mark Keir, who went full Goebbels on camera to Sky News. His fantastical claims have become more and more unhinged. HS2 will drain the Grand Union Canal and destroy drinking water? He seriously thinks people will fall for this stuff? Keir and Co have got to the stage now where they’ll literally claim anything as they know the game’s up.
Of course, while their pantomime was in Aylesbury there was no-one to bother the bailiffs, who just got on with the job of assessing the site and working out how many protesters might be playing their pointless game of hide and seek. There’s obviously no rush to get them out as they’re not interrupting any construction work in the slightest – which is why this camp (like the Euston one) is utterly pointless. Plus, the longer this drags on the more of the tiny bunch who turn up outside will get bored and drift away. There’s little in the way of boastful livestreams or posts coming from inside the camp either, so the keyboard warrior voyeurs who normally feed off this stuff have little to send ‘love and rage’ about (unless you get off on a 14 sec, close cropped vid of someone eating out of a can). Euston or Denham this ain’t, it’s all going to be a bit boring and tedious. So I won’t be doing daily updates, merely try and keep a tally of how many have been evicted and when it’s all over.
Meanwhile, the fat lady’s in fine voice, even if it’s a comic opera she’s singing in!
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
I woke up to the news this morning that HS2 contractors, police and bailiffs had begun the long-awaited eviction of the last anti HS2 squatters camp remaining on phase 1, the risibly named “active resistance” camp outside of Wendover, Buckinghamshire.
As it’s situated alongside the busy A413 road the operation’s begun on a Sunday in order to lessen the disturbance to locals (most of whom will only be too glad to see the back of the squatters). It’s difficult to say at this stage how few people are still occupying the camp but the numbers are small – as can be judged from the absence of comments and livestreamed videos from inside the camp compared to previous evictions. As news of the eviction has spread on social media a few more people have attended but as they can’t get into the camp they’re doing little other than creating a nuisance to traffic!
Events are unfolding on the HS2 Rebellion Facebook page where some videos are being posted, but they make it clear that the squatters and their few friends watching outside are vastly outnumbered. A large number of the familiar faces who were the ‘hard-core’ of the protesters are noticeably absent. Currently, the bailiffs are repossessing areas of the woods and erecting fencing. There’s very little in the way of confrontations as even the squatters seem to have realised the futility of their actions. The numbers watching the videos are also markedly down from previous events, which suggests many of the keyboard warriors and armchair activists have lost interest as the result is only going to go one way. None of the livestreams have had viewers above double-figures! Mind you, as the one’s on the Rebellion FB page are from fantasist and liar Mark Keir (the Walter Mirtty type who claimed to have watched the Roald Dahl tree being cut down in Jones’ Hill Woods) that’s hardly surprising. His commentary’s so away with the fairies you’re better watching the videos with the sound off!
I’ll keep you informed of how things progress as it could be several days before the farce is finally over.Whenever that is, it can’t change the fact that the ‘rebellion’ against HS2 was always more bluster than fact. It took little more than a year for the protests to collapse in ignominy. Now the fat lady’s singing…
UPDATE: Sunday evening.
It’s only day 1 of the eviction and already some of the handful of squatters have been removed. One left of their own accord as they were feeling ‘unwell’ and another two were removed from a bathtub up a tree! I mean, seriously? a bathtub up a tree? The camp has been established for two years and if that’s the best they can come up with. Needless to say, the bailiffs soon pulled the plug on them!
The farce will continue tomorrow and for a few days hence. However long it takes doesn’t really matter as (like the Euston tunnels) this camp isn’t stopping construction of HS2 in the slightest. Oh, if you are tempted to watch any of the videos on Facebook, I would seriously recommend turning the sound down if the commentator is Mark Keir! He’s made a tedious ass of himself as usual today, at one point claiming ‘victory’ because a cherry-picker was being moved so (according to him) the eviction was over for the day – only for said cherry-picker to then pluck the pair from the bathtub! Keir reminds me of the old adage – “How do you know when he’s lying? His lips move”!
Just how away with the fairies these people are is demonstrated by this earlier tweet from an old face. “Boots” (aka William) – the ‘eco-warrior’ who’s recently flown back to the UK from one of his regular jaunts to Spain.
Apart from the fact you can file this under ‘it never happened’ the idea that these people (who have minimal supplies as the donations have been running out) can hold out for ‘months’ is hilarious! You just know this tweet isn’t going to age well…
So, turn down the sound (you won’t learn anything factual) and pull up the popcorn as the eviction unfolds over the next few days…
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
It’s several months seen I’ve done one of these, mainly because there’s so few people left protesting against HS2 now that their campaign’s collapsed. Finally, the tiny bunch of squatters at the risibly named Wendover ‘active resistance’ camp have remembered what their camp’s named and decided they better do something other than sit around bumming money via the internet whilst waiting to be evicted.
Come the hour cometh the man! Step forward ‘Drew Robson’ (not his real name, just the one he uses on Facebook), who, along with another person, decided to repeat their old tactic of blocking the entrance to the nearby HS2 work compound by fastening themselves to a ‘lock-on’ (a barrel filled with concrete that’s meant to make it hard for them to be moved).
There was only one tiny problem. Drew’s useless at this. He once glued his hands together through a gate in another ‘cunning plan’ that was an abject failure as the gate he chose wasn’t actually being used by anyone. Clearly, learning from his mistakes isn’t his forte? Why? Well, the comments to this post on the HS2 Rebellion Facebook page rather give the game away…
When HS2rebellion tried to defend this stunt as bringing attention that a ‘fight’ against HS2 was still happening, Aron went on to explain further..
Yep, ‘Drew’ has got it wrong again! What the protesters fail to explain to their gullible audience is that HS2 compounds usually have far more than one gate and the ‘main’ gates are always staffed 24/7, making these stunts rather difficult.
So, Drew (and his friend) have achieved the sum total of sod-all. Again. Their sole achievement has been to block some poor person’s driveway!
‘Drew’ will possibly get arrested again, but as he’s already got a recent conviction for aggravated trespass and criminal damage at another HS2 site I can’t imagine the Magistrates will be terribly impressed with him reappearing. What a waste of everyone’s time. To put this silly stunt in perspective, there’s currently over 300 active worksites on phase 1 of HS2. Many have several entrances/exits. Blocking one (unused) entrance for a couple of hours is just pis*ing in the wind.
UPDATE.
By early afternoon the whole silly stunt was at an end. Despite the best efforts of HS2rebellion to ‘big up’ the farce more knowledgeable locals kept bursting their bubble.
No doubt their Facebook friends and other ‘keyboard warriors will swallow the ‘main gate’ nonsense hook, line and sinker, but more enquiring minds might look at another of the pictures posted on the Rebellion Facebook page and say “that is a *main* gate? Really, at that width? You’re not going to get any wide loads through there, and where’s the site office?”
I had to laugh when ‘Drew’ posted this on his Facebook page earlier.
‘Disruption’? What disruption – unless you count the poor person who’s driveway was blocked! If today’s farce was a ‘complete success’ I hate to think what failure looks like!
UPDATE.
The farce just gets better. After persistent pointing out from locals HS2 ‘rebellion’ finally admit that they were lying when they claimed this was the ‘main entrance’ and all they’ve done is inconvenience a local old lady! Still, it must be reassuring for her to knew that she ‘wasn’t the point’. Answers on a postcard please as to what the point really was…
2023 Update.
After Wendover was evicted ‘Drew’ pitched up at the ‘bluebell’ camp in Staffordshire where he continued with the same daft publicity stunts that achieved the sum total of naff all, other than gull a few people who continued to donate to crowdfunders under the mistaken belief muppets like ‘Drew’ were actually stopping HS2. The truth was these ‘cupid stunts’ failed to achieve anything other than waste time and money. The ‘rebellion’ collapsed completely in 2022 and now Drew (like all the other professional protesters) has drifted off to other causes. He’s currently achieving nothing in the Manchester area where he’s attached himself to the pro-Palestinian cause. HS2rebellion now exist in name only. A few kids still have access to the social media accounts and publish whatever make-believe or newspaper articles they can find that are critical of HS2, but that’s all they’re doing.
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/
Remember this list of Hs2rebellion (what ‘rebellion’? Ed) protection camps from last month? Well, you can scratch another one off the list. The barely functional and utterly pointless Wormwood Scrubs camp is no more!
Having been served with an eviction notice the squatters were ordered to demolish the mess of pallet towers and other structures they’d cluttered a corner of the scrubs with. As they didn’t have the numbers to put up any resistance they’ve meekly complied. Of course, they couldn’t have done this without the aid of the local authority who’re having to cart away the mess they’ve made at local taxpayers expense. Here’s a picture from their Facebook live feed today, which was filmed yesterday.
The remains of the Tower they’d spent ages building that was completely useless. I wonder what the Environmental Impact Assessment was for this pile of junk? Here’s how it looked when I visited the site at the end of August.
To say their camp was a complete waste of time is an understatement. They never stopped any of the work that HS2 contractors are undertaking to divert a sewer. You can see what’s actually happening on Wormwood Scrubs here. Here’s a map showing the extent of the area temporarily affected. The squatters camp was in the hatched area at the top right hand side of the map.
Now the new access road has been completed the temporary track matting is being removed, allowing the grassland to recover. The map also puts into perspective the ridiculous claims of the protesters that HS2 is ‘destroying’ Wormwood Scrubs! Only a tiny area is being hoarded off whilst the sewer’s diverted and once the work’s completed this will be returned to nature.
The removal of the Scrubs camp brings an end to the sorry tale of anti HS2 protests in London which have singularly failed to stop anything – just as they’ve failed everywhere else on the route. Now there’s just one (equally useless) camp left on the Phase 1 route, the laughably named ‘active resistance’ camp near Wendover. This has also been served with an eviction notice and the clearance of this final camp is expected anytime. I suspect that – despite the blustering name, there’ll be little resistance when the bailiffs move in! Sadly, local taxpayers will be left to pick up the bill once more for clearing up the mess left by these faux ‘environmentalists’. The one success Hs2Rebellion and the protesters have had is in wasting millions of pounds of other people’s money, both taxpayers and the mugs who’ve coughed up tens of thousands of pounds to support them through crowdfunding, none of which has never ever been accounted for…
It will be interesting to see how HS2Rebellion spin this latest failure in their fortnightly newsletter, which is due out today. I expect it’ll make ‘Comical Ali seem reasoned and objective!
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
What a difference a year makes! The summer of 2020 was full of stories of the rag-bag of Anarchists, professional-protesters, Extinction Rebellion supporters and a few local Nimbys who’d rallied to the “HS2Rebellion” banner. So-called ‘protection’ camps were set up in or by woodland and battles ensued with HS2 Ltd staff and security as the protesters boasted of how they were going to stop HS2 ‘in its tracks’. They made grandiose claims about the levels of support they had, none of which ever materialised as most were ‘keyboard warriors’ who’d send ‘love and rage’ (one of their favourite slogans) over the internet as they watched yet another interminable livestream from the protests.
Move on a year and the picture’s very different. Having suffered failure after failure, a series of camp evictions and arrests of most of the hard-core of the protesters, their campaign’s collapsed. Now the surviving ‘protection camps’ are little more than squats, where people are holed-up but doing nothing of any consequence to affect work on HS2, much less stop it. Right now, many of the handful of folk from the remaining camps are pratting around with Extinction Rebellion in Central London, which means they’re nowhere near HS2! Here’s a look at the supposed camp network, taken from HS2Rebellion’s website today. I’ve marked the true situation with the camps on each one.
As you can see, the ‘high profile’ camps like Euston, Harvil Rd and Crackley were cleared some time ago. The only one remaining in London’s the squat at Wormwood Scrubs. This scruffy encampment partly burned down a couple of days ago, prompting the local Council to finally lose patience with the few squatters remaining (who’ve never stopped any HS2 work at the site) and serve them with a 24-hour eviction notice yesterday! The irony? No-one was at the camp at the time as the handful of occupants weren’t trying to stop HS2, they were too busy pratting around with their chums from XR in Central London.
The mess in Euston Gardens back in October 2020 before the protesters started erecting bigger structures to cover their abortive tunneling efforts.
The Wendover camp on the A413 hangs on for now. It too has been served with eviction papers and will be cleared anytime soon. Whether the occupants try and ‘put up a fight’ or go meekly is open to question but the final result isn’t. They’ve been a small thorn in the side of the project (and annoyance to the local population, who got fed up of the thefts and begging) so no-one will be sad to see them go.
Jones’ Hill woods was the last ‘hurrah’ of their campaign. Activists like the serially failed Mark Keir bluffed, blustered and lied about how they were stopping HS2 through strength of numbers and court cases, but Keir’s always written metaphorical cheques he couldn’t cash. The court cases failed and the few protesters on the ground never stood any serious hope of stopping work. Now the woods are deserted as the work HS2 needed to do felling some trees is almost complete. Like most of the original Harvil Rd protesters Keir himself has disappeared, despite having a court case against him from earlier protests dismissed.
The ‘New Poors Piece’ camp is also deserted. It was always an odd one as it’s not on the route of HS2 but on the edge of the E-W Rail line, it’s just that HS2 Ltd are carrying out the work their on behalf of the EW project. So, in fact, the protesters were protesting about the very thing they claimed to support – new E-W railways! Hypocritical, much? The camp was only set up because the land was owned by a sympathetic farmer! Like many of their other locations, the protesters have left the woods in a mess. Abandoned towers choke the trees and the place looks more like a dump than a woods. The hypocrisy of these faux ‘environmentalists was always weapons-grade.
Looking more like a ‘scrapheap challenge’ than an eco-camp, these are the structures the protesters have abandoned in Poors Piece woods – which wasn’t even on the route of HS2!
Lazily, HS2Rebellion show ‘Camp Isla’ as active. Situated on private land, the owners had the camp evicted in May! They went without a struggle and most have now disappeared.
The last on the list is Bluebell Woods, which is located in HS2 phase 2a to Crewe. As usual, the protesters have spent all their time building structures out of pallets and other tat. Not that they’ve got much else to do other than get splinters in their backsides – the main HS2 Civils work isn’t due to start in this area until 2024!
Threats of other camps on Phase 2a remain just that, threats. Mainly because there’s so few of the original activists left. Most have drifted off to other causes or gone back into mainstream education or society. Of course, there’s still many court cases pending which will cramp the ‘style’ of the remaining ‘hard core’ of protesters (most of whom are linked to Extinction Rebellion) but they’re powerless to do anything. Plus, the money tap’s been turned off. People who used to donate to keep the camps alive have finally got fed up of seeing their money wasted. Now, you mostly see ‘activists’ begging for personal funding via Crowdfunders or other means (so that you can’t see how much is actually donated). Here’s good illustration of what I’m talking about. Here’s ‘peaceful’ protester Ross Monaghan throwing in the towel and begging for money at the same time.
Ironically, Ross, who was convicted of two charges of assault and four charges of criminal damage last month was hilariously boasting about putting the ‘final nail’ in HS2’s coffin earlier in the month (whilst begging for money). Now it seems the nail that was driven was into his protest career! Some ‘building’ campaign…
Here’s an example of how the money’s started to dry up. This is a funding page for the soon to be evicted (and laughably named) ‘active’ resistance camp at Wendover. It never got near its target and there’s been one donation of just £5 in a month. Social media is littered with pages like this.
Now the bird-nesting season’s coming to an end and the few remaining trees that HS2 need to remove on Phase 1 will be felled. With no-one around to stop the work it won’t take long. A few locals might still film the work to ‘bare-witness’ as the protesters like to call it, but all their bluster about all the ‘wildlife crimes’ HS2 has allegedly committed hasn’t resulted in a single prosecution – never mind a conviction. It’s funny, despite the amount of camera-phone footage filmed by the protesters they never ever managed to catch any evidence for any of their claims that would actually stand up in court. I suspect all these grandiose but baseless claims are one of the reasons support has dropped away.
I’m sure the posturing around the protests will drag on for a while yet, but already Hs2rebellion seem to be losing interest. With nothing to report, their ‘news’ letter has gone fortnightly. Even then, it’s pretty thin gruel. Like Hs2aa and Stophs2 before them they’re reduced to being a recycling service, punting any critical article about HS2 they can to try and keep flagging interest going.
Stop Hs2 is dead.
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Personally, I preferred the Eurhythmics version myself, but I have to admit the latest caterwauling from the opponents of HS2 in the form of the self-appointed ‘tree-protectors’ who’ve wasted so much time and money getting nowhere when it comes to stopping HS2 is actually quite revealing. This long thread (featuring all the usual suspects) has appeared on the ‘stopHs2’ Facebook page!
It seems that little old me has upset them again and the mask of them being ‘peaceful’ and non-violent’ has well and truly slipped!
I applied to join one of their groups to post a riposte to this abject load of nonsense I blogged about a couple of days ago. I didn’t hide who I was as I thought the reaction might be interesting. After all, they believe in ‘free speech’, don’t they? Obviously not – and a lot more besides. Go get some popcorn before you start reading…
My, what nice people! Oh, but wait, it gets better…For clarification, ‘Carl Woods’ is the pseudonym of one Caroline Thompson Smith, who’s from Steeple Claydon. I’ve blogged about her before, here and here aanndd… here! Caroline has appeared to have deleted her own Facebook account to use the fake one instead. Still, she sounds like a nice woman when she thinks she’s amongst friends and she’s not being all smarmy to HS2 staff in her livestreams, doesn’t she?
Brent Poland is the serially failed Green Party candidate whom I’ve blogged about here. The remarks from Mark Keir (another serially failed Green Party candidate) look curious. “Delete” me? What can he possibly mean? Take a look at this (expanded) explanation. “I want HIM deleted”.
My, that’s very peaceful and non-violent, isn’t it? Mark Keir is one of the leading lights (that’s not saying much: Ed) of the HS2 ‘rebellion’ who’s spent several years lying about HS2, most famously claiming he watched the tree that inspired Roald Dahl to write ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ actually being cut down by HS2 contractors in Jones’ Hill Woods. It was complete cobblers of course, as I revealed in this blog.
Keir has a habit of being very abusive to HS2 staff on camera, then acting all aggrieved if anyone ever answers back. Meanwhile, back at that thread it seems they also want to burn me…
And there’s more…
You have to laugh at them moaning about ‘shutting down opposition’ whilst they’re all saying the opposition to them (me) should be shut down (permanently, according to Keir)! Hypocritical, much? But that’s the protesters for you – free speech only applies to them, apparently…
What a nice bunch of people they sound! Remember that next time you hear someone wanting to donate money to this bunch of anarchists and fantasists, because all they’re doing is harm. Harm to the woods they’re supposedly protecting, and harm to the HS2 contactors who’re merely going about their jobs. They have a habit of stirring up hate wherever they go and this shows what’s beneath the mask they try and wear. Now that their campaign’s collapsed that mask gets dropped more and more often. Soon they’ll be scattered to the four winds – and good riddance…
UPDATE. 1st August.
Some more ‘nice’ people popped in to add their pennorth and support freedom of information and the right to free speech, or not…
They really don’t seem to able to put down that shovel. Here are the latest diatribes from these lovely people! With such erudition and ambition, how could they possibly have failed so dismally to stop HS2?
UPDATE: 2nd August.
Meanwhile, the fantasies and accusations get even more bizarre from these ‘freedom of speech’ loving people! I do chuckle at the ‘accusation’ – otherwise known as ‘let’s just make stuff up’! Plus, what an utterly bizarre accusation Keir’s dreamt up but then the poor chap’s always had a vivid imagination as well as a tenuous grasp on reality!
UPDATE. 7th August 2021.
Talking of ‘non-violent’. I see one of the ‘non-violent’ protesters from Jones’ Hill Woods has been up in court this week. The Bucks Free Press reported that Ross Monaghan, 38, assaulted two HS2 security guards and damaged fences at the ancient woodland site between November last year and February this year. Monaghan was found guilty of two counts of assault and four counts of criminal damage. He was ordered to pay £775 in costs and £50 to each of the guards he assaulted. I believe Monaghan still has other court cases pending…
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Just as you know that night follows day you know that when those who oppose HS2 resort to the courts, it’s only going to end one way – and so it was again yesterday.
Firstly, a bit of background. The group of protesters who’ve remained camped in part of Jones’ Hill woods after being evicted from the part of the woods required to build HS2 managed to raise crowdfunded money to challenge Natural England bat licenses which were granted on March 31st, allowing HS2 contractors to fell trees and clear vegetation under certain conditions (see Natural England’s blog here). Led by serial failure and former Green Party candidate Mark Kier (blogs passim) they applied for a High Court injunction on April 16th. Mrs Justice Lang DBE granted an injunction on only one of the several licenses issued by NE, those defined in License WML-OR58. The rest were allowed to stand.
The injunction said that:
“The application for permission is adjourned to be listed in court as a “rolled up hearing”, on notice to the Defendant and Interested Parties, on a date in the week commencing 24 May 2021 or as soon as possible from 8 June 2021 onwards, having regard to the availability of counsel already instructed at the date of this order. If permission to apply for judicial review is granted at that hearing, the Court will proceed immediately to determine the substantive claim.”
Mrs Justice Lang’s judgement went on to describe her reasoning, which I won’t include here for the sake of brevity (and the fact her judgement was overturned).
Natural England appealed (note, not Hs2 Ltd or the Government as it was NE who granted the licenses and were named as the defendants, HS2 was merely listed as an ‘Interested Party’). The appeal was heard by Mr Justice Holgate on Monday 28th. Holgate discharged the injunction, saying that none of the grounds Mr Keir’s experts and lawyers had put forward against the felling were “arguable”. He reserved his judgement which will be published at a later date. When it is I’ll add it to this blog (it has been, see the end of the blog!).
This leaves the protesters up a proverbial creek without a proverbial paddle. Of course, Keir immediately told the press and his supporters that he would appeal but there’s only one problem – he needs grounds to do so – and from what Mr Justice Holgate has said – he ain’t got any! Besides, by the time he might file his appeal, the remaining work at Jones’ Hill woods could well be completed. HS2 contractors (who’re still working on the site) have four days left on the license (that’s if it’s not extended because of the delays caused by legal shenanigans).
Yet again the protesters have wasted people’s time and money (both theirs and the taxpayers, who’ll pick up the tab one way of the other). It’s noteworthy that these cases are brought under the Aarhus convention, which means the Claimant’s liability for the costs incurred by the Defendant and Interested Parties is limited to £5,000, and the Defendant’s liability for the costs incurred by the Claimant is limited to £35,000. Whilst this convention allows access to the law for people who would otherwise find costs exorbitant I do wonder if their shouldn’t be a threshold of competency and realistic chance of success to prevent hopeless cases and ‘vexatious litigants’ from gumming up the courts, government and any defendants purely as a delaying tactic – especially when Crowdfunding is involved. Mind you, on top of the court fees there’s also the costs of Lawyers, the people who must be rubbing their hands in glee every time they see the words ‘stophs2’ and ‘crowdfunder’…
Of course, this wasn’t the only recent legal ‘success’ for HS2 antis that soon turned to ashes.
Another protester (Sarah Green) has had a long obsession with potential water pollution in the Colne Valley and had launched (yet another crowdfunded) legal appeal against a decision of the Information Commissioner to side with HS2 LTd that certain documents relating to piling work in the Colne Valley should be released.
I won’t bore you with the details. It’s a long, arcane argument and a decision that you can read here if you ever find yourself suffering from insomnia!
The Tribunal agreed with Green that certain papers should be released unredacted.
As usual, there was only one problem. Green had so convinced herself that these would prove that HS2 was hiding something all perspective was lost. The papers didn’t even relate to the substantive matter in hand – test piling for HS2’s Colne Valley viaduct. Green started her case in 2019. By the time the appeal was heard the world had well and truly moved on. Not only were the papers not the ‘smoking gun’ Green had imagined but the test piling had been completed. There was worse to come. Not only had the test piling not caused any of the pollution Green has been frightening people with – it also proved that the actual piles for the Colne Valley viaduct didn’t need to be driven as deeply as originally planned – thus saving considerable time, expense and carbon emissions!
The icing on the cake? Hs2 started the actual piling work for the pier foundations of Colne Valley viaduct back in March and has received full planning consent for the structure from Hillingdon Borough Council. Oh Dear!
Having failed in the courts as usual there’s little chance of HS2 being stopped on the ground either. The protest campaign has fallen into complete disarray in the past few weeks. Even HS2Rebellion have had to publish an embarrassing update to their protest camp list!
The reality is even worse than they admit. New Poors Piece at Steeple Claydon is also redundant as is Denham Ford. Neither stopped a thing and are largely abandoned following the pattern established by the Crackley camp. In fact, so many of the last remaining protesters are restricted by bail conditions that they’re left pulling stunts like trying to interfere with people who have a connection (however tenuous) with HS2, which is why a handful of them tried to disrupt a prison construction site in Wellingborough! Many others have drifted off to other Extinction Rebellion stunts like smashing HSBC bank windows at Canary Wharf or suchlike. Once the oxymoronic Wendover ‘Active Resistance’ Camp is evicted their campaign is literally all over bar the shouting (or tweeting)….
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Thank you!
UPDATE.
Since publishing this blog I’ve been sent a link to Mr Justice Holgate’s reasons for his decision, which can be found here. They make interesting reading as they highlight a number of things. Firsly, why Lang made her earlier decision and why Holgate overruled it and also an insight into the tactics of the protesters legal team – and something we’ve seen before. Namely, just bombard the Courts with paperwork and hope (in the words of the old saying) if you can’t blind them with science, baffle them with bullshit! Read this comment.
Point 114: “I accept the evidence in Mr. Dineen’s witness statement as to the impact which delay in felling the trees would have on this part of the HS2 project. If the felling could not take place until October 2021, earthworks could not begin until March or April 2022. Currently those works are scheduled to begin in June 2021. In paragraph 5 of IP2’s submission to the court dated 14 April 2021, a conservative estimate of the costs of the delay was given in the broad order of £25 to £50m. Mr. Dineen now says that those figures have been re-assessed as being in the range of £60.7-£88.8m. His statement dated 19 April 2021 was accompanied by a schedule. Plainly there has not been time for the claimant to consider this in any detail or to raise any questions. The claimant simply says that these costs will not be incurred because the claim could be dealt with at a super-expedited hearing, a point which I have already rejected. I proceed on the basis that the continuation of the injunction would cause additional costs in the region of at least £25m to £50m, and probably substantially more. I attach very considerable weight to this factor”.
Point 115: “I also attach considerable weight to the public interest in the continuation of work on the HS2 project without substantial interruption. Parliament has decided that it is in the public interest for the project to be undertaken and the Government has subsequently confirmed that it continues to agree with that decision (see e.g. Packham). There is no challenge to NE’s decision in this case applying regulation 55(2)(e) to the works which are the subject of this dispute.” Packham again!
Yet again this is a humiliation for the protesters legal representations and arguments “air of unreality”…”fanciful”? Oh dear. Plus, dumping paperwork on a judge in the hope something might stick.
Paul Bigland 