Category Archives: StopHs2

The anti Hs2 mob shoot themselves in the foot again!

10 Sunday Jan 2016

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

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For years the StopHs2 campaign has pretended that it’s not really just a bunch of nimbys who live along the route, it’s really a national campaign of concerned citizens (-honest, guv). We’ve been expected to turn a blind eye to the fact that there’s not a single StopHs2 “action” group anywhere – except for those on the route.

It was never going to wash and now the Stophs2 campaign’s latest attempt at a petition has provided the evidence in cold, hard numbers.

The poll in question wants to see the Hs2 budget diverted to flood defences. Now, you might expect the people who are calling for this to be living in flood affected areas. Not a bit of it. The beauty of the new Government petitions page is that it supplies a map of all the UK parliamentary constituencies with the individual petition scores for each one.

Here’s a copy of the results along the Hs2 route from London to just South of Birmingham.

Chiltern nimby nos 10.1.16.

Isn’t it a remarkable co-incidence that the folks who most want to see Hs2 money spent on flood barriers live on the Hs2 route and away from any flooding?

Here’s another map, this time covering the flood hit areas of Lancashire and Yorkshire.

nw nimbys 10.1.16

The two areas with the highest number of signatories just ‘happen’ to be on the Hs2 route. In contrast, the Calderdale constituency (one of the most badly hit by floods) has flooded the petition with a massive 3 votes…

I predicted that this petition would backfire on Hs2 anti’s as it would expose how little support they had. In fact, it’s done more by exposing that the Chilterns are by far the biggest group in the Stophs2 campaign, dwarfing all others. It’s also revealed that some of the Phase 2 anti Hs2 groups are far, far weaker in comparison. Much of the phase 2 route doesn’t even show up as the number signing the petition are no greater than the surrounding areas!

14th January update.

Here’s an updated map showing the position now their petition has hit 6165 signatures (with their average dropping by the day now).

Nimbys 14 jan 16

Here’s another chart that puts those 6165 votes into perspective. 2888 come from a mere 16 out of 650 constituencies, and guess what – they’re all on the Hs2 route!

Flood poll stats 14 jan

So, 46.85% of the entire votes cast come from those 16 constituencies! If you added all the others that Hs2 touches what’s the bet that the figure will be way over half? There is another interesting tale the petition tells too – which is how weak the Stophs2 campaign is away from the Chilterns & Phase 1. Look at the numbers in areas like Staffordshire or Mid Cheshire, they’re tiny.

This is why the flood defences vs Hs2 petition does nothing but shoot the anti Hs2 campaign in the foot. The numbers don’t lie – even if they do…

UPDATE (24th January)

Now that this petition is clearly failing (the past week has seen signatures down into double figures with the running total standing at 6848) I thought it would be interesting to update the phase 1 map.

Nimby map 24.1.16.

This shows that most of the votes are still centred on the Hs2 route. Only one constituency out of 650 has more than 1000 signatures. It’s that one well known for flooding. err – Amersham & Chesham? The proof that the core of the Stophs2 campaign is Chiltern Nimby based is incontrovertible and it’s been supplied by the Stophs2 campaign itself – as has the evidence of how weak they are on phase 2 of Hs2. Remember these numbers have been reached after the stophs2 campaign (and its individual supporters) have been frantically puffing the petition across all their websites & social media outlets – yet this is the best they can do…

UPDATE 2 (10th February).

I thought it would be interesting to have another quick crunch of the numbers on this petition, so here they are. The total now stands at 7445 votes – a miserable failure. The petition itself is of no interest – but who signed from where is.

48.35% of signatures come from just 16 out of the 650 constituencies. All those 16 are on the Hs2 route! Only one has more than 1000 signatures – the anti Hs2 nimby stronghold of Chesham & Amersham with 1219! (16.37%). Here’s the full 16.

Hs2 floods

This blows apart various anti hs2 claims. One is that they’re a national campaign – it’s clear the vast majority of their support is not only route based but is concentrated on the Phase 1 route in the Chilterns. The other observation is that the anti Hs2 campaign has very little support along the phase 2 routes to Manchester & Leeds. These figures make depressing reading for antis as they show that once Phase 1 goes ahead, the anti Hs2 campaign will collapse as the two campaigning groups (Stophs2 & Hs2aa) are run  by (and mostly funded from) phase 1 residents.

 

2015 ends with a whimper for the stop Hs2 campaign.

31 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, StopHs2, Uncategorized

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I can’t imagine it’s going to be the sound of party poppers & champagne corks we’ll be hearing from the anti Hs2 campaign offices today, because (let’s face it) they’ve had a bloody awful year and next year will only be worse. 2016 will see the end of their campaign as the phase 1 Hybrid Bill will complete its journey through Parliament and gain Royal Assent. After that, they have nowhere left to turn. All the major political parties remain solidly behind the project and by the time of the next general election in 2020 Hs2 will have been under construction for nearly 3 years.

The signs that the anti Hs2 campaign was collapsing have been evident for some time. They failed to bog down progress of the Hybrid Bill, then were dealt a huge blow by the result of the General Election – which laid bare the fact their political clout was negligible. In the latter part of the year Bucks Country Council Leader Martin Tett made it clear the anti Hs2 51M alliance of local council’s was redundant. Not that 51m will be missed. Their website hadn’t been updated since June 2011 and they only managed 16 Tweets through the whole of 2015!

This left just two main groups opposing Hs2 – Kenilworth based StopHs2 and the Highspeed 2 Action Alliance (Hs2aa) in the Chilterns. Many of the smaller ‘action’ groups that came under the Hs2aa banner had already faded away. Now it seems its HS2aa’s turn. Nothing has been seen or heard from them since December 7th – which suggests their legal case at the UN which was heard just before Xmas hasn’t gone well…

Having retreated to be almost a purely social media based campaign, things aren’t going well there either. Here’s the final “scores on the doors” for 2015. They show a campaign that’s not only stalled but has actually gone into reverse again in some cases.

stats 4

I won’t bore you with the usual caveats as I’m sure you know them off by heart now. The only person who is doing well is AGAHST’s former Comm’s person Deanne Dukhan. The irony is, she’s done it by not tweeting about Hs2!

The only question now seems to be how long the remaining anti hs2 groups can hang on into 2016. Will StopHs2’s financier (Warks businessman Joe Elliott) finally pull the plug? After all, once the Parliamentary process is finished, what’s the point of the StopHs2 campaign?

It’s the final countdown…

20 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2 petitions, Hs2aa, StopHs2

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Well, of 2015 anyway – although I doubt I’ll be crunching the anti Hs2 campaign’s numbers for too much of 2016 as they’re so awful!

So, without further ado, here’s the ‘scores on the doors’ – 11 months data on the antis social media campaign.

anti Hs2 stats Dec 2015

The statistics carry the standard caveat: Not everyone following is a supporter, many are there just to keep an eye on them. Also, the increases have to be seen in the context of coming from a very low base to start with. To put StopHs2’s 4547 Twitter followers in context – In December 2014 there were 45,325,078 registered voters in the UK! The anti Hs2 groups penetration is tiny & their following minute.

Another interesting fact is that, despite StopHs2 trying to bolster their numbers in recent months (this blog has obviously stung them) – their numbers are starting to fall back again & the others are doing just as bad.

Their social media campaign’s doing little other than exposing their weaknesses now more & more people are giving up on it. What it’s highlighting is their campaign is increasingly relying on their fruitcake elements to keep it alive. Here’s some examples from first Twitter, then Facebook:

sensible

jones 1

out of tweet

fb2

Does any of this sound like people who’re going to achieve the one thing they need – political backing? Of course not, which is why their campaign’s dying.

Two of their organisations (AGAHST and 51M) are already history and the  remaining two,  StopHs2 and Hs2aa are looking increasing desperate and rocky. Hs2aa have had a lousy few months. They’re running out of money to fund themselves so, as a consequence they’re reining in their minimal activities even more. Their Twitter campaign is nothing better than a desultory retweeting service that hasn’t seen any activity since December 7th. Neither has their website – other then regularly being taken down by hackers. To make matters worse, positive news on their last legal action that was due to be heard this week seems to be rather thin on the ground…

In truth Hs2aa only seem to have one aim now – and that’s to fight a rearguard action at the petitioning committee to try & secure a full length tunnel under their heartland – the Chilterns. It’s a forlorn hope.

Meanwhile, StopHs2 are doing – nothing! Joe Rukin has had a couple of turns booked at the petitioning Committee in January and that’s it. Talking of the petitioning Committee – they’ve really gone into overdrive with the intent of having everything wound up early in the new year. Just have a look at their programme for January.

There’s a few things of interest here. One is the number of locus standi challenges, the other is the number of petitioners who fail to turn up to the have their petitions heard. Clearly, many of the frivolous ones have  realised the game is up. This is good for two reasons. It’s speeding up the process and it’s freeing time for those who have a genuine grievance.

All of this means the anti Hs2 campaign’s living on borrowed time. There’s no earthly way they can achieve their aim without political support, which they’ve failed to gain. Meanwhile, the Hs2 project continues to gather momentum and support.

The only question now is which will be the next group to collapse. Hs2aa or Stophs2?

Heathrow shows the anti Hs2 campaign’s toothless

11 Friday Dec 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Heathrow 3rd runway, Hs2, Hs2aa, StopHs2

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Today’s announcement that a decision on a 3rd runway at Heathrow has been postponed should leave anti Hs2 campaigners with their heads in their hands. Why? Because it highlights just how inconsequential they are and how ineffective they’ve been.

The Heathrow postponement is widely seen as a political maneuver to avoid the Tories being embarrassed during the London mayoral elections in May as their candidate, Zac Goldsmith, is an implacable opponent of Heathrow expansion.

In contrast, the Tories (and all the other parties for that matter) have shown no real concern that Hs2 would have politically adverse affects. This is a huge blow for the the anti Hs2 mob as for years they’ve  pretended the high speed line is a political hot potato. What’s interesting is that Heathrow is essentially a local London/South-East issue whilst Hs2 affects much more of the UK and far more constituencies.

As Hs2 isn’t seen as a negative political issue one can only wonder how much longer the anti Hs2 campaign can stagger on for. They’ve been on the back-foot ever since the Hybrid Bill passed with such a stonking majority, the general election result compounded their woes and they’ve had no good news for years. There’s none in the offing.

I wonder how much longer their remaining groups (StopHs2 and Hs2aa)  will last into 2016? Joe Rukin’s laughable claim that there were ‘reasons to be cheerful‘ looks increasingly likely to be his epithet.

 

A terrible time for the anti Hs2 campaign.

28 Saturday Nov 2015

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It’s that regular time of month when I take a snapshot of the state of the anti Hs2 campaign and (for them) the news just gets worse. Let’s kick off with the usual analysis of their performance across social media – which they’ve become increasingly reliant upon as their activist base declines.

anti scores

There’s now 9 months of data to analyse and what it shows is that, despite evidence that they’ve been stung into trying to improve the numbers – they’re still getting nowhere fast.

First, remember the usual caveat, not all followers are supporters, many are simply there to keep an eye on what they’re up to. Also, many of their Twitter followers are fake accounts or sock puppets so Twitter is a very poor gauge of real support. Plus, a group of people all ranting to each other don’t really have an impact outside of their own small circle. Facebook is even more insular. It’s good for getting your message out to people who like your pages, but that means you’re only really preaching to the converted. It’s also a double-edged sword as the Stophs2 Facebook page shows. On it you can see a small group of hopelessly confused people who really can’t understand why no-one is actually listening to them, although anyone looking in can easily see why. Here’s a few recent examples;

fb1

fb2

Crunching the numbers shows their Facebook campaign is moribund with only a 5.33% increase for Stophs2 and a mere 0.74% for Hs2aa. What’s even worse is the increases are from a tiny base! As for 51M – they’ve gone backwards, but as their FB page was last updated in June 2011 & they’ve effectively ceased to exist it’s moot.

Over on Twitter things aren’t much better. The two surviving groups (stophs2 & Hs2aa) are still under 5,000 followers apiece so a 10% increase in 9 months means little. Of course, many of these followers will be the same people, which limits their spread even more. The great irony in the figures is the only person with a decent increase is the former Communications Director of another defunct group (AGAHST) who’s achieved her popularity by tweeting about anything other than Hs2! Their Twitter campaign is increasingly farcical. It’s mostly in the hands of isolated individual who try to to keep it going. The ludicrous stuff they tweet is mostly outright bonkers or offensive, it certainly won’t convert the people they need to stop Hs2 – which makes it all the more counterproductive. This is starting to tell as the numbers of retweets their nonsense gets is steadily declining.

Another sign of the anti Hs2 campaign’s decline is that the Hs2aa website is STILL blocked by virus protection software some three and a half weeks after I first blogged about it.

Meanwhile, in the real world,things are even worse. Their campaign’s had a truly awful month…

The stophs2 campaign held a secret gathering of countrywide groups that was nothing short of an embarrassment. You can read about it here. All it achieved was to show how much the strength of their campaign has declined in the past couple of years. Their woes were compounded when the Chancellor, George Osborne presented his budget review. Not only did this expose their claims that hs2 would divert money from improvements to the existing rail network, it also skewered their ridiculous claims for how much Hs2 will cost as the budget was updated to 2015 prices. You can read about that here.

Budget day also exposed a growing schism between the two remaining anti Hs2 groups. Whilst Stophs2 have been trying to spin the costs of Hs2 as “spiralling” Hs2aa members were distinctly off-message at the Hybrid Bill petitions! Hs2aa’s Hilary Wharf was part of a group that was arguing the Chilterns could have a fully bored tunnel as tunnelling costs often turned out to be lower than official estimates!  You can see their evidence to the Committee here.

So, where does this leave their campaign? Up shit creek really…

They’ve utterly failed to make any political breakthrough. Their activist base is steadily declining and their stability of the two remaining groups in looking increasingly rocky. Meanwhile, the Government and Hs2 Ltd are  pressing ahead with the project whilst the Hybrid Bill Committee are steaming ahead with the petitioning process – all of which eats further into the Stophs2 activist base.

Somehow I don’t think there’s going to be much cheer at the Stophs2 Christmas party, which is going to be their last….

Financial spin & contradictions from the anti Hs2 mob.

25 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Economic illiteracy, Hs2, Hs2aa, Northern Powerhouse, Politics, Rail Investment, StopHs2, Uncategorized

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Today’s not been a good day for the anti hs2 campaign despite their high  expectations. For some reason they’d convinced themselves that there was trouble on the horizon for Hs2 and that the Autumn spending review might even see Hs2 cancelled as the Government ran out of money for investment.

For days they’d been circulating nonsense comparisons such as ‘defense spending or Hs2’ or  even ‘Police Officers or Hs2’. In the end the Chancellor made complete fools of them! Not only did he find new money for the armed forces and didn’t cut the police budget – he also confirmed extra money for transport investment including Trans-Pennine electrification and confirmed the Hs2 budget at £55.7bn in 2015 prices.

funding envelope

The poor anti Hs2 mob didn’t know how to respond. StopHs2’s Penny Gaines and Joe Rukin had been sitting by their keyboards, waiting to spin what they could, but found the cupboard was bare. They managed a few desultory tweets but Osborne had clearly wrong-footed them.

Once the news broke that the Hs2 budget had been adjusted they tried the usual daft spin to pretend that the budget for Hs2 is the same as the cost of Hs2. They were helped by one or two confused Journo’s who managed the same feat, so I must give credit to the BBC’s Paul Scoins (@paulscoins) who corrected a tweet when I pointed this out to him.

What wrong -footed the antis even more was the revelation that the updated budget also included the budget estimate for the Hs2 trains, meaning the increase was far smaller than they’d be trying to spin! What they’d failed to understand was the 2015 cost is simply the 2011 cost adjusted for inflation. Of course, if you’re going to adjust the Hs2 budget for inflation you also have to adjust the benefits of Hs2 by the same amount. Watch some of the antis really struggle with that little fact…

Meanwhile, in one of those wonderful ironies, whilst StopHs2 and a few other antis were trying to pretend that this is a real cost increase in Hs2, Hilary Wharf, a member of the other remaining anti Hs2 Group – Hs2aa – was with a group from Potter Row who were presenting their petition to the Hybrid Bill Committee. Wharf and Co are arguing for a fully bored tunnel under the Chilterns. Part of their argument was that the actual costs of tunnels can come in lower than initial budgets- a position in diametric opposition to their fellow travellers at StopHs2!

Worse was to come as details of Sir Peter Hendy’s report into Network Rail was released. This exposed the anti Hs2 mobs scaremongering on Hs2 sucking money from rail investment was complete nonsense. You can read the details on RAIL magazines website.

The anti Hs2 mob retreat into a bunker

11 Wednesday Nov 2015

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Just when it seemed the anti Hs2 campaign had hit a new low with their pear tree stunt they managed to pull yet another rabbit out of the hat – and this one is a stunner!

Here’s some background. A few years ago StopHs2 used to organise a national gathering of anti Hs2 groups at the Staffordshire showground. Here’s one of their press releases puffing the 2013 event. In those heady days they’d punt the event to all and sundry, sell tickets at £10 a pop and advertise “a huge range of speakers and stands”. The media would be invited and even a few MPs would attend. Here’s  the 2013 programme.

How things change! When the Hs2 Hybrid Bill passed 2nd reading with a stonking majority of 411 the light began to dawn. People were already dropping away and ‘action’ groups folding but the process accelerated. This led to the antis cancelling the 2014 gathering, scrapping any public demonstrations & increasingly taking refuge in social media.

And in 2015? There was complete radio silence about any planned event – until today – when this was slipped out in the Bucks Herald. Spot the difference. No media, no MPs, no tickets and no Staffs showground. It was all secret. There was no advertising of the event on any of their websites or anywhere else. Instead they had to be “hosted” by the Amersham group. How many turned up? No-one knows – because they refuse to say. There’s been no trumpeting of the “success” of the event on any of their websites – or on those of any of their dwindling number of supporters.

If any proof was needed that the anti Hs2 campaign’s dying – this is it – and they’ve supplied it themselves…

At death’s door: The latest look at the anti hs2 campaign

08 Sunday Nov 2015

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I thought it was time to update my look at the state of the anti Hs2 campaign now the conference season’s over & it’s effectively the end of the campaigning year. I’ll kick off with the monthly social media ‘scores on the doors’, which are as follows.

Anti hs2 stats 7 Nov 15

The standards caveat applies. Not all followers are supporters, some are simply there to keep an eye out on what’s going on. Also, whilst percentages are interesting they should be read in conjunction with the actual numbers. After all, a 50% increase on sweet bugger all isn’t much to celebrate.

I have nearly 9 months data to draw on now which paints a distinctly desperate picture. The figures show that anti hs2 campaigners best efforts to attract attention have failed. There’s been no discernible bounce from the conference season with only a handful of new followers being attracted on Twitter – and even less on Facebook.

The person who’s done the best is the former Communications Director of the defunct group AGAHST, Deanne Dukhan. The irony is, she’s done this by dropping tweeting about Hs2! Despite the fact AGAHST has folded & she’s now irrelevant I’m keeping her in to provide an useful comparison.

The antis twitter campaign is continuing to implode. Neither of the two remaining ‘national’ groups are doing anything newsworthy so the volume of tweets has decreased. They’re reduced to being a retweeting service or moaning about Hs2 and railways in general. we’re seeing bugger all from the local ‘action’ groups for the same reason – nothing’s going on. What we are seeing more of is the lunatic fringe of the campaign although how a few folk ranting on Twitter is meant to convince anyone in the political arena to cancel hs2 is a mystery.

Their Facebook campaign is even more dire. It’s well worth viewing the Stophs2 Facebook page as it offers a window on the soul of their campaign. Their problem is, it’s a bit like taking a tour of Bedlam! What you’ll see is a rag-bag of Ukippers and (presumably) Daily Mail & Express readers convinced the UK is going to hell in a hand cart because no-one is listening to them. If anything, it shows why the anti Hs2 campaign was bound to fail. Here’s a few examples;

FB 1

FB2

FB3

FB4

Now, does anyone think this sounds like a coherent and credible campaign? Of course not. What it does illustrate is that using social media is a double-edged sword. As well as helping a campaign it can also expose its weaknesses to the world…

Hs2aa’s Facebook page is even more dire. It contains little other than links to tweets from other people and comments by the same serial ranters! As a campaigning tool it’s both useless and an embarrassment. To add to Hs2aa’s woes their website is (accidentally or deliberately) compromised by a virus that means anyone with suitable software is warned off visiting.

Meanwhile, what’s happening in the real world away from social media. For the anti Hs2 campaign the answer is – not a lot. Their campaign’s completely lost momentum. Hs2aa have yet another legal appeal to be heard in December, beyond that – there’s nothing. Stophs2’s calendar is completely bare. Joe Rukin has a solitary appearance booked in front of the Hs2 Petitioning Committee. After that he’s free to keep writing job applications.

Contrast all this with Hs2 Ltd’s increasingly busy diary filled with consultations, suppliers events, tenders etc – and the almost weekly uttering of support from Government Ministers & members of the opposition, plus events like this weeks National Rail Conference.

As we head into the festive season it’s clear there’s going to be little Christmas cheer for the anti hs2 campaign. They’re staring into the abyss now. I’m willing to predict that 2016 will see one (if not both) of their national groups fold when they can no longer fool themselves that they can stop Hs2.

Here’s why the anti Hs2 mobs Twitter campaign’s a joke.

22 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2aa, Social media, StopHs2, Twitter (and how not to use it)

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Having utterly failed to make any impact in the real world the anti Hs2 campaign’s increasingly become a cyber campaign that’s almost totally reliant on social media to try and get its message out.

Their problem is – they’re mostly shouting at each other.

I’ve long said that their daft & desperate campaign will be an object lesson in how not to do it and here’s another of their masterclasses.

Having failed to gain much of a following on Facebook (see here) Hs2 antis have increasingly fallen back on Twitter. There’s a certain logic to this. In theory, it’s easy to pretend there’s a lot of support for your aims. Setting up a series of accounts that feed off each other to all retweet the same rubbish seems like an attractive idea. The difficulty is there’s obvious pitfalls that the ignorant or unwary can fall into – and the anti Hs2 mob do that every time!

Take today’s example. Let’s welcome the anti Hs2 mobs latest sock puppet account: @CotyHS2

This anonymous account was created today. Straight away it started to follow folk and amassed 15 within a few minutes – all of which are other anti Hs2 accounts. Here they are:

Hs2 coty

Some other anti’s started to follow back almost straight away.

coty 2

One of the first was the IEA transport ‘economist’ Richard Wellings who’s a bit of a tart. He’ll follow anyone to try to make himself look more important and influential. If you don’t believe me, take a look at his Twitter bio.

It’s so obvious that this account is nothing but an anti Hs2 mob propaganda tool and not a real person it’s positively painful.

How will any of this Stop Hs2? It won’t. Not in the slightest. Instead you have a campaign that spends most of its time ranting (pointlessly) at each other – whilst convinced they’re actually achieving something. It’s the political and campaigning version of this;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfBG0d5Oj3c”

This is why campaigners should never fool themselves into thinking a fiddled social media strategy is going to influence anyone. It’s nothing better than mutual masturbation. It might give them a warm glow but the people they think they’re influencing aren’t stupid. They have the ability to analyse metrics that show the anti Hs2 campaigns reach is tiny – and mostly ranting at itself rather than influencing outsiders.

After five years the anti Hs2 mob still haven’t learned the lesson but campaigns that follow them will ignore it at their peril.

Of course, if you want another example of a social media disaster, look no further than the StopHs2 Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/STOP.HS2?fref=ts

It has less than 7000 followers. Many of their comments are priceless. Does this look like an energetic & focussed campaign with a clear strategy & political will? They wish! Instead it’s a wonderful insight into the soul of their campaign, which consists of a few bewildered folk who have absolutely no understanding of the issues & simply can’t understand why no-one is taking them seriously. They remind me of the Duke of Wellington’s famous quote “I don’t know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but, by God, they frighten me”.

Their problem is, the ‘enemy’ aren’t frightened by them in the slightest…

Crazy anti Hs2 campaigner of the week: No 13

26 Saturday Sep 2015

Posted by in Crazy anti Hs2 campaigner of the week, Hs2, StopHs2

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This weeks award goes to StopHs2 Chair Penny Gaines for an absolutely bonkers & delusional tweet she’s just posted from the Green party conference in Bournemouth!

elepahnt

If one disinterested passer-by is what Penny thinks is “attracting attention” it’s no wonder the anti Hs2 campaign’s in such dire straits. Notice the complete absence of any Stophs2 protesters. We’re assured (by them) that their campaign’s unstoppable & going from strength to strength – so where is everybody? Of course, the only reason Penny is there is that she lives in Bournemouth, having moved away from the HS2 route several years ago. Imagine, the Chair (but what is there to chair in an empty room? Ed) of StopHs2 lives hundreds of miles away from HS2! In the ‘old’ days StopHs2 used to have stalls inside the various conferences but a lack of money, volunteers and the fact they got nowhere soon put a stop to that. Now the best they can do is a bag of wind and (if they’re lucky) a couple of volunteers trying to foist leaflets onto disinterested passers-by. How that was ever meant to stop HS2 is a mystery, but there you go…

With support like this, is it any wonder politicians are ignoring them?

2023 Update.

With the collapse of StopHs2 they’re no longer seen outside the party conferences. I believe their last derisory appearance was with two bags of hot air (Nellie the inflatable – and Joe Rukin) plus a couple of leafleteers outside the Tory conference in Birmingham in 2018. Their mantle passed to the equally useless protesters of HS2 ‘rebellion’ who are also history, having come and gone in the space of three short years.

Whilst Penny is in Bournemouth and Joe Rukin is in Kenilworth trying to resurrect some sort of post stopHs2 career, the present whereabouts of the inflatable bag of wind (aka ‘Nellie’) are unknown…

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