Category Archives: Twitter (and how not to use it)

That’s all folks!

24 Thursday Mar 2016

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

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Well, the end of the stop Hs2 campaign, not this blog!

As I mentioned yesterday, the Hs2 Hybrid bill sailed through Parliament yesterday by 399 votes to 42. That’s a stonking cross-party majority of 357, or – to put it another way – 61.38% of the UKs 650MPs voted to build Hs2 and only 6.46% to stop it.  Such a large political consensus lays bare the claim that Hs2 is a Tory ‘vanity project’ (or a Labour one for that matter). The vote has also exposed UKIP, who never even bothered to turn up and vote (no change there then, Ed). The result is a final humiliation for the Stop Hs2 campaign as they only gained one extra vote since the 2nd reading of the bill back in 2014. It effectively kills their campaign.

The antis reaction has been to claim that the decision was somehow rushed as the debate in the Commons didn’t last longer. It’s a ridiculous claim when you consider that we’ve been talking about Hs2 since 2009! There’s been numerous debates in both the Commons and the Lords – plus hundreds of hours of discussions during the petitioning process. If this is “rushing” things, no wonder the rest of the world has left us far behind when it comes to modern infrastructure. I’ll bet the Chinese (who’ve built thousands of kilometres of high speed line since 2009) will be having a right old laugh at this!

Needless to say, the StopHs2 campaign is in complete denial. If you want to see how badly, check out the comments on the StopHs2 Facebook page. The amazing thing is, everyone but the antis could see what was coming. Their campaign’s only success has been in lying to itself. It’s consistently lied about the need for Hs2, the level of opposition to Hs2 and that the vast majority of those who object to Hs2 are in fact, Nimbys who live in the way of the route! Some are still refusing to accept the truth. They’re taking to Twitter to condemn MPs as “traitors” who’ve let them down. They make empty threats that MPs will “pay” through the ballot box – which shows both denial and amnesia – as they’ve obviously blanked out what an ineffective disaster their “no votes for you with Hs2” campaign was before the election. In fact, as their votes are concentrated in constituencies of MPs who opposed Hs2 all this would do would be to shoot themselves in both feet!

How much longer the anti Hs2 campaign can keep going now is a good question. Hs2aa have been conspicuous by their absence these past few weeks. Not a peep was heard from them at all yesterday. StopHs2 managed a few desultory tweets & a moan on the website but that was it. There was no demonstration outside Parliament, no full page adverts in the newspapers, just a few dozen people moaning on Twitter. Their campaign has nowhere else to go. It’s exhausted the political route, failed on the legal front and run out of money. It’s bereft of ideas and it’s activist base is dwindling daily. In short – it’s finished.

All that’s left now is for the House of Lords to carry out their scrutiny of the bill. Whether this will cause the Hs2 timetable to slip slightly or not is a matter of conjecture. What isn’t open to doubt is that Hs2 will receive Royal Assent. In the meantime the Hs2 project team will be getting on with preparing for spades in the ground sometime in 2017.

In the meantime, I’ll look forward to blogging less about the campaign to stop Hs2 and more about building Hs2. Watch this space…

 

 

No better than vultures…

22 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by in Hs2, Peter Jones, StopHs2, Twitter (and how not to use it)

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Whilst the rest of the world looks on with shock and sadness as the terrorist incidents in Brussels unfold, the vultures of the Stop Hs2 campaign have moved in to exploit the still-warm bodies of the dead.

Within minutes of it being announced that Eurostar services between Brussels & London had been suspended, anti Hs2 campaigners were cynically exploiting the news to scaremonger about Hs2 in the UK. Here’s the tweets.

OOT terror
jones terror

Time & time again the anti Hs2 mob have proved they’re no better than ambulance-chasers, exploiting the news of any rail crash or transport related incident to try scaremonger. It highlights their desperation and lack of morality as well as complete idiocy. The idea we shouldn’t build anything out of fear has always been a strong feature in their campaign, but this time they haven’t even waited until the dead are cold.

What a thoroughly despicable campaign they run.

The anti Hs2 campaign has shares in green ink.

16 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by in Bigotry, Hs2, Rant, StopHs2, Twitter (and how not to use it)

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Well, if they had any sense they would, but sense is the one thing noticeably absent from the anti Hs2 mobs social media campaign nowadays. It’s become the modern refuge for and version of the old green ink brigade! (here’s an explanation of the term for readers who may be unfamiliar with it).

In fact, it’s the green ink brigade who seem to be keeping the antis social media campaign (and I use that term very loosely) going.

More and more of the old campaigners have left the field nowadays. This is due to a combination of factors. One is that many of them have been bought out by Hs2 Ltd & moved on (metaphorically and literally). Another is that most sensible people have worked out that it’s futile. There was a noticeable drop off in their campaign after the Hs2 Hybrid Bill passed with a massive majority and another after last years general election when it was clear the political battle was lost.

As the pragmatists and rational folks have retired, the – how shall I put this? “eccentric” wing have taken taken centre stage. In a few cases they’ve been bolstered by folks who don’t just write in green but prefer the most vivid shades of the colour! They’re a mix of UKIP members, who bring their own particular brand of xenophobia, paranoia and poor education – and the genuinely bonkers. Folk who believe in any conspiracy theory going but think they’re the only one’s who really know the truth. It’s like an internet version of Bedlam, only without the restraints.

To say this leaves their campaign with a image problem is an understatement. If I was Hs2aa or any of the few intellectual Nimbys left, I’d be tearing my hair out at their behaviour as it’s utterly destroyed any credibility they might have claimed to have. It also makes it very easy for politicians to ignore them. When you see some of their tweets and Facebook comments, it’s not difficult to see why. So, here’s a selection of the anti Hs2 social media car crash. Enjoy!

hs2 nutter 5

Hs2 nutters 3

hs2 nutters 4

Hs2 nutters6

DD bonkers

liar MPs

Honey hs2

Meanwhile, over on the anti Hs2 facebrook groups;

hs2 altofts

Need I say more?

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…