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You can’t hide the tumbleweeds…

06 Friday May 2016

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The past few months have been awful for the Stop Hs2 campaign. It’s been rendered pointless by Parliament voting through the Hs2 bill with a stonking majority. Its woes have increased as the bill continues to make solid progress towards Royal Assent. The bill also passed 2nd reading in the House of Lords. Now the Lords has chosen the members of the Committee to hear the 827 petitions. As expected, HS2 antis have stuck in as many petitions as they can, hoping the tactics that failed in the Commons will achieve something in the Lords. The composition of the HoL Ctte (it’s chaired by a QC) makes this far less likely as the committee will be no pushover. They’re expected to be far tighter on procedure than the Commons so expect far more Locus Standi challenges.

Meanwhile, the organised anti Hs2 campaign has fallen apart. In 2010 there were four main groups opposing Hs2, this has been reduced to two (Hs2aa & Stophs2) but only the latter is still active. Apparently skint and demoralised, Hs2aa have retreated into representing the Nimby interests of their Directors. Hs2aa have tried the fact by blaming their lack of action on a serious denial of service attack which had taken their website down for a couple of months.

hs2aa

Silence them? What they neglect to mention is they still had two other options with which to continue their campaign: Their Facebook page and their Twitter account. So, what’s happened? Nothing. Neither account has seen any action since March 6th!

hs2aa FB.

The truth is, most Hs2 antis have given up, even on social media – which has been their main campaigning tool for years.

This is yet another lesson in the pitfalls of social media for other campaigning groups to learn. Social media is a mirror on your soul. It can reflect your strengths but it can also expose your weakness. You can’t hide the tumbleweeds…

 

 

 

Time for a few words…

27 Wednesday Apr 2016

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I’m sitting on a Grand Central train which is taking me back to London for the second time this week, so I thought I’d snatch a few minutes away from work to scribble a few words.

I’ve very much been back on the road this past week, so even slide scanning has had to take a bit of a back seat as slide scanners aren’t the most portable bits of kit, then again – neither are slides!

Last week saw me spending Wednesday conducting a series of interviews for a book. This involved one on-board a train to Wakefield before I hot-footed it across the Pennines to Longsight depot in Manchester, then moving on to Preston for the final interview in the trilogy. Sadly, my journey home was delayed at Blackburn due to some poor soul threatening to commit suicide on the line. This time, the outcome was a happy one. I wasn’t so lucky on Thursday when I had to travel to Oakham for the funeral of Ray “Matey” Towell. The outward journey was fine. I started from Huddersfield with a trip along the Penistone line in absolutely glorious weather. Even the fact that the trip was done on a Pacer couldn’t take the shine off things. For once, I eschewed keyboard swiping on my laptop to soak up the scenery – and the sunshine. The onward trip from Sheffield was to Leicester was done on something a little more comfortable as EMT provided a Class 222 Meridian. Because they’re fitted with power points I had no excuse to avoid knuckling down to do some picture editing. I’d planned to get the train for the final leg to Oakham but a few minutes browsing social media informed me that a number of the ‘brothers’ (oh, and a solitary sister) were converging on the town with the idea of sharing a charabanc. Thus, I found myself with Messers Pridmore, Brennan-Brown, Morris, Hughes and Howard for a laughter filled trip to a place we’d all really rather not have been going…

That said, Ray’s funeral was a fitting send off for such a popular character. Around 160 people filled All Saints church to celebrate his life. There was laughter and tears in equal measure as memories were shared and poems read. Afterwards, most of us adjourned to a local hostelry. After all, it’s what Ray would have wanted.

Time conspired against me as I couldn’t stay for more than a few minutes thanks to a prior engagement in York, so after a swift half and a few farewells I legged it to the station for a train to Peterborough and an onward connection to York. That’s when it all started to go wrong for the second day in a row. A glance at the Peterborough information screens told me that the East Coast timetable was in disarray thanks to a suicide at Stevenage. My train was going to be late but i’d no idea how long I’d have to hang around. VTEC staff were doing their best to keep passengers informed but some questions they really had no answers for. For me, time was of the essence as I was volunteering at the Railway Benefit Fund spring ball that evening. The ETA of my train began to slip as news came of further delays due to what we were told was a trespass incident near the suicide site – exactly what no-one needed*

In the end my train arrived 50 minutes late. Having left myself some recovery time I still managed to arrive before the event started – although I had to change into my tuxedo in the NRM toilets rather than at the hotel (my partner, Dawn was also a volunteer, so she’d carried it with her)! The fun of the ball made up for the days more sombre & sober events. Everybody there had a wonderful time with the added glow that we’d raised thousand of pounds for the RBF.

After a weekend of work and walking around home I was back on the road on Monday when I headed back to London to add to my picture library before attending a Eurostar community event in the evening (more of which later). Yesterday was a little different as I joined the ACoRP team on a visit to my old home town (Southport) to ‘recce’ the venue for the 2016 ACoRP community rail awards and discuss arrangements with the venues staff. We also selected the menus for the evening and tested what would be on offer (I know – it’s a tough job!) We can confidently say that those attending won’t be disappointed…

Today I’m back on Grand Central as I’m due to shoot portraits of the new Senior Management Team of a well-known railway company in London. This evening I’ve an engagement in Huddersfield and tomorrow I finally have a day at home -but only the one. After that Dawn and I head up to Scotland for a long weekend with a bunch of friends that will involve archery, quad-biking and driving tanks. Oh, and maybe the occasional libation..

*Earlier this week I was chatting to one of the crew from the train which suffered the suicide. I’m not going to name names but I think this is a good illustration of the random nature of these tragic events and how fate can deal the cards. The Train Manager is the only one from his depot to have suffered a suicide. In fact, he’s had two. After the latest incident he was on the empty stock returning to depot up North to be checked out and cleaned up. On their way the driver spotted someone lying in the four foot ahead of them. Thankfully for all concerned this person ‘chickened out’ at the last moment and moved onto another track – thus preventing the train (and some of the crew) having two suicides in one day.

Hs2’s big day…

23 Wednesday Mar 2016

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This afternoon the Hs2 Phase 1 Hybrid Bill will pass 3rd reading in the House of Commons which effectively means Parliament grants the project planning permission. The bill still has to pass through the House of Lords but they cannot stop the bill becoming law.

To all intents and purposes, today puts an end to the Stop Hs2 campaign as it’s now exhausted the political process. Whilst their campaign may stagger on for a few months until the Lords petitioning is over there’s really nowhere for them to go. The past 6 years have shown that their claims of being a national, grass-roots campaign were false. The heart of their campaign has always been nimbyism – especially from the Chilterns (and to a lesser extent Warwickshire). They never made a political breakthrough and made the fundamental error of trying to stop the project rather than gain support for getting the best financial and environmental mitigation possible. It’s also been a terribly dishonest campaign which hasn’t covered anyone involved with it in glory. A good example of that was yesterdays disgusting attempt to use the victims of the Brussels bombings against Hs2 when their corpses were still warm (see here).

What’s interesting to see is the way the Stop Hs2 campaign is going out with a whimper. Looking at them you’d hardly think today was so important. They’re too weak to organise a demonstration outside Parliament as the last time they tried that (for 2nd reading) less than 100 turned up. They’re too skint to put adverts in the newspapers so they’ve relied on social media – but even that’s a flop. There’s no attempt to make a big splash or get Hs2 trending. Instead there’s just a few lone people tweeting their opposition or making desperate, last minute pleas to their MPs. None of it shows a campaign with any vigour, purpose or determination. To add to the pathetic feeling one of the two surviving anti groups (Hs2aa) appears to have given up on social media, which it’s not used since the 6th March. It’s posted an appeal to MPs on its website but hasn’t noticed it’s website is blocked by most internet browsers as an “attack page”!

I only hope that people living on the next phases of Hs2 who will are genuinely  affected learn from the mistakes the Stophs2 campaigns made and concentrate on getting the best from the project instead. My advice to them would be to ditch the political opportunists who want to exploit you (like UKIP and local campaigners who are only in it for the attention it brings them) and work through the established local political framework to engage with the project. You have a lot of legal protections through environmental and other laws.

What the past 6 years have taught us is that vital national infrastructure shouldn’t be delayed by Victorian political processes such as Hybrid Bills, which allow a vociferous minority to add costs and delays. The good news is that the lessons appear to have been learned. The new infrastructure Commission and an overhaul of the Hybrid Bill process will (hopefully) prevent infrastructure being used as a political football both by politicians and local opposition. Hs2 has in some ways been a remarkable story. The project has maintained the political consensus around it through two general elections and a coalition Government – no mean feat!

I’m working in London today but I hope to catch up with some of the debate this afternoon and blog about the result of the vote later.

UPDATE (21:17).

Well, I didn’t manage to catch any of the debate, but I did see the result. The Hs2 bill passed 3rd reading with a stonking 357 majority. The final vote was 399 to 42. That means only 1 extra MP voted against Hs2 than they did during the second reading back in 2014. What amused me was all the fuss UKIP made about Hs2. Remember this ludicrous claim?

Farage Hs2

Yet, when it came to the crunch, their solitary MP didn’t even vote!

I’ll blog more tomorrow. In the meantime, let’s all enjoy the fact Parliament has spoken with a very loud voice – and that voice has said “build Hs2”.

 

Bonkers, utterly bonkers…

17 Thursday Mar 2016

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With only 6 days to go before the Hs2 Hybrid Bill passes 3rd reading, the anti Hs2 mob have come up with the bright idea of starting yet another stop Hs2 petition – I kid you not!

The internet is already so littered with their failed petitions it resembles a field the day after the Glastonbury festival. Why they think running yet another one will change anything is beyond comprehension.

The stupid thing is – there’s already one running. I’ve blogged about their embarrassing “flood defences not Hs2” petition here. That one’s a pearler as it allows you to track where the signatures come from and – sure enough – it exposed that nearly half of all signatures come from constituencies on the route and the majority  (surprise, surprise) are from the Chilterns.

Now this one has been started on the petitions website 38 degrees. In 4 days they’ve managed just over 600 signatures – way behind what the flood petition managed (although that’s getting single figures now all the Hs2 antis have signed it). When will they ever learn? All these daft petitions do is expose the fact their claims of ‘massive’ support are a figment of their imaginations.

Meanwhile, over in Camden, they have their very own petition to urge their local MP, Sir Keir Starmer to vote against the Hs2 bill. It’s another exercise in pointlessness as Sir Keir’s opposition to Hs2 is already known & he’s expected to  follow Frank Dobson’s example and vote against anyway. This petition has less than 600 signatures from the borough’s 225,000 residents.

I doubt MPs who will be voting for Hs2 on the 23rd are losing any sleep over any of the anti Hs2 petitions. Still, they do provide a useful lesson for any activist groups in the future, and that lesson is – here’s how NOT to do it…

Gilligan recycles his Hs2 knocking copy from 2012 as “new”

13 Sunday Mar 2016

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Desperate for good news now that the Hs2 Hybrid bill is only days away from passing 3rd reading, the anti Hs2 mob have fallen hook, line & sinker for the latest rubbish from Andrew Gilligan in the Sunday Telegraph.

It’s classic Gilligan, lite, trite and s**te. He rehashes old news, adds a dash of mystery with a supposed ‘secret’ report and lets loose another useless piece of scaremongering masquerading as investigative journalism.

Let’s have a look at his claims. What (if anything) in the article is actually new? Nothing at all. The supposedly “secret” report is over a year old and it actually talks about issues around track geometry that have been known about for years. Gilligoon quotes Prof Peter Woodward of Herriott Watt university about “critical track velocity effects” and “significant issues” with track instability. And?

Here’s a link to the Herriott Watt website and their railway research department. The issues with high speed track design are so “secret” that, err, the university has a course for students to study it! Woodward’s work into high speed track design featured on the BBC as far back as January 2013.

So, far from being “news” Gilligan is (as usual) rehashing his own old stories. He first published this same scaremongering way back in February 2012! Here’s what he said then. As you can see, it’s almost a carbon copy of his “new” revelations – including the tired old stuff about Rayleigh waves (which were discussed in great detail in Parliament as long ago as 2011).

Once again Gilligoon proves just how crap a journalist he really is. He recycles an old story from 2012 & hopes no-one will notice! There’s nothing new here at all, let alone anything that’s ‘news’. Like most of the stuff Gilligan writes there’s only one place to file this latest rubbish. The bin.

UPDATE at 20:42

Like most stories, this one has spread. Gilligoon’s story has continued to implode. Blogger Tim Fenton aka @zelo_street has picked up & expanded on the story – as has a  respected technical expert (Chris Baker)

The anti Hs2 mobs imaginary friends

11 Friday Mar 2016

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I’ve not blogged about the anti Hs2 campaign for a little while. This is because – to all intents & purposes – it’s pretty much ceased to exist. There’s been no point in highlighting a crazy campaigner of the week as their social media campaign is full of crazies now all the sensible ones have given up or moved on. I’d be better off trying to award a sensible campaigner of the week.

The two remaining campaign groups (StopHs2 and Hs2aa) have a desultory presence on social media nowadays. StopHs2 manage a few ineffectual tweets a week but Hs2aa have only tweeted 10 times this year. Why they bother is a mystery as pictures of allegedly ’empty’ trains have never got them anywhere anyway. They’ve not even managed to mention the fate of their final legal action which should have been heard by the UN yesterday.

Over the years we were lead to believe there were (allegedly) millions of disgruntled voters directly affected by Hs2 who were itching to stop the project. Needless to say, these imaginary friends never appeared. This weeks announcement that the 3rd reading of the Hybrid Bill is on the 23rd is a great example.

One MP, the shy and retiring member for Lichfield, Michael Fabricant (are you sure this is right? Ed) took to Twitter to announce he was going to present a motion to annul the Hs2 Hybrid bill on the 23rd. Here’s the wording;

Fab amendment

OK, the motion is a complete crock that doesn’t stand a chance, but you’d think that the antis would be ganging up to congratulate & support him. After all, he has over 16,000 Twitter followers so you’d think the news would be spreading like wildfire through the Twitterverse, yes?

Nope. It’s two day since Fabricant tweeted his joyous news. Here’s how many people have liked it or retweeted it;

Fabricant. 11.3.16.

A paltry 27 retweets and 16 likes shows just how parlous the state of the anti Hs2 campaign is nowadays. Still, it goes to show what I’ve always said, the anti Hs2 mob have relied on their imaginary friends and never understood that -as they can’t vote, they’re worse than useless.

Still, there’s one good thing about Fabricant’s motion. It will expose just how few MPs actively oppose Hs2 and may actually hasten the end of the StopHs2 campaign.

Apologies for absence…

10 Thursday Mar 2016

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I’m sorry about the lack of any blogs recently. This has been due to two things,  beginning the mammoth task of scanning my old slide collection – and the virtual collapse of the anti Hs2 campaign.

I converted to digital photography in March 2004 but between then and October 1989 all my pictures were taken on a variety of slide films (remember names like Kodachrome, Velvia & Provia?). I started off using a Pentax ME Super that I bought second-hand off a friend before switching to Nikon in the early 1990s. I gradually upgraded models before finally standardising on an F5 and F90x loaded with 50 asa Fuji Velvia and a ‘fast’ 400 asa Provia.

My collection grew to something like 25,000 images which took up two long shelves in my home in North London. I’d bought a Nikon Coolscan slide scanner & I’d scan a few every now and then but my commercial work meant there was never enough time to do them all. After moving to Yorkshire they went into storage and the scanner fell into disuse as the software became outdated & incompatible with modern versions of Windows.

Now I’ve decided it’s finally time to get my arse into gear & get them scanned. I’ve bought new scanner software, dug out my lightbox, a few albums and begun the process – which is going to take me a couple of years at least! To ensure the quality of each image and that each slide is ready to scan takes time (dust was always the bane of a film photographers life). On a good day I can do around 40 – but this has to fit around my commissioned work.

The end result should be worth it as an amazing collection of rail and travel pictures will be added to my website. I spent a lot of those years travelling the world, including two long trips between 1991-92 and 1997-99*. On the railway front there’s pictures that encompass the latter days of British Rail and the early days of privatisation. I’ve started off with two albums I had handy which are pictures from Tanzania, the UK and Greece (follow the links to see the pictures).

I’ll still be blogging, but right now I’m trying to work out a new work/life balance, so please forgive me if blogs are a little sparse!

 

*It was after that 18 month trip that I packed up my previous career working in local government managing social housing to become a freelance professional photographer – but that’s another story…

Real hs2 facts (No 2)….

01 Monday Feb 2016

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More folks have signed the save a cross channel hovercraft petition in 3 days than the flood petition in 35!

Hovercraft:

Flood petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/117184

 

 

Sri Lankan sojourn. Part 1

23 Saturday Jan 2016

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After a hectic few days exploring Colombo and the hill country, we’re kicking back on one of Sri Lanka’s lovely Southern beaches at the little town of Mirissa. It’s hard to believe we’ve already been here for two weeks as the time seems to flown by. Hopefully, now we’re on a beach it’ll slow down a bit!

I’ve not been back to Sri Lanka since 2004. Since then the bloody war between the Government and the Tamil Tigers has ended (not without controversy) and the country appears to be entering a new era of prosperity – mostly on the back of Chinese investment. Colombo is certainly changing. New multi-storey hotels are springing up all around the lagoon at the back of Galle Face Green in the area formerly known as Slave Island. It’s the same along the Galle Rd where new shopping centres and apartment blocks have replaced many of the low rise buildings. Colombo is growing in both stature – and height.

DG237443. The changing face of Slave Island. Colombo. Sri Lanka. 12.1.16.

The changing face of Slave Island as Chinese money expands Colombo’s skyline & economy

Despite this, there’s a lot that’s still familiar and unaffected by the rush to modernity. Pettah still maintains its warren of backstreet bazaars & crush of humanity of all races and religions. Manning market adjacent to Fort station still sells fresh produce in the traditional way & hasn’t altered for donkey’s years. It’s a fascinating place to wander around, watch people and discover all manner of exotic fruit and veg that many Westerners have never even seen before – much less eaten.

DG237334. Traders. Manning market. Colombo. Sri Lanka. 11.1.16.

Inside the old Manning Market, which hasn’t changed in donkeys years

One place that’s successfully made the transition from old to new is the former Dutch Hospital in the cities business district. Situated opposite the World Trade Centre, It’s a well-executed restoration of a single storey colonial building with red roof tiles that surrounds two courtyards this historic building has been transformed into a centre for several restaurants & bars. It’s home to the famous Ministry of Crab – a seafood restaurant with a reputation as one of the top restaurants in Asia (I’ll let you know if that title’s deserved before I leave as we’re booked in on our last night!).

DG237229. Ministry of Crab. Colombo. Sri Lanka. 10.1.16..JPG

The Ministry of Crab, inside the former Dutch hospital.

Food is certainly one of Sri Lanka’s highlights. Most mornings we’d start the day with string hoppers eaten at a local café near our hotel. Served with a lush coconut chutney, curry sauce and dahl, they’re both cheap and delicious (breakfast for the two of us would cost about £1.50). In the evenings we’d eat at one of the food stalls set up on Galle face Green. Here you can enjoy devilled squid for around £1.75 or seafood Kottu for £2. Vegetable rice will set you back £1. The Green’s also a great place to sit and people-watch – especially on a Sunday when it’s jam-packed with locals enjoying their day off. There’s families of all religions, canoodling teenagers glad to be away from watchful parental eyes, hawkers selling all manner of plastic toys and dozens of kids flying kites in the strong sea breeze. It’s an ideal place to people-watch & observe Colomban’s at play from the shade of one of the palms bordering the green.

DG237247. String Hoppers with dahl and chutney. Colombo. Sri Lanka. 11.1.16..JPG

The classic Sri Lankan breakfast. String hoppers with dahl & coconut chutney.

DG237218. Selfies on Galle Face Green. Colombo. Sri Lanka. 10.1.16.

A group of Muslim women pose for a “selfie” on Galle Face Green

On our first night exploring Colombo we stumbled across a procession of priests and locals led by acrobats swirling fire wheels, accompanied by traditional drummers and dancers which disappeared into the World Trade Centre. After questioning an English speaking member of the group we discovered it was part of a ceremony to commemorate the 15 workers from the Centre who had died in a bomb attack by the Tamil Tigers back in 1997. Prayers were also said for all victims of terror around the world. We were invited to participate & sat in on the simple but moving ceremony which gave a fascinating insight into local life.

DG237076. WTC procession dancers. Colombo. Sri Lanka. 8.9.16.

Drummers in the procession to the World Trade Centre ceremony

The modernity of the business district was a marked contrast to Slave Island, the area where we were staying. Here, the old rubs cheeks with the new, although a lot of the former colonial buildings have seen better days. They’re gradually retreating under the march of time & new Chinese money.

DG237136. Old colonial buildings. Justice Akbar Mawatha. Slave island. Colombo. Sri Lanka. 9.1.16.

The changing face of Colombo. Old colonial buildings in Slave Island whilst a new Chinese funded tower dominates the skyline.

If you want to see more pictures from the trip, click on this link which will take you to the Sri Lanka gallery on my website.

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/

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Thank you!

En-route to a vitamin D fix…

07 Thursday Jan 2016

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We’re taking our leave of soggy and gloomy Yorkshire aboard a Grand Central train to London. You can tell it’s January, not just by the weather but by how quiet the train is. GC services are normally very busy nowadays with some services full and standing, but on this one there’s enough room to park an elephant. The good thing about it is the staff have more time to chat, so I’ve had and interesting discussion with Zak (our Customer Service Assistant) about his home town in the Gujarat, India – which I had the pleasure of visiting a few years ago.

We’re heading for his part of the world now. Not India itself, but the island that lies at the top of it – Sri Lanka. I first went there in 1992 but I’ve not been back since 2004 so I’m looking forward to seeing how much it’s changed – and to soaking up some winter sunshine on one or two of those glorious beaches.

But first there’s an important stop to make at Searcy’s champagne bar in St Pancras station.

See you later folks…