The Brexit rhetoric gets darker

09 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by in Brexit, Politics, UK, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

Remember when the victorious Leave campaign and it’s leaders assured us that Brexit would be the start of a new golden age in trade with Europe? Then, we were told tha the EU was bound to give us a great deal as ‘they need us more than we need them’. Cast aside for a moment the two very obvious flaws in this logic (the UK is a far smaller market then the EU and why in the name of God would they give a better deal to a country that’s just left?) and remember the idiotic and false claims. Like the one the buffoon Boris made about sales of prosecco? Or when he swore that despite Brexit, we’d still have access to the single market?

johnson

How hollow all those claims sound now.

Or how about David Davis, when he put the cat amongst the pigeons by saying that it was ‘very improbable’ that we’d stay in the single market and got slapped down by the PM, Teresa May?

The truth was, there never was a plan for Brexit and those who campaigned for it routinely lied about the advantages of leaving. There were none. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. The fanciful claims about the super deals we’d get from the EU have been dropped in favour of a much darker rhetoric. Now, it’s “no deal is better than a bad one”

We’ve gone from soft Brexit to hard Brexit in a few short months. Now, we stand to lose all those thing Boris Johnson said we’d always have – access to the single market. The right to live, work and study in the EU, freedom of movement – everything. Not only that, but come the day we actually leave – there would be no trade deals in place. Of course, brexiters love to brush such concerns aside, pretending there’d be no serious consequences if that happened. Really? How about British airlines being unable to fly? Here’s what Ryanair’s Michael O’ Leary and some EU leaders pointed out

Hard Brexit will be bad, very bad. Don’t be under any illusions over that. But that’s exactly the path Teresa May’s government – aided and abetted by Jeremy Corbyn and Co, are leading us down.

We’ve been conned. There is no upside to Brexit for ordinary people. There never was.

Spend HS2 money on the NHS? Here’s why it’s economic illiteracy

08 Wednesday Mar 2017

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, NHS, Rail Investment

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

, , ,

*blog revised with new data on the 17th June 2020*

Over the years the anti Hs2 campaign grasped straw after straw. One of the most common ones being binary choices. We could either have flood defences or HS2, or fix potholes in the roads or build Hs2, or – you name it. As the years went on the list got longer and more stupid. Now we have the latest manifestation and one of the most stupid of all. If we scrap the biggest construction project in Europe we’ll ‘save’ the economy from the effects of Covid-19!

But there was one they’ve always kept coming back to. Whatever figure they’d invented for the cost of Hs2 that week – it should be spent on the NHS instead. Because everyone (well, except UKIP, Brexiters and various Tories) love the NHS.

Such ‘logic’ is the epitome of intellectual bankruptcy because it fails to understand a fundamental financial fact. The different between capital expenditure (Capex) and operational expenditure (Opex). Let me explain.

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

Operating expenditure covers the day to day functioning of a business, like wages, utilities, maintenance and repairs. It also covers depreciation. It’s money needed every year.

The cost of building Hs2 is currently around £88bn. For that we get all the benefits I mentioned. In contrast, planned expenditure for the NHS in 2016/17 is £120.611bn. That means if we diverted the supposed pot of money for Hs2 to the NHS it would run the NHS for less than 9 months. Then it would be gone, never to return. It wouldn’t solve any problems, because the NHS would need that money every year. Instead, you’d be left with rail gridlock (which would cost money, not save it) and you wouldn’t have a catalyst for regeneration in cities like Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham, so you’re not helping rebalance the economy either. Oh, and you wouldn’t have all the tax revenue from the jobs HS2’s created either.

This (in a nutshell) is why the stophs2 campaigns calls to divert money from HS2 to the NHS is both daft, and ignorant. Even Labour’s former Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell pointed this out in an interview with the Yorkshire Post.

Oh, there’s one other thing. There IS no pot of money sat in the Treasury labelled ‘HS2’ that’s just waiting for another sticker to be applied to it, so it can’t be diverted. HS2 isn’t paid for by the taxpayer either – despite all the rubbish you hear – it’s paid for by borrowing at a time when Governments can borrow at such historically low levels people will actually pay you to borrow!

gilts

So the money for HS2 is borrowed against future returns in the same way any government in any country invests in national transport infrastructure. Historically, the UK has always been poor at doing this, which is why so much of our infrastructure is old (just look at the existing West Coast Main line – it was built 190 years ago!). The OECD recommends that baseline infra investment is 5.5% of GDP annually for an economy with aspirations to growth. We’ve only spent this amount twice since WW2, so HS2 and  High Speed North is a minimum.

In fact, the cost of building HS2 is spread over very many years, at its peak it will be less than £5bn per year. It’s just another column in the Governments annual budget. But, cancelling HS2 doesn’t free up any money (there’s no pot, remember?). It just means the Government borrows less, or transport infrastructure continues to age and our competitors (the younger, more forward thinking countries) continue to outpace us.

This is why cancelling HS2 and pretending it frees up billions to be diverted anywhere is just economic illiteracy.

The UKs political shambles (pt 2)

08 Wednesday Mar 2017

Posted by in Brexit, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

One of the things about travelling is that it gives you chance to observe other countries political systems and problems. As a Briton, I come from a long established Parliamentary democracy that appeared both mature, and stable. I could look at countries like Thailand – with its long history of takeovers by the military, or Sri Lanka – increasingly run as a family business – and be grateful my country couldn’t be taken over like that.

How wrong I was.

Brexit, and the takeover of the Labour party by the hard left, has changed everything. The country is set on a course to crash out of the EU in the most damaging way possible – both politically and economically – and her majesty’s opposition are actually colluding in it!

Let’s be clear. The biggest losers from Brexit won’t be the multi-millionaires who funded the leave campaign. They’ve already gained from the weakness in Sterling and they’ll gain even more from the Govts plans to turn the UK into a low-tax refuge. The people who will be hurt most will be their poor foot-soldiers. The turkeys who voted for Christmas through a breath-taking series of lies, like the infamous £350m written on the side of a bus and years of disinformation about immigration and the EU. The less well-off (both in terms of finance and education) are going to bear the brunt of the cuts, the economic slowdown and the rises in prices that we’re already seeing. Yet, many of them still support Brexit, because they still believe in the lies and can’t see what’s coming as the newspapers they read are feeding them more lies and diverting their attention from the real problems.

Meanwhile, we have the Labour party, the very party set up to protect these people, colluding in their downfall. Why?

Because the Labour party is dominated by the hard Left whose rigid dogma sees those people as collateral damage in the age old struggle against capitalism. They’ve held on to the old dictum that the people won’t rise up and throw off their chains until they’ve been sufficiently oppressed! Those on the Left are supporting Brexit because they believe the coming disaster will ruin the Tories and an outraged populous will then sweep Labour to power. Politically, it’s a scorched-earth policy from dogmatists who’ve always seen people as a political concept – a theory, not actual human beings. It’s bat-shit crazy of course, but that’s dogmatists for you. Ignore the fact that Corbyn’s about as popular as a fart in a spacesuit with most voters and that the Labour party no longer seems fit for purpose. It’ll all come good in the end when the working classes have reached tipping point and the scales drop from their eyes…

Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a lot of good people in the Labour party, but they’re not the ones in charge. The hard-left lunatics have taken over the asylum.

Meanwhile, even pragmatic Tories are concerned at this turn of events. I’ve never subscribed to the dogmatists view that Labour=Good and Tories=Bad. Their are decent folk on both sides. The biggest difference nowadays is that it seems the Tories are more likely to vote with their conscience than on party lines. It’s Labour MPs who’ve lost their backbones. It’s a sad state of affairs when it’s the politicians of a previous generation – the Thatcher era (Blair, Major, Heseltine and Clarke) who’re the eloquent and logical voices.

Brexit has shown that in the 21st Century it’s frighteningly easy to subvert a long-established democracy if you have the money and metrics to do it – and the opposition is weak, dogmatic and stuck in another time. It speaks volumes that in 2017 it’s the unelected 2nd chamber of the House of Lords that’s the backbone of our democracy, not the elected MPs in the Commons! We have an awful situation where May’s government is so entrenched she sacks Heseltine for dissent, Labour’s left calls for MPs who don’t back Corbyn to be de-selected and the Brexit mob call anyone who doesn’t slavishly follow their hard line ‘traitors’ (so, that’s most of us then).

It’s shocking, and frightening. Many can see what’s about to happen, many more don’t seem to either care, or understand. What’ll happen when the turkeys finally realise it’s Christmas Eve? I’m not sure I want to stick around and find out…

High Speed UK caught telling porkies?

04 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, HSUK, YorkshireStopHs2

≈ 24 Comments

Tags

, ,

I’ve never bothered blogging about High Speed UK before. Mainly because the project has no hope of ever getting off the kitchen table it’s been drawn up on.

However, researching yesterday’s blog on the waste of time that was the Yorkshire StopHs2 ‘conference’ in Wakefield threw up something interesting. It was this comment on the Erewash Stop Hs2 groups Facebook page;

erewash

They can’t make the route public because “it would infringe Ordnance Survey copyright”? Really? That’s not what Ordnance Survey say. Here’s the link to the OS website page, which says;

os

So, that’s HSUK’s claim blown out of the water by the OS!

Of course, there IS another reason why HSUK aren’t keen on using OS maps to overlay their pretty lines on. It becomes obvious when you have a look at the maps they have on their website. Here’s part of the map for West Yorkshire.

hsuk-map

As you can see, it’s devoid of detail. Human habitation is drawn in the vaguest of ways and there’s bugger all topographical detail either. Now, let’s examine this in more detail against satellite imagery used by Google Maps. Let’s take Wakefield as an example, seeing as the conference was there yesterday. HSUK propose a new Western chord linking the ECML at Wakefield Westgate with the lower level line through Kirkgate. But what’s actually in the way of such a chord? Well, you won’t find any detail on HSUKs map – and here’s why!

Wakefield

What HSUK aren’t keen for anyone to see it that chord would cut right through an industrial estate, across Waldorf Way, then pass straight through a housing estate which includes Avondale St, Tew St, Cotton St and Horne St! Can you imagine what the citizens of Wakefield might have said if they saw this map on display yesterday? Would the Erewash and Yorkshire Stophs2 groups be so keen to support HSUK if they knew details like this? I think we all know the answer to that – there would be uproar from their members at the magnitude of demolitions and disruption – which is why HSUK (unlike Hs2 Ltd) don’t use OS maps!

Of course, publishing this level of detail would expose their claims that HSUK would be £20bn cheaper to build than Hs2 as the moonshine it is. None of these demolition/compensation or other costs are factored in.

Now, let’s have a look at the answer to David Briggs question about Long Eaton. Here’s the HSUK ‘map’.

long-eaton

Notice those tunnels to the South of Long Eaton? Where would be the construction site for them – or the entirely new line heading South. Let’s have a look at Google again.

long-eaton-google

Hang on a minute – where have those lakes come from? They’re not shown on the HSUK map. Only the river Trent is. I wonder why? Could that be because those lakes are actually Trent Windsurfing Club, who might not be too happy about this? Oh, and the other side of the Trent is Thrumpton, where Thrumpton Hall is set amongst 300 acres of parkland! Only it’s right in the way of HSUKs little scheme!

The more you compare HSUK’s featureless maps with what’s really on the ground, the more obvious it becomes why HSUK don’t use OS maps. It would kill support for their madcap scheme stone dead.

I do hope some Long Eaton residents see this and get to ask HSUK some rather frank and awkward questions on the 9th – as well as the stophs2 campaigners who’re in bed with HSUK. I may disagree fundamentally with the StopHs2 campaign, but I believe that people who live along the route have the right not to be misled or used as pawns by others with their own agenda.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

 

 

More on the Yorkshire anti Hs2 campaign

03 Friday Mar 2017

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, StopHs2, Yorkshire, YorkshireStopHs2

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

Yesterday I blogged about Hs2 getting Royal Assent and how the stophs2 campaign has collapsed. I also mentioned about how the focus has changed to Yorkshire, where there’s a confused and contradictory campaign that can’t make its mind up if it wants to Stop Hs2, or just change the route back to Meadowhall.

Well, more evidence has come to light over just how disjointed and unsuccessful that campaign is. First, let’s have a look at StopHs2 Erewash. This small group is trying to stop Hs2 around Long Eaton. They don’t have a working website so here’s a link to their Facebook page, which is rather instructive. Hs2 antis never did learn that social media is a double-edged sword. It can help you spread your message, but it can also show how weak and divided you are!

A sidebar on their page displays a post that contains a copy of a letter from their local MP, Maggie Throup to her constituents. The letter makes plain that she supports Hs2. Not only that, she also lays into groups like StopHs2 Erewash for deliberately spreading disinformation!

throup-2

That pretty much sounds the death knell for this group and their campaign. Without the support of their MP this is game over as it’s MPs who vote on Phase 2 of Hs2. StopHs2 Erewash have this event arranged for March 9th. I think its fair to say it’s not going to be graced by their MP!

erewash-event

Apropos of this event, I see some locals aren’t happy with who’s been invited to speak, namely High Speed UK (HSUK). Regular readers will know that HSUK is a back of a fag-packet scheme drawn up by Colin Elliff and Quentin McDonald. They’ve been touting it for years as an ‘alternative’ to Hs2 but no-one’s been daft enough to fall for a scheme that’s just lines drawn on a map, with no real detail about junctions, trains or services. The only thing HSUK have had any success at is persuading a few gullible souls to use them as ‘expert witnesses’ during the petitioning process. That hasn’t gone well either.

So, I was interested to see this comment on the Erewash FB page.

erewash

Of course, HSUK are also at the event the grandly (and inaccurately) titled ‘YorkshireAgainstHs2″are holding in Wakefield today.

alternatives

It doesn’t appear to be going well. I’m always suspicious of these events when there’s a noticeable absence of tweets or pictures from them. It’s normally a sign that few have turned up. So far there’s been a very tightly cropped //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js“>video of Green Party leader Natalie ‘brain fade’ Bennett saying a few words put out by the organisers, and a couple of tweets from her – none of which show the audience – and, that’s it, which is pathetic when you think about it. Contrast that with the amount of media (and social media) attention the conference about the Hs2 station design in Sheffield received yesterday.

Considering the this is meant to be Yorkshire (population 5.2 million) against Hs2 and it’s holding the event in Wakefield (pop 327,000) they’re not exactly rocking the Casbah! However, in fairness to them. If they DO show anything that illustrates the size of the crowd, I’ll be only too happy to share it!

The lack of any real political support to try and Stop Hs2 in Yorkshire and the amateurishness & contradictory nature of the groups means they’ve no chance of success. At best, they’ll provide more lessons in how not to run a campaign in the age of social media.

Oh, one more snippet. Even Joe Rukin of Stophs2 has admitted what I’ve been saying all along, that the Yorkshire Stophs2 campaign is divided and without a clear aim! This was posted about today’s Wakefield event;

rukin

Of course, in Rukin’s book, “a lot” means something very different to the real world. Hence the poor turn-out today.

UPDATE.

I’m posting this at 21:00 when it’s clear the events been a spectacular failure. Hopefully, you’ll be able to view this presentation for the Leader of Wakefield Council, Peter Box. It highlights why their campaign’s so hopeless. It trots out just about every fairy story about Hs2 we’ve ever heard – including the classic ‘Hs2 only saves 20 minutes’

Just like everything else about their campaign the quality of the videos coming out from the event are amateurish in the extreme. This really is Poundland PR…

Hs2 gets Royal Assent

02 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2aa, Mid Cheshire against Hs2, StopHs2, Transport

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

This major milestone was attained on the 23rd February whilst I was away in Asia, so I’ve not had chance to blog about it until today. Royal Assent means that years of talking and arguing about Hs2 are finally over. Royal Assent is essentially granting planning permission for construction to start. There are no more legal or political hoops to jump through. Politicians have now moved on to other things, even if a few anti Hs2 campaigners haven’t. What RA also does is release some pots of money that had been held back. Here’s what the DfT release says about them:

“Two funds, worth £40 million, are now open for bids: the Community and Environment Fund (CEF) and the Business and Local Economy Fund (BLEF). The CEF will help enhance community facilities, improve access to the countryside and conserve the natural environment, while the BLEF will support local economies in areas where businesses may experience disruption from the construction of HS2.

The CEF and BLEF together make up £40 million and will be allocated at a regional level: £15 million for the central area (Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Buckinghamshire Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire), £7.5 million for Greater London and £7.5 million for the West Midlands (Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry). The remaining £10 million will fund cross-border or route wide projects”.

But there’s more…

“A further £30 million road safety fund will go towards local road safety schemes in areas not currently accustomed to construction traffic. This will help provide a legacy of improvements for areas adversely affected by Phase One traffic.”

That’s a total of £70m for projects along the phase 1 route that have been released by Royal Assent.

Of course, RA has had other impacts. It’s screwed down the lid on the StopHs2 campaign’s coffin. Their campaign’s dead – although some of them refuse to admit it and continue to witter on Twitter, as if it matters any more as spades will start going into the ground in a few short weeks time.

So, what’s next for the anti Hs2 campaign. Well, on phase 1 – it’s oblivion. There’s only one active group left in 2017 as Hs2aa haven’t been heard of since November last year. In fact, if you look at Hs2aa’s website you wouldn’t even know Hs2 has got Royal Assent!

That leaves Kenilworth based StopHs2 which is just two people. Joe Rukin (who lives locally) and Penny Gaines, who’s decamped to the South-West! In order to keep his non-job going poor Joe is trying to sell his services and ‘expertise’ to Phase 2 campaigners. Quite what Yorkshire would do with a bloke whose CV reveals 7 years of failure and dishonesty is an interesting question. StopHs2 are skint. How long they will survive now is an interesting question. I’d be surprised if they last beyond the summer.

That brings us onto the next phase of Hs2 – 2a from the W Midlands to Crewe. The consultation closed on 7th November 2016. Shortly afterwards the Govt confirmed the route. 2017 will see the Environmental Impact Assessment completed and the Hybrid Bill launched. The Govt are expecting phase 2a to get Royal Assent in 2019. This may seem optimistic when you look at the time it took on Phase 1, but for one thing. The anti Hs2 campaign on Phase 2a is almost non-existent!

Apart from an active group around Stone (Staffs), supported by the local MP, Bill Cash, there’s no organised opposition to Hs2. There was in the past (of a sort, anyway) but it was always riven by in-fighting and egos. Much of it was UKIP inspired, but as they’ve got their own problems nowadays don’t expect many fireworks.

That leaves the two arms of phase 2. Crewe to Manchester and the W Midlands to Leeds.

Of the two, the Manchester arm has the least Stophs2 activity. There’s a small group based in Mid-Cheshire that’s noisy but ineffective (it doesn’t even have the backing of the local MP) and there’s the remnants of a group around Warrington. Take a look at their website. It hasn’t been updated since 2015!  Their Facebook page isn’t much better.  The only other group worth mentioning is CADRAG (Culcheth And District Rail Action Group) but they’re just as moribund as the others. This comment on their Facebook page says it all.

cadrag

That leaves the Leeds leg, where the story is more complicated.

There’s one tiny group in Leics (which essentially seems to be a one man and his dog operation) around the village of Measham. Here’s their website. When you look through you find there’s very little in the way of action. Much of their website is empty and they’ve still not announced who their Committee members are 3 months on! Their main reason to exist seems to be to help people turn out carbon copy consultation responses (which worked so well on Phase 1 , not). Their social media presence is one man tweeting stuff that has no links with Measham at all, just random StopHs2 propaganda, oh, and a strange obsession with how many views his Tweets have had (so much so that he then tweets about it)! A telling statistic is that only 1% of the local population turned up to their inaugural meeting.

What makes this group interesting is that they’re like a few on the Yorkshire arm. They only exist because the route was changed after consultations. That means there’s opposition to their position as the changes were so that Hs2 affects less people. We may yet find the rug is pulled from under groups like this if the new consultations show a majority of local support FOR the changes!

It’s the same with a few small groups North of Sheffield. There’s an added problem for anti Hs2 campaigners here as they command very little political support. Whilst Yorkshire political culture is renowned for factionalism and squabbling between the different Councils, local Authorities and metropolitan areas the overwhelming majority of Yorkshire politicians see Hs2 as a good thing even if they can’t agree on the final course of the route. But then, neither can the protesters! There’s no coherent voice or anti Hs2 campaign across Yorkshire. The anti campaign is also hamstrung by the fact that – unlike the Chiltern Nimbys, they can’t use the excuse that there’s no stations and they don’t directly benefit.

What Yorkshire does have is a cadre of academics and vested interests centred around Leeds/Harrogate who are anti Hs2. In the case of High Speed UK (HSUK) that’s because they have their own pet scheme they want to make some money out of.

In conjunction with Wakefield Council (one of the political awkward squad, through its leader, Cllr Peter Box) a group grandly styling themselves “Yorkshire Against HS2” have organised a conference tomorrow. Titled “Hs2 Alternatives”. It contained the usual rag-bag of long term opponents and political dogmatists, from lobbyists like the Taxpayers Alliance to the Green party’s Natalie “brain fade” Bennett. Add to the mix HSUK (still punting their back of a fag packet ‘alternative’) and the superbly bonkers Paul Withrington, (who styles himself ‘Transport Watch’), StopHs2’s Joe Rukin and local self publicist Cllr Gibbons and you’ve got a real treat! I doubt Yorkshire’s seen a box of frogs this mad since the UKIP conference was last in the county. Quite wisely, two local MPs (Ed Miliband and Jon Tricket) are keeping their distance and (allegedly) leaving messages via a video link!

alternatives

Somehow, I can’t imagine Sir David Higgins losing any sleep over this one. If it’s raining in Wakefield tomorrow you might get a few through the doors, but if this is the Premier league of the remaining opposition to Hs2…

And that it! The phase 2 Hybrid Bill won’t be along for a couple of years yet, so expect a lot of what’s left of the opposition to drop away – just as it did on phase 1. In the meantime, construction will have started on phase 1 and the phase 2a Hybrid Bill will be attracting all the attention.

Now I’m looking forward to a few years spent blogging about progress on the construction of Hs2!

The joys of airport layovers

27 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by in Air Travel, India, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

I’m taking an enforced break in Mumbai airport between flights. I have to say, this place has improved immeasurably over the years, it’s a world-class airport nowadays (and so charging ‘world class’ prices for food and drink!).  Still, it’s an opportunity to catch up with the world as they offer an hours worth of free wifi – and it’s fast. It’s allowed me to upload a few dozen more pictures of my travels onto my Zenfolio website, which you can find here.

Despite the cost of eating, the airports facilities are pretty good. Security was a breeze, there’s plenty of seating and lots of places to recharge phones, laptops etc. Even the mood muzak is enjoyable as it’s based on Indian classical. The lights are rather groovy too. They’re based on the lotus flower and depict them at various stages of opening. There’s even a loo with a view. One of the Gents toilets has windows above the urinals that look out over the aircaft bays so you can plane-spot whilst you pee!

dg267403

My temporary office for the next couple of hours. You can just see my camera bag by the row of screens!

Right, I’m off to get more pics like this while I have the chance…

dg267402-jet-airways-boeing-737-800-vt-jle-mumbai-india-27-2-17

The road to hell…

25 Saturday Feb 2017

Posted by in Musings, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

I had lots of good intentions when I started this trip. Not least was to blog more! Now I’ve got pages and pages of notes from my various journeys but no time to write them up in a coherent blog – or even an incoherent one for that matter! Some will make it eventually. My rail travels across Java, around Singapore and up through Malaysia back to Bangkok will, I hope, still make interesting reading. For some other stuff, the moment has passed. In the meantime, I’ve still got hundreds of pictures to edit and they’ll have to take precedence.

In all honesty, I’m really not looking forward to my return to the UK. Not just because of the weather but because in the months since the Brexit vote last June, it no longer feels like the country I knew – or home. Now the ‘sceptered isle’ seems smaller, more introverted and a lot less welcoming. And if I feel that, think how non-UK born folk feel. The incredibly positive vibe generated by the 2012 Olympics is long gone. That felt like the UK was a beacon for the world. It celebrated our diversity and our internationalism. Now, it feels like many parts of the country have turned their backs to the outside world. To make matters worse, UK politics is in crisis. Just when we need a strong, credible opposition we have a hopelessly weak Labour party led by Jeremy ‘the fight starts now’ Corbyn. To make matters worse, the economic delusions around Brexit still persist. Many people have no idea what’s coming – and that worries me – deeply. What will happen when the harsh financial realities dawn I wonder? I’m not looking forward to finding out. Nor having to bite my tongue when I hear the right-wing pub pontificators as I’ve always had trouble doing that!

I’ve had an illuminating and enjoyable trip these past two months. I’ve met some great people. As a foreigner I’ve been treated with warmth, kindness and patience. What hurts is knowing that if the positions were reversed I’m not sure many Britons would do the same.

Anyway, enough of such musings. It’s time to enjoy a night in Bangkok.

Thailand’s new sleeper trains. Good, but no cigar…

25 Saturday Feb 2017

Posted by in Modern Railways, Rail Investment, Sleeper trains, Thailand, Travel

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

I’m currently travelling up from the Southern Thai town of Hat Yai to Bangkok on one of SRT’s new Chinese built sleeper trains. Introduced last year, tbese rakes work some services to Hat Yai and also Chiang Mai. I was keen to try them so I was delighted to secure a reservation on Train 32, the 18:45 departure. Sadly, 1st Class was already booked (these are meant to be very good) so I travelled 2nd. And the verdict? They’re good, but they have a couple of design niggles that someone, somewhere, should have picked up on

First, the good news. They’re light, bright, clean and the build quality seems very good. They’re covered by CCTV at each saloon doorway and they’re equipped with a modern passenger information system which has screens in each car telling you useful stuff about your journey such as times, next calling point, and a route map. It also tells you the temperatures inside and out as well as the speed you’re doing. The system is complemented by regular announcements in both Thai and English. There’s plenty of luggage space under the seats plus there are overhead luggage racks for smaller bags by each bay. The seats are comfortable and the cloth moquette is an attractive deep red. Underneath each window is a small flip-up table with holes to stand drinks. Each car has two toilets, a western one and a squat one. The toilets are more cramped than than in the old cars and older people will struggle with the heavy, inward opening doors. That said, they’re kept spotless as there’s a travelling cleaner on board.

So what’s the problem? These only come to light when it come to getting ready for bed. I had a top bunk, which seemed fine at first. It felt a bit narrower than the old ones as well as a little shorter. I’m 6ft and I just fitted. Taller Westerners may struggle a bit. Also, there’s two metal brackets on the wall by your head which are the catches for when the bed’s closed. These would be very easy to damage yourself on – and quite badly too. Here’s an illustration of what I mean…

20170224_204548

There’s a handy light and power socket in the wall, it’s just a shame it doesn’t also have a USB socket. But for me, the other biggest niggle is the positioning of the coach lighting. Because most of the ceiling is taken up by a huge a/c vent, lights have been placed either side – right next to the curtains that shield the upper bunk! This means the curtains are pretty useless as a light shield so the upper bunks are flooded with light all night long. The curtains only use is for privacy. If you’re someone who has trouble sleeping unless it’s dark I think you’ll struggle in a top bunk unless you bring one of those eye-covers that the airlines give away. The upper bunks are also fitted with a reading light and power socket, but believe me – you won’t need the reading light! You’ll also find a string ‘pocket’ to put stuff in. These are pretty useless as the string is so tight (its not elastic either) that you’ll only get stuff like your phone in there.

Now, that bottom bunk…

On the old trains the floor between the seats was raised. The reason was it contained a full-lenghth pull out table that stewards would clip into place at mealtimes. It was fiddly and had to be put away every time the beds were made, so I can understand why they’d want to get rid of it. Now, there’s a far smaller table that folds down from the metal cup holder under the windows. The drawback with this is it reduces the space for the bed mattress. Previously, the bottom bunks were prized, not just for the fact you didn’t have to climb into them. It was also the fact they were so wide they were almost a double bed. A couple could sleep in one together with ease (I know, I’ve done it) – but you won’t be able to do it on the new trains due to the new table arrangement.

This is why the new coaches aren’t a clear winner over the old. Yes, they’ve got some nice, useful features, but it’s very much swings and roundabouts. Some trade-off have been made and there’s a couple of (to my mind) design defects – the most serious of which are the problems with the upper bunk.

This leaves me preferring the old coaches over the new – although I still want to try the 1st Class.

I’d be interested to hear what anyone else’s experiences are. Meanwhile, here’s a look at some of the issues I mentioned.

dg267273

Exterior view of the new Chinese built sleeper coaches. As can be seen, they look pretty smart.

dg267283-seating-bay-srt-chinese-sleeper-train-32-hat-yai-bangkok-thailand-25-2-17

A view of one of the bays of seats with the upper bunk stowed away for daytime use.

dg267278-interior-srt-chinese-sleeper-train-32-hat-yai-bangkok-thailand-25-2-17

Looking down the car towards the vestibule, showing one of the PIS screens.

dg267331

Close-up of the flip=up tables, showing how much room they take.

dg267306-vestibule-srt-chinese-sleeper-train-32-hat-yai-bangkok-thailand-25-2-17

Vestibule showing the CCTV and equipment. As can be seen, they’re clean and well laid out.

dg267346

Close-up of the PIS screen above the compartment entrance with CCTV camera above

Singapore sojourn

19 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by in Architecture, Railways, Singapore, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

It’s my second day in Singapore and I have to admit that the city has grown on me over the years i’ve been visiting. As a backpacker in the early 90s it always seemed horrendously expensive compared to neighbouring countries. It was easy to blow your budget here. Cheap accomodation was had to find and often very basic, but it was a good place to shop for bargains – and it was one of the few places in the region where I could buy Fuji Velvia slide film that had been kept correctly as well as being sold at a decent price. There were also labs I could trust to develop slide film so that I could post it back to the UK for safe-keeping. Oh, the days of film! Then my backpack would be loaded with 30-40 rolls. It was a logistical nightmare to store. I used to keep it in stainless steel ‘tiffin’ tins at the bottom of my rucksack. I’d have several notebooks to keep records of what where and when i’d taken pictures as well as details of which roll i’d ‘pushed’ the ISO on. This meant each roll had to be individually labelled. It was an expensive habit then. I worked out that when you added the costs of buying, developing and postage it meant that each time I pressed the shutter it was costing me 23p. When you consider that I’d probably only keep 33% of what i’d taken the unit costs were even higher. Photography wasn’t exactly environmentally friendy either. Think of all the chemicals used – and the wastage. So, if anyone asks me if I miss the days of film, my answer is “not bloody likely!”

OK, that was a slight digression. Being here has triggered many memories. I hadn’t thought about the fun and games with film for years.

Singapore has grown on me for several reasons. I’ve spent my life travelling. I’ve visited all four continents and as I get older I can see the attraction of a country that has political and economic stability. One where everything works nearly all the time. One that’s multi-racial, using diversity as a strength, not seeing it as a threat or a weakness. One that has has a wealth of cuisines (one of the benefits of diversity). Oh, and one that takes its environmental responsibilities seriously. Also a country that is both civil and believes in a civil society.

Don’t get me wrong, i’m not ready for my pipe and slippers yet. I love India, but it’s the antithesis of Singapore. It’s corrupt, its political institutions are a madhouse. It’s turned beauracracy into another circle of hell and it’s an environmental nightmare. It’s also breathtakingly beautiful with a richness and depth of history thats unique. India is a Marmite country. Ask anyone whose been and they either love it or hate it. No-one will ever say “s’alright, I suppose”.

I’ve been writing this piecemeal as I’m travelling around the island looking at the MRT network and one of the things that’s struck me as really positive is their transport integration. Stations have plenty of cycle storage and many have bus interchanges (but no car parks). The MRT network is also constantly expanding. Right now i’ve been visiting Woodlands, where a massive hole in the ground will soon be a part of the new 43km long MRT Thompson line from Woodlands North all the way to Sungei Bedok via Marina Bay . The MTR has sprouted lines all over the place in the past couple of decades and i’m looking forward to coming back when this latest batch opens.

 

dg265908-new-mrt-line-construction-woodlands-singapore-18-2-17

In 2019 this large hole in the ground will be an MRT station on the new Thompson line.

It’s not just the MTR that’s expanded. The whole city has – which is producing some fantastic modern architecture to complement the city’s rich heritage. One only has to take a wander around the Marina Bay area or business district to see some brilliant examples of design, many of which incorporate exotic gardens (hanging or otherwise).

 

 

dg266001-the-park-royal-hotel-pickering-st-singapore-18-2-17

The Park Royal Hotel is a stunning example of new architecture

 

Sadly, I only had time to stay three nights, I’d loved to have lingered longer but I’ve a lot of ground to cover back to Bangkok. I’ll just have to come back again. Soon…