01 Monday Feb 2016
Posted in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2 petitions, Uncategorized
Tags
More folks have signed the save a cross channel hovercraft petition in 3 days than the Stop Hs2 flood petition in 35!
Flood petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/117184
01 Monday Feb 2016
Posted in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Rail Investment, StopHs2, Transport
Tags
This week sees the final sessions of the Hs2 Hybrid Bill petitioning in the House of Commons. Despite all the anti Hs2 mobs bluff and bluster they failed to stop the project by bogging it down with petitions. In fact, the Hs2 Committee have sat for less time than the Crossrail Committee!
The Crossrail petitioning process lasted from 13th December 2005 until the 18th October 2007 – over 22 months. In contrast, the Hs2 committee will have sat from the 10th June 2014 until the 3rd February 2016 – less than 19 months.
It’s another abject failure by hs2 antis who are now trying to furiously back-pedal on their claims they ever thought they could Stophs2 with petitions. Here’s a classic example..
If anyone else can supply other examples of their ridiculous claims I’ll be happy to add them.
Here’s who is appearing when in the final week.
01 Monday Feb 2016
After leaving Colombo behind we spent a few days in Kandy, the capital of the hills. Kandyans pride themselves on being a little different than people from the plains. The women even dress slightly differently as they wear a ruff around the waist of their saris. Like many visitors we stayed in a guest house set back on the slopes of the artificial lake. The Amanda Hills was a multi storey complex which had entrances & exists on two levels due to the topography. With no lift it could be a bugger to carry your suitcases but (as usual) the staff were happy to oblige – even if their eyes did bulge a little when they tried lifting Dawn’s “it’s all my makeup” she’d joke! The floor we stayed on had an attractive shared sitting area for the three rooms located there – plus our own private balcony overlooking the lake – not that you’ll be able to see the lake for much longer. This area has seen a lot of new buildings spring up over the past 12 years, now the views are rapidly disappearing as hotels shoot up like weeds, jostling for the skyline. Unless unbridled development is contained the area will soon have more in common with Honk Kong than Kandy.
It was a good 20-minute walk back into the town centre from the hotel which meant we got plenty of exercise. This was offset by the amount of traffic fumes you’d inhale as you walked along the Southern edge of the lake as this road has become increasingly congested. One thing I did notice was how many more modern cars are on Sri Lankan roads compared to my earlier visits. I only spotted on vintage vehicle this time (an old split windscreen Morris Minor). In the past they’d seemed common.
Our first port of call was the temple of the tooth one of the most important Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka, not just spiritually, but temporally. Presidents have a habit of turning up here to receive blessings from the monks as their endorsement is seen as an important political tool. During the civil war the Tamil Tigers attacked and severely damaged it with a truck bomb for the same reason. None of this was evident on the day we visited. Instead it was busy with a stream of ordinary Sri Lankans who’d come to pay their respects to the dental fragment of the enlightened one. When you come from a secular society you don’t always appreciate the part religion pays in many people’s everyday lives. Coming to a temple in India, Sri Lanka or other SE Asian countries readjusts that.
Offering prayers and flowers at the Temple of the Tooth
The exterior walls of the Temple of the Tooth
That said, for many years Buddhism was in decline in Sri Lanka due to colonial influences, the introduction of Christianity and corruption & infighting within the Buddhist hierarchy. It took the arrival of an American theosophist, Henry Steel Olcott in 1880 (accompanied by Madam Helena Blavatsky) to herald a revival.
The grounds of the temple contain a fascinating museum dedicated to telling the story of Buddhism around the world. Although it costs extra to get in, it’s well worth a visit. It contains the history of the spread of Buddhism as well as artifacts, histories and photographs from all the different nations. Sadly, photography isn’t allowed and the museum doesn’t seem to have a website, so here’s a link to a Sri Lankan news article which explains more.
After our cultural experience we retreated to the pub – literally! I’d remembered ‘The Pub’ from my previous visits. It’s an upstairs bar on Sri Dalada Veediya which has a lively little balcony overlooking the street. The balcony décor hasn’t changed a bit although the inside has expanded considerably. It’s a great place to sit and sip a cold Lion lager whilst watching the world go by outside. But be aware that it’s a bit like the UK of old – local licensing laws mean they can’t serve alcohol between 2-5pm. Each evening the local birdlife puts on a cacophonous show as they come to roost in the trees outside, whirling & swooping they jostle for position on the braches until finally, they fall quiet, leaving pedestrians below to run the gauntlet as the birds relax their sphincters! It’s times like this that brollies are good for more than just keeping the sun and rain off you…
Enjoying drinks on the balcony of The Pub
After slaking our thirsts, we headed for another Kandy institution further down the same road. The Muslim Hotel and restaurant is a fine old two-story colonial era corner building which services delicious and inexpensive local food. If you’re a sensitive soul just off the plane and not used to Asian standards of hygiene or way of doing things, it’s probably not for you. If you are you’ll find good food and friendly staff (if you’re willing to engage with them). We visited twice. On our first visit we shared a vegetable kottu and vegetable rotti, the second time we had a selection of egg and plain roti with curry sauce. Oh, the takeaway samosas are pretty good too…
We’d planned to leave Kandy on the train through the hills as far as Ella but found it impossible to get reservations because the day we were leaving was in the middle of the Tamil harvest festival of Thai Pongal. As I’ve done the trip several times before and Dawn was suffering from a stomach upset we decided not to risk being jammed like sardines on a packed train, so went for plan B by chartering a taxi. Not only would this give us guaranteed space, it also allowed us to stop off and visit places I’d never seen before.
You can read about our trip to Ella by road in part 4.
If you’d like to see more pictures from our trip, follow this link to my picture website.
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25 Monday Jan 2016
After four nights in Colombo we headed for Kandy and the cool of the hill country by taking a train from Fort station. We’d opted to catch the 10.35 which is worked by one of the New Chinese built S12 class DMU’s that were supplied in 2012. 13 of the units were purchased from CSR Sifang under a $101 million, 15yr credit line agreement with China. They’re similar to the UK HST’s in that they have a power car at each end, both fitted with a 1500bhp MTU 12V4000R41 engine.
Colombo Fort station is always a busy place. Here tourists mix with locals as they wait for the Kandy train.
As it was Dawn’s first journey in Sri Lanka I’d booked 1st class at 500 rupees each. Fort station was its usual busy self with a variety of Westerners and locals waiting for the Kandy train which arrived 15 minutes before departure time. As there were no seat numbers on the outside, most people were at the wrong end of the coach which produced the inevitable logjam in the middle of the car as people tried to fight their way through the aisle to the right end! The overall condition of the car was good. They’re fitted with twin sets of seats which rotate to face forward dependent on the direction of travel. Our seats were No’s 43-44 which faced a bulkhead. Legroom was reasonable and we had two small shelves mounted on the bulkhead in front. Rather surreally, two small TV screens played an Xmas themed ‘Home Alone’ film, although (mercifully) the angle of the screen meant we couldn’t see it properly. We departed Fort on time and & bumped & bashed our way out of Colombo. The problem with these push pull sets is 1st is right next to a power car. The power cars don’t seem to be set up very well which means there’s a lot of jerking & jolting. The coach has an attendant who stands in the vestibule. His job seems to be to lock the connecting doors & stop itinerants wandering in to 1st, as well as letting tourists out to wander up and down.
One of the Chinese built S12 class DMU’s working the 10.35 to Kandy.
My impression of the countryside we traversed was that not a lot has changed in 12 years apart from the age of the road vehicles! The small towns we passed through didn’t appear to have expanded, so much of the journey was through lush rice paddies & coconut groves with surprisingly few people to be seen. We stopped at a variety of stations en-route. Mirigama has a large island platform controlled by an attractive old 3 storey, red painted signal box with a shingle roof. It operates a mixture of colour light and ground disc signals. The goods shed tracks appeared abandoned and there was an old hand crane still in situ, rusting gently. From there it was a short hop to Ambepussa where a few short wheelbase & bogie covered wagons sat in adjacent sidings, indicating rail freight still flowed here. The island platform was decorated with flower beds and a small Buddhist shrine. As we sped on I took time off to explore our train which contained a mix of Westerners of all ages and types, from retired couples to backpackers. Judging by overheard conversations both the UK & Germany were well represented in the mix.
Vintage signalling & the goods yard at Rambukkara
As we started to leave the plains behind the scenery began to change. Hills started to encroach on the line and the power cars worked harder as we began to climb. Rice paddies give way to tropical woodland. After another jerky start from the little station at Alawwa I was glad no-one was serving hot drinks on board the train! Classic semaphore signalling made a comeback at the Colombo end of Polgahawela station which is the junction for lines to the North. It’s a large place as befits its status. The main station building straddles the tracks. There’s a disused loco shed and turntable, plus an active freight yard & attractive signalboxes.
After a succession of small stations, we arrived at Rambukkara, which has a collection of lovely lower quadrant lattice post semaphores. From here the line becomes single track & our train passed through a succession of tunnels & cuttings surrounded by jungle. The river we’d been following switched from right to the left as we climbed the steep valley side. Occasionally we glimpsed paddy fields in isolated areas where the valley widens enough to be cultivated.
The 10.35 to Kandy threads its way through the hills.
After a stop at the tiny station of Kadigamuwa (which rather soberingly, contains several wrecked coaches dumped by the lineside, presumably from the 2002 accident which killed 15 people) we encountered the best views yet, steep sided high hills, covered in forest, some of which was made up of massive old trees. We climbed continuously now (the line hits 1 in 44 on this section), every so often the views open out to give wonderful vistas across the valleys before another brief stop at Ihala Kotte which was another tiny, well cared for station festooned with plants of all shapes & sizes in a multitude of pots. Shortly afterwards a new peak swung into sight. Its topside was a sheer rock face that no life can cling to. In the distance, other oddly shaped hills that wouldn’t look out of place in America’s Monument valley could be seen through the haze. When the views were obscured by trees our attention swung to hunt for wildlife amongst the boughs. Sri Lanka has a rich variety of bird life, so you never know what you might see.
All too soon we arrived at Peradeniya, at 113km from Colombo it’s the junction for the line through the hills to Badulla and a fascinating station its own right. Fans of antique semaphore signals would love it as it has a fine collection of antique lower-quadrant signal gantries which are still in everyday use. There’s also a fuel depot here which brings regular trains of petrol tankers to the site. From here it’s only a short trip into Kandy station, which is another railway gem. Opened in 1867, it’s a mix of a Victorian station & Art Moderne building. It boasts 4 terminal platforms plus a one through route. Platform 1 is the through line for the Matale branch. 2 is a single track line with platform faces either side. 3 & 4 contain a loco release crossover and 5 is a shorter bay. the station has extensive sidings plus a two road loco shed and a covered road for wagon/coach repairs. There’s also a turntable which is in regular use for turning the Class W6 diesel hydraulics used on many hill country services so that they can run short nose first. The station is operated from a large signalbox fitted with a 68 lever Saxby & Farmer frame. This controls a fascinating array of lower quadrant signals on a variety of gantries. It’s like stepping back to the Victorian era, although I doubt the Victorians engineers would be impressed with the slackness of some of the signal wires, which means some of the signal arms appear barely ‘off’ when cleared!
Class M7 809 sits on the head of a train from Matale at Kandy. 16 of these 994 hp locos were built by Brush in 1981. 15 remain in service.
A look at the loco and carriage yard at Kandy. The shunter is Y Class No 683 which was built by Hunslet of Leeds.
Our arrival in Kandy was the end of this phase of our journey. I’ll talk about the town itself in part 3.
If you’d like to see more pictures of our Sri Lankan trip. follow this link.
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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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23 Saturday Jan 2016
Posted in Sri Lanka, Uncategorized
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.
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.
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!).
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.
The classic Sri Lankan breakfast. String hoppers with dahl & coconut chutney.
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.
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.
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/
Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312
Thank you!
22 Friday Jan 2016
Posted in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, StopHs2
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Here’s the first analysis of 2016 that looks at the state of play with the anti Hs2 campaign. To be honest I doubt there will be many more of them as their campaign’s falling apart even faster than I thought. 2015 ended badly for them and the trend has got even worse in 2016. How much longer they can pretend they still have a credible campaign is very much open to question.
They only have two campaign groups left in 2016. Stophs2 and Hs2aa. The latter seems to be a group in name only nowadays. Apart from a couple of desultory tweets showing ‘empty’ West Coast trains they’ve done nothing since December 7th 2015. Hs2aa remain totally silent about their last ditch legal appeal to the UN which was due to be considered in December. This suggests it’s not gone well. Meanwhile, the Hs2aa Directors seem to have adopted the line of “every man for himself” by abandoning any coherent campaign and represent their own self-interests at the Hs2 Petitioning Committee instead. This isn’t really surprising as their campaign has nowhere to go. They’ve exhausted the legal options, they’ve failed to make any political impact and there’s nothing else they can do apart from pray they can somehow influence the Lords when the Hs2 bill reaches them (if they last that long). It’s a forlorn hope.
The news from Stophs2 is equally dire. The question really has to be asked now – what’s the point of Stophs2? They have no campaign programme away from social media and no new strategy. There’s also signs that the people they’ve been cruelly hoodwinking for so long (the folk who are genuinely affected by Hs2 as they live on the route) are abandoning them. Joe Rukin was meant to be representing several such folk at the Hs2 Committee hearings. The latest list shows that instead, these people have decided to represent themselves. This effectively puts Joe out of a job as that was his last real reason to exist other than being a ‘rent a quote’ for the dwindling number of media outlets who still pay Stophs2 any attention. They have nothing going on away from social media, there’s no demonstrations, rallies or events planned. In fact, their calendar is bare.
The lack of anything happening in the real world has left the anti Hs2 mob increasingly reliant on social media to keep any pretence of a campaign going, so let’s have a look at the ‘scores on the doors’. I now have a whole year of data on their Facebook and Twitter campaign’s to compare and the results are appalling, especially when you consider that not all followers are supporters (many are simply there to keep an eye on them) and the fact the UK electorate consists of some 46 million plus souls. How many are the anti Hs2 campaign reaching? A tiny, tiny fraction…
So, in 12 months Stophs2 have managed to reach just over 500 more folk on Facebook and less than 500 on Twitter! Hs2aa’s figures are even more dire. 300 odd on Twitter, and an absolutely pathetic 14 on Facebook! I’ve left in 51m (who’ve ceased to exist) and former AGHAST Comms Director Deanne Dukhan as a comparator.The irony here is that Deanne has managed to boost her following by over 68% by NOT Tweeting about Hs2
To pile on more woes, the StopHs2 campaign’s managed to shoot itself in both feet with a blunderbuss by crazily trotting out another petition. One of their campaign’s trademarks is their stubborn refusal to abandon the same tired & failed tactics they’ve been using since the beginning. Personally I believe this is because they genuinely haven’t got a clue what else to do. The “spend Hs2 money on flood protection” petition has been a tactical disaster for them as all it’s done is highlight their lack of countrywide support whilst exposing the fact they really are a bunch of Nimbys! Around 50% of all signatures come from constituencies on the Hs2 route. The only constituency that’s got over a 1000 is (surprise, surprise) in the Chilterns! You can see a full breakdown in this blog. Needless to say, the petition hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of reaching 100,000, it’s not even getting 75 signatures a day, never mind the minimum 549 it needed. It’s another in their long list of failures.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the parliamentary campaign is going from bad to worse. Back in 2015 Joe Rukin was boasting of how many folks had petitioned against Additional Provision 4 (AP4) of the HS2 bill (a paltry 122). He soon had to eat his works when Locus Standi challenges were upheld against the majority of them. Now the final additional provision (AP5) is in. 22 have petitioned on it but there are Locus challenges against 13 of them! This means that the Petitioning Committee will be winding up very soon, allowing the Hybrid Bill to move on to the next stage. If you want to follow the Hs2 parliamentary process in detail, follow @HS2Parliament on Twitter or visit their website. Here’s the Hs2 Ctte programme as far as the 3rd February.
Trying to delay the Hs2 bill with petitions was a central plank of the anti Hs2 campaign. Their hope was this would either make the project too expensive or delay in long enough a new Government might have seconds thought and scrap the project. In the early days antis were cock a hoop as they thought the fact the 1100 plus petitions submitted would do the trick. As usual, they miscalculated – badly. The Hybrid Bill Committee have proven to be firm but fair – and no pushover.
The total lack of success on the part of the anti Hs2 campaign has obviously had an effect on its supporters. Sick of being lied to by a few who still crazily insist they can stop Hs2, their sensible supporters are abandoning them. Here’s the sentiment expressed by a recent poster on the StopHs2 Facebook page.
This steady ebbing of support is affecting their campaign in several ways. It’s leaving them increasingly skint and it’s leaving the lunatics in charge of the (social media) asylum. Most of the anti Hs2 Tweeters are what can only be described as “special people”. They’re the Walter Mitty’s who live in a fantasy world. Here’s a classic example from one Nicholas Batty
“strength to strength?” Does anyone genuinely believe this guff? Even arch fantasist Batty himself?
At the risk of falling foul of Godwin’s law, they remind me of the last days in Hitler’s bunker. They’re still pretending they have troops to muster, or that an imaginary cavalry is out there who will ride to their rescue at the 11th hour (that was meant to be UKIP at the general election, but we all know what happened there!). To see how bonkers they’ve become on only has to look at the #hs2 hashtag on Twitter, or peruse the StopHs2 Facebook page . (Don’t bother with Hs2aa’s. Like their website, it hasn’t been updated since December 7th!). Quite how a few rather hysterical and out of touch people ranting on social media is meant to convince anyone to join their campaign is a complete mystery.
All the evidence points to the Stophs2 campaign being on the verge of collapse. In many ways it already has as it’s no credibility or capability left. It wouldn’t be unfair to say that now, it’s all over bar the shouting. All that’s left is for the funder(s) to finally pull the plug on StopHs2 and Hs2aa. Will the last person left please turn out the lights…
10 Sunday Jan 2016
Posted in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2 petitions, StopHs2
Tags
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.
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.
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).
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!
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.
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.
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.
07 Thursday Jan 2016
Posted in Travel, Uncategorized
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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…
04 Monday Jan 2016
The first award of 2016 goes to one Nicholas J Batty for this (just posted) supremely idiotic tweet where he forgot to check the calender before typing;
What happens when you click on the petition link?You get a petition that closed on the 7th August 2014 after gathering 124 signatures!
The appropriately named Mr Batty appears to be a classic Walter Mitty personality as anyone browsing his details will find. He has a long history of preposterous personal claims. The anti Hs2 campaign does seem to attract an awful lot of people like him. Still, a man who can claim the anti Hs2 campaign is both “relentless” and “expanding” whilst posting rubbish like this obviously lives in a special place the rest of us don’t.
Meanwhile, the active anti Hs2 flood petition has just passed the 1700 mark in 7 days. Anyone proficient in either maths or the way these polls work will know that means it doesn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of hitting the 100,000 in 6 months that it needs.
2023 update.
The petition died a death after 6 months having collected a paltry 8,116 signatures. Funnily enough, the overwhelming majority came from constituencies along the HS2 route with no history of flooding – what a co-incidence!
It took several more years before HS2 antis finally twigged that all these petitions did was expose their Nimbyism due to the fact the maps displayed with the petitions showed where the majority of people signing them lived – this neatly displaying the routes of HS2! They were always fun to number-crunch as the other drawback for antis was they also exposed how few of them there were. When their ‘strongholds’ couldn’t get more than 2% of constituents to sign you knew their claims of ‘overwhelming support’ where pure bluster.
The last petition they tried was in 2021. Started by celebrity conservationist (but clueless environmentalist) Chris Packham is got 155,000 signatures. Still a piss-poor amount but enough to take it over the 100,000 needed for a debate. That was when the fun started!
HS2 antis were cock-a-hoop. Now there’s be a vote in Parliament that would stop HS2! It was complete bollocks of course. I’d been pointing out the small print in these petitions for years but either they’d never read it or had deliberately ignored it. Here’s a classic example from Sebastian Sandys, the man who called himself their ‘Parliamentary liaison team’. Someone who should surely have known how these things worked, no? No – as I exposed in this blog.
When the petition was debated in a committee room (not in Parliament) by the handful of MPs who bothered to turn up and there was no vote at the end the penny finally dropped with some of the antis. It was a complete waste of time. I doubt we’ll see them trying futile stunts like this again. Their petitions are history, as is the ‘batty bricklayer’ who’s disappeared completely…
I’ve a small favour to ask…
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02 Saturday Jan 2016
Posted in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Uncategorized
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After 6 years of failure at everything they’ve tried and in the final year of their disastrous campaign you’d have thought the anti hs2 mob may have grown both older – and wiser. It wasn’t to be.
Instead we see the same failed tactics trotted out time and time again. The latest is yet another attempt at a petition. Like before, it’s a futile attempt to link flood spending with Hs2 and the tired and trite idea that (despite us being the 5th richest country on the planet) we can only afford one thing at a time so everything has to be either/or.
Here’s a link to the petition, which wants to divert hs2 funding to flood defences. I’ve blogged about the intellectual fallacy (and environmental disaster) that spending billions on turning our river defences into sterile flood drains would be here. Instead let’s have a look what the petition really tells us about the anti Hs2 mobs level of support
The beauty of the Government petitions website is that it allows you to see which constituencies the people signing it live in. This gives you both a geographical spread and the ability to identify clusters. In other words, it allows you to get an idea of the level of support for the anti Hs2 campaign in their supposed heartlands – and the news is not good! I’m not going to do a full analysis now as there’s only 632 signatures and the petition runs until June, but feel free to do your own. Take a look at the constituencies with the most votes, then compare them to a map of the ones Hs2 passes through…
Compare this petition to the huge success of recent petitions on keeping Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear and the massive petition that wanted to get Donald Trump banned from the UK. Each gathered huge numbers of signatures in a matter of days.
This is yet another lesson in how social media and the internet is such a double-edged sword for campaigners. It’s a lesson the anti Hs2 campaign resolutely refused to learn.
Paul Bigland 