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Panorama on Hs2, what a damp squib!

18 Tuesday Dec 2018

Posted by in Hs2, Politics, Railways, StopHs2

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After much hoo-ha from the tiny anti Hs2 campaign who did their best to build up the programme, Panorama aired at 19:30 last night. The 30 minute programme, titled “Hs2; Going off the rails?” was billed by Hs2 antis as a smoking gun that would herald the downfall of the project as it would ‘lift the lid’ on the (supposedly) massive cost overruns and shaky finances.

The reality? It told us nothing new at all. Not a single thing.

The main thrust of the programme was an interview with a former employee of H2 who’s turned “whistleblower” and made all sorts of allegations that Hs2 had grossly underestimated the costs of purchasing land and property needed to build the line. None of these allegations were new, they date back to 2015. In fact, they’d been investigated by the National Audit Office who published their report into the matter back in September (link). The full report is 36 pages long and looks into all aspects of land and property purchase. Here’s the opening.

Part One Introduction to HS2 Ltd’s acquisition of land and property 9

Part Two The cost of land and property 16

Part Three Performance of HS2 Ltd’s land and property function 27

Appendix One Our investigative approach 32

So, what were the NAO’s conclusions and key findings?

Key findings
1 The estimated cost to acquire land and property for Phase One has increased significantly since the start of the programme.

2 The estimate has increased for a range of reasons, such as scope increases and the introduction of additional compensation schemes.

3 HS2 Ltd’s estimate of the cost to acquire land and property has improved, and now provides a reasonable basis for monitoring the cost of the property acquisition programme

4 HS2 Ltd forecasts that costs will remain within available funding, but it is still very early in the property acquisition programme

5 The Department deposited an estimate of the cost to acquire land and property, and a list of the property it expected to acquire, with the hybrid Bill, as required by Parliament

6 The property acquisition programme is currently on track but there is a long way to go and risks remain

7 HS2 Ltd’s land and property team has become better established since 2015

8 Only half of advance payments to claimants have been completed within the required three-month period from HS2 Ltd receiving a claim request

Now, the headline “half” of advance payments needs putting into perspective. Here’s what else the NAO said.

” Under compulsory purchase, HS2 Ltd is required to pay claimants 90% of HS2 Ltd’s valuation of the property within three months of receiving a claim, or the date of possession, whichever is later. The remainder is then paid upon agreement of the final value of the property. Between March 2017 and August 2018 payments have been later than the three months or forecast to be later in 52 out of 108 cases. HS2 Ltd has analysed the causes of delays. It considers that in 35 cases, the main reason is that claimants have not provided the required information in a timely manner. HS2 Ltd considers that the remaining 17 cases have been caused, at least in part, by HS2 Ltd (paragraphs 3.14 to 3.15).

So, just 17 cases of delays (out of 108) due to Hs2 Ltd, in other words 15.74%. Undoubtedly room for improvement, but hardly the scandal some try to pretend.

The NAO then go on to their concluding remarks
9 It is understandable that concerns have been raised with us about HS2 Ltd’s land and property acquisition programme given that it affects so many individuals and businesses. Although HS2 Ltd has made efforts to improve its land and property function since 2015, there is work to be done to support claimants to receive timely compensation where they are due an advance payment.

10 While HS2 Ltd’s estimate of the cost of land and property has increased significantly over time, cost estimates, particularly in this sort of major land acquisition programme, are inherently uncertain and subject to change as more information becomes known about both the design and operation of the railway, and the nature of the land and properties required. HS2 Ltd’s current estimate is within its agreed funding envelope from HM Treasury and provides a reasonable basis from which it can monitor the potential cost to compensate property owners and tenants affected by the construction of the railway. However, it is still very early in the property acquisition programme and too soon to determine with certainty what the final outturn will be.

So, no evidence of  corruption, malfeasance or any other shenanigans. The NAO report is measured and balanced. It highlights the difficulties for such a major project as Hs2, pointing out that, “in order to build Phase One of the railway, the government will need to acquire approximately 70 square kilometres (more than 17,000 acres) of land along the route of the railway. HS2 Ltd estimates that it will have to compensate between 6,000 and 10,000 claimants who have land and property interests affected by the route, including property owners, leaseholders and tenants, and issue and process up to 50,000 compulsory purchase notices between 2017 and 2023”

All of this puts Panorama into perspective. As well as the ‘whistleblower’, they had a short interview with Surveyor Michael Byng, who trotted out his (long known about) claim that Hs2 would spend it’s entire budget on building Phase 1. No evidence was offered to support his claim, which wasn’t explored in any detail and it was rebutted by Hs2’s Chief Executive, Mark Thurston, and err – that was it. All a bit of a waste of time really.

The final part of the programme involved interviewing several people who were complaining that Hs2 wasn’t offering them enough money for their homes so was ‘robbing’ them, or that payments were late. None of them were new, in fact most of them had been featured in the media regularly over the past year. Such as this one.

All in all, Panorama was nothing more than a rehash of old stories and allegations – hardly a smoking gun that was going to bring down the project. The NAO had already addressed and dismissed the main complaint, and the fact they could find just 5 from 6,000 to 10,000 claimants who were complaining was never put into perspective.

You could almost sense the disappointment amongst the remaining Hs2 antis. StopHs2 didn’t even get a look-in and the reaction on social media was muted. Hs2 didn’t trend on Twitter and there was no ‘Twitterstorm’ just a few dozen people tweeting their outrage – many of whom were the usual suspects! The Stophs2 Facebook page was equally muted. Here it is this morning. Just 16 comments and 172 shares!

stophs2 FB The reaction to the programme on social media and elsewhere reflects what I’ve been saying for a very long time. The anti Hs2 campaign’s a busted flush. Its influence is as insignificant as the actual number of people still protesting and programmes like this are no smoking gun. If his is the best they can go, it’s all over bar the moaning. Stop Hs2 is dead. Ironically, Joe Rukin himself gave the game away with this pompous but utterly misguided tweet

rukin. 17 dec

“Thousands” of people on Stophs2’s mailing list? Not tens or hundreds, just thousands – despite 6.5 million people living on the route of Hs2?

On another matter, a little bit of other news slipped out unseen yesterday. Remember the High Speed 2 Action Alliance? They used to be the main Stophs2 group until they gave up the ghost way back in 2016 after a long and futile campaign of legal challenges, including Judicial Reviews. Their last action was to allege a failure by the United Kingdom to comply with its obligations under article 7 generally, and article 7 in conjunction with article 6(3) and (4) of the Aarhus Convention by failing to ensure public participation in relation to the decisions issued by the Secretary of State for Transport on 10 January 2012 in the Command Paper “High Speed Rail: Investing in Britain’s Future – Decisions and Next Steps”

Yesterday, their legal people, Landmark Chambers, announced they’d failed as there was no breach, thus driving the last nail in the coffin of Hs2aa!

 

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Crunching the StopHs2 social media stats: October 2018

01 Thursday Nov 2018

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It’s that time again when I wade through the Stop Hs2 ‘campaign’ social media stats to revel the truth behind the ridiculous claims and the hyperbole that this tiny bunch actually have huge public support. Stophs2 is still essentially two people: Penny Gaines (who’s been living in Bournemouth for several years now) and Joe Rukin who lives in Kenilworth. Despite having been trying for quite some time to find a proper job, no-one’s been daft enough to give him one. But then, as Joe’s a very strained relationship with facts (or the truth) it’s hardly surprising.

So, it’s been a busy month for them as their ‘campaign’ was ‘relaunched’ at the end of September, just in time for the conference season. Well, when I say relaunched, I mean they managed to drag some people together from a couple of the remaining local (in)action groups to send half a dozen people to leaflet outside the Tory conference (for all the good it did). Gone are the ‘glory’ days when they could afford to have stands inside the conferences, it’s all hand to mouth now…

OK, let’s crunch some numbers. I’m not going to post tables of individual tweets as there’s too many to bore you with (although I have the individual numbers if anyone wants them). Here’s the headline numbers. Let’s do Twitter first with a chart comparing their metrics over the past 3 months.

Hs2 tweet metrics Oct 2018

Despite the huge increase in Tweets in the last month (257%) and a 2% gain in followers, their numbers have hardly changed! In fact, the averages are worse than in August, as is their best number. Here’s their most popular tweet this month. As usual, it’s linked to Private Eye.

stophs2 most popular tweet Oct 2018

Herein lies a tale – both on their Twitter accounts and their Facebook page. Most of the stuff they Tweet or publish is linked to articles in the media, especially if it’s seen as critical of Hs2. But there’s no campaign news. There’s bugger all about what they’re doing, because most of the time that’s nothing. It’s the same with ‘news’ from the remaining (in)action groups, there’s so little going on there’s nothing to post. Stop Hs2 are almost entirely reactive, not proactive.

To be honest, both their feeds are mind-numbingly boring. Twitter is full of Rukin’s school of student politics: sweary and insulting. Nothing that resembles a campaign with intellect or gravitas. They’re reduced to moaning about Hs2, not organising to stop Hs2. If you’re suffering from insomnia have a browse of the #hs2 hashtag and see the sort of people who post anti Hs2 messages. It’s the last refuge of the green-ink brigade. There’s a couple of dozen regulars who are a mix of Nimbys, UKIPpers who think that Hs2’s a dastardly EU plot, right-wing libertarians and a few hand-wringing Greens who’ve been painted into a corner to oppose Hs2 but clearly have no alternatives to offer.

Facebook is very much the same. Here’s the last 3 months.

stophs2 FB Oct 18

Let’s put all these numbers in perspective. There’s 6.5 million people who live in constituencies Hs2 will pass through, yet the sole surviving Stop Hs2 group’s only got 6302 Twitter followers and 8745 Facebook followers. That’s pathetic frankly, especially when you remember not all their followers will be sympathetic to them. What the numbers show is that their activist base is minute. Not only that, but many of their followers are clearly as mad as a box of frogs! One only has to read the comments to see that some people’s grasp of reality is tenuous, to say the least. Take a look at these few posted on Facebook recently…

FB1

fb2

fb3

fb3

As usual, it’s always the same small band of people posting exactly the same stuff they’ve been doing for years. It’s a ‘campaign’ that seems to spend most of its time chasing its tail.

Another obvious sign that there’s nothing going on is Stophs2’s own website. Up to 2017 they would be churning out 30 plus posts as month (I crunched those numbers here). Now they’re down to just 3 or 4. You can check out their archive here. They contain so much bluster and dodgy predictions they’re actually quite funny.

Now the conference season’s come and gone and the dust over the recent announcements about the Phase 2b Environmental statement and phase 2a contractors search has settled. It’s clear that the much hyped MP’s ‘rebellion’ over Hs2 was just that – hype. Meanwhile, construction of Hs2 continues across the phase 1 sites as the archaeological digs continue. In the meantime, demolition work around Euston will be speeding up. In 2019 construction of phase 1 will begin in earnest. I wonder of Joe Rukin will have found a real job by then?

Digging up graveyards for Hs2. It’s not as if it hasn’t been done before…

30 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by in History, Hs2, London, Railways, StopHs2, Travel

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There’s always synthetic outrage and hypocrisy surrounding Hs2, none so more than around the issue of old graveyards being built on and the dead being exhumed and reburied.

Anyone would this this is somehow unique. In fact it’s very common. Many stations were built on old graveyards – including Euston itself. Between 1887 and 1892 the station was extended Westwards. This meant diverting Cardington St over the burial ground of St James’s, which had closed to 40 years earlier. Each corpse was provided with a new coffin and reinterred at St Pancras cemetery, Finchley, at the expense of the London and North Western Railway. This was done sympathetically due to the furore over an earlier graveyard clearance at nearby St Pancras in 1866 which rather puts today’s building into perspective.

During the first half of 1866 several thousand houses in Agar Town and Somers Town were demolished to make way for St Pancras. some 10,000 people were evicted (without compensation) and crowded into adjoining slum areas, making conditions even worse. Meanwhile, a corner of the graveyard of the old St Pancras Church was cleared. Like most old graveyard, it was packed with bodies to a considerable depth. Working conditions were appalling and the disinterred remains were treated with scant respect. Bones were left lying around and open coffins could be seen on the worksite. A furore arouse in the newspapers and influence from high quarters led to more care being taken. The problem was twofold. The sheer amount of bodies buried in poor conditions and the fact the graveyard was making way for a cut and cover tunnel for the link between the Midland and the Metropolitan railway.

Nowadays, this has let to one of the more unusual local tourist attractions; the Hardy tree. The work of removing gravestones was delegated to one Thomas Hardy (yet, that one) and he arranged them in a rather interesting art installation. Here’s how it looked a few years ago.

T14164. Gravestones stacked around a tree. St Pancras churchyard. London. England

You can read more about it here.

When Broad St station was built in 1864-66 similar problems occurred. Excavations revealed layers of human remains several feet thick. This was thought to be either a plaque pit or the burial ground of the old Bethlehem hospital.

The same problem was encountered when nearby Aldgate station was built in 1875. This was described by Daniel Defoe in his book “A Journal of the Plague Year” As an aside, did you know several London parks are old plague pits – including Green Park?

When the viaducts on the approach to Charing Cross station were being constructed in 1863 well over 7,000 corpses were removed from the College Burial Ground of St Mary, Lameth and reburied at Brookwood, on of the seven great satellite cemeteries established by an Act of Parliament between 1832-41 because London’s dead were buried in small urban churchyards, which were so overcrowded and so close to where people lived, worked and worshipped that they were causing disease and ground water contamination.

It’s not just something that happened in London either!

Manchester Victoria occupies Walker’s Croft which was once a 19th century church and graveyard linked to a nearby Victorian workhouse. As recently as 2013 remains were found when the station was being rebuilt. They were removed and reburied. A plaque at the station records this.

DG261981. Remembering the graveyard. Manchester Victoria. 11.12.16

Of course, nowadays, exhumations and reburials are conducted with far more care and attention than our Victorian forebears did, which rather puts the fake fuss into perspective, also, building Hs2 has archaeologists and historians genuinely excited as 1000s of them will be working on the course of the railway for the next two years. You can learn more here.

If you want to learn more about London’s plaque pits, visit this link.

UPDATE.

Since I wrote this blog, John Bradley (@flypie) has been in touch via Twitter with this interesting link to an 1828 road widening scheme in Liverpool that led to the exhumation and reburying of several thousand bodies.

 

A fascinating day…

25 Thursday Oct 2018

Posted by in Hs2, London, Travel

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After the past few days working at home I had to head back to London today to have a business meeting with a potential new client. Fortunately, I didn’t have to be on the very early train from Halifax, just Grand Central’s 08:08 which was a bit of a luxury. I had a very productive few hours aboard, writing part 3 of my rail rover for RAIL magazine (part 1 came out yesterday) on the way to the metropolis. On arrival I met up with a new client for a fascinating chat about new technology and a demonstration of the potential of augmented reality for the rail industry which left me both fascinated and enthused.

After the meeting I spent an hour or two wandering around Camden, looking at how much the area’s changing because of HS2. It’s clear from that there’s no visible opposition to the project nowadays. There’s no banners, placards, posters in windows – nothing. What there is instead is a huge amount of people in Hs2 branded hi-vis changing the face of Euston (and beyond) – although some Muppets still try to pretend it’s not happening!

Now I’m heading North aboard Grand Central’s 16:27 to Bradford. It’s packed – even in First Class, but then many of their services are nowadays. To paraphrase the actor Roy Scheider’s famous line in the film ‘Jaws’ – “We’re gonna need a bigger train”…

Expect some pictures later..

The fantasy world of Joe Rukin and Stophs2

11 Thursday Oct 2018

Posted by in Hs2, Joe Rukin, Railways, StopHs2

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I’ve been a bit busy recently so I hadn’t seen this load of rubbish from StopHs2’s pet windbag. No, not ‘Ellie’ the inflatable elephant, but their laughably titled ‘Campaign Manager’ Joe Rukin!

Stophs2 have been punting this YouTube video of Rukin lying through his teeth on ITV – not that it’s doing very well as it’s only had 70+ views.

Rukin doesn’t ‘genuinely believe’ any such thing. He’s a practised liar who’ll claim anything and he’s lots of form for trotting out outrageous porkies in the hope people are gullible enough to fall for it. Remember his previous lie that Hs2 will cause £8.3bn of ‘cuts’ to rail services that I exposed here?

So, no rail investment for the next 20 years “anywhere on the network”eh? That will come as a huge surprise to Network Rail who’ve already got an ambitious programme of work planned for Control Period 6 (CP6) which starts in 2019. Back in October 2017 the DfT published the SoFA (Statement of Funds Available) which says “we expect around £47.9 billion to be spent on the railway across control period 6”. Earlier in July 2017 they also published the High level output specification (HLOS).

Not that Rukin will have ever read any of these of course. I doubt he even knows they exist as they show what a liar the man is. The SoFA contains this statement.

enhancements

Oops! Joe’s fallen at the first hurdle here. The announcement of ‘new enhancement’ schemes rather gives the game away.

Meanwhile, what’s in Network Rail’s Strategic Business Plan which was published earlier this year? Well, lots of enhancements actually. There’s a huge investment in digital signalling for a start. Oh, then there’s the £237m remodelling of Kings Cross station approaches, which is planned for 2020. Not to mention the £3bn Trans-Pennine route upgrade which begins next year.

Did I mention Scotland? The Scottish Government has committed to a rolling programme of route upgrades and electrification, including Aberdeen-Inverness. and bringing high-speed rail to Scotland. In Wales the new franchise is introducing lots of improvements between now and 2024 which includes new trains, stations and depots.

Oh, there’s also a small matter of fact that there’s 1000s of of new train cars either already being delivered or on order. So, as you can see, Rukin’s bare-faced lies sinply don’t stand up to any form of scrutiny – and that’s without me shredding him any further by mentioning East-West rail, the ECML Peterborough ‘dive-under’ at Werrington Jn, the Midland mainline upgrade and many, many more…

Rukin reminds me of the old joke about politicians. How can you tell when he’s lying? His lips move! Even his ‘fans’ must be getting sick of being deceived by now.

But it’s not just that. This highlights why I’m unhappy with some of my fellow journalists and their standards. Rukin was allowed to broadcast this travesty of the truth thanks to ITV who had no-one ask him the slightest question – much less any of the one’s I’ve highlighted in this blog. Where was the professional (informed) journalist challenging him on camera and saying “but hang on Joe”…This is why we’re in such a mess now. When did the mainstream media like the BBC and ITV let this rubbish pass through their filters? Since when did journalism get this lazy?

That said, we’re in the throes of the Brexit shambles, which the BBC seems to have aided and abetted, so maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised….

 

Rolling blog: a tale of two cities.

01 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by in Birmingham, Hs2, London, St Pancras station, StopHs2, Travel

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I’m on the move again right now, heading for both London and Birmingham, firstly to drop in to St Pancras station and say ‘happy 150th birthday’, then go in search of the massive Stophs2 protest outside the Tory party conference. OK, that last bit was a lie. I’ll probably have difficulty finding them as it looks like it’ll be very much a one man and his elephant sort of protest.

Watch this space…

09:06.

My first train of the day, a ‘nodding donkey working the 0906 to Southport.

The weather here in West Yorkshire stunning. It’s a beautifully crisp and sunny autumn morning with the temperature in single figures. The railways are readying for the leaf-fall season now as I’ve just passed one of Network Rail’s RHTT (Railhead Treatment Trains) that blast leaves off the rails using high-powered water jets. It’s remindex me that must get some lineside shots later in the month, when the leaves gain their full colour before falling.

10:27

I’m now on train number 2 – the 10:2€ Cross-country service from Manchester Piccadilly to Bournemouth via Birmingham. It’s a relatively quiet service (for now) which is just as well as it’s only a four-car. I’ve no doubt it’ll fill up en-route.

Whilst a half-hourly service between Manchester and Birmingham’s an improvement on BR days it’s a pretty poor offering in 2018, mainly because of the time it takes and the type of train. This service will take 1hr 31m.

13:04

So, here I am in Birmingham at the Tory conference, Stophs2 elephant hunting. As expected, they were a bit hard to find, mainly because they’re outgunned and outnumbered by ever other demonstration here! Once I made my way past the ‘God squad’ (who had at least half a dozen people  here) I was held up by a very colourful (and noisy) anti-fracking group of men and women – many of whom had dressed up before I found Joe Rukin, who’d dressed down! Apparently, he was accompanied by Archie Taylor from Warks, but he was nowhere to be seen

Here’s Joe on his own, trying (and failing) to give out leaflets whilst the anti-fracking people behind him heavily outnumber him, in the very back, you can see ‘Ellie’ the inflatable elephant all on her own in a corner!

DG310071crop

Here’s poor Ellie, looking very abandoned…

DG310061crop

So, this is the ‘relaunched’ Stophs2 campaign. Sad, isn’t it? meanwhile, inside the hall, the Government has re-iterated its support for HS2 and there’s several events going on with rail industry leaders throughout the day. Over at New St station, Siemens and the High Speed Rail Industry Leaders have a virtual reality tour of Hs2 and a model of the Velaro Novo…

DG310026crop

DG310047crop

23:11

My tour of two cities turned into one. I got caught up in the completely surreal atmosphere of the Tory party conference and meeting up with colleagues. I also ended up spending an hour or two dealing with picture requests. I have to say, I can’t help thinking this country is screwed, the rhetoric that was coming out of the conference (plus some of the delegates I met) are utterly bonkers. I can’t help thinking that the EU will be breathing a collective sigh of relief to see the back of us…

 

Crunching the StopHs2 social media stats: September 2018

30 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by in Hs2, Politics, StopHs2

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It’s the end of September and it’s time to have a look at the StopHs2 ‘campaign’ social media stats. I’ve analysed the August numbers here.

Firstly, let’s get some context. There’s 6,567,433 folk who live in the 63 constituencies that Hs2 will run through. That’s a lot of people. Now, if the majority of them are up in arms about Hs2 you’d expect the sole surviving ‘national’ anti Hs2 group to have a large social media following, wouldn’t you?

In fact, their following is tiny. They have just 6180 on Twitter, or 0.094% of the 6.5 million

stophs2 twitter

On Facebook they only have 8604 followers, or 0.13% of 6.5 million. So, as you can see, they’re not exactly setting social media on fire. But those headline numbers are only part of the story. How many of those followers actually engage with them through comments, retweets aor likes? How many actually help ‘spread the word’?

Bugger all, as the next set of numbers shows. Here’s a look at every Tweet and Facebook post that StopHs2 have made in September with a number of people who’ve responded up to today. Lets have a look at Twitter first:

hs2 twitter

 

Their ‘best’ day for retweets was the 24th September, with a ‘massive’ 61 – or 0.98% of all their followers. So, not even 1% of their followers are spreading the word on Twitter, which tell you a lot about how active those followers are! Then again, if you can be arsed to look up who their followers actually are (it’s boring, trust me) you find a mish-mash of the far-right, a few greens, lots of anonymous accounts and the few who you think ‘what? Why?’ Here’s some examples.

followers 6

So, it’s a rabble, not a serious campaign. Nor will it influence anyone who matters. 91 of them follow me and I can see that a lot of them are people who’re just there to see what nonsense Stophs2 are spouting, they’re not actually supporters of the campaign. If Stophs2 are relying on Twitter to get their message out, they’ve failed miserably.

Now let’s go and have a look at Facebook.

stophs2 facebook

Their ‘best’ result was on the 6th September when they posted pictures of Chiltern viaduct designs and 348 people shared it. That’s just 4% of all their followers. Most of the time they don’t even make it into triple figures and have less than a 1% response rate. Now, does that sound like a growing campaign to you? Mind you when you see some of the responses it becomes clear that many of their followers have – how shall I put this – a tenuous grasp on reality. Have a look at these ones.

hs2 fb

And…

fb2

Meanwhile, their ‘relaunched’ campaign is due to hold a protest outside the Tory party conference which should be fun as their last one at the Labour conference was a disaster! I’ll keep you posted…

Stophs2? Give over…

26 Wednesday Sep 2018

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

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It’s the party conference season once more, which means StopHs2’s inflatable elephant is dug out of storage, checked for punctures and wheeled out for utterly pointless ‘demonstrations’ of Stophs2 impotence outside the events.

Gone are StopHs2’s ‘glory’ days when they could afford a stand inside the conferences and find enough volunteers to staff it. In those days you’d get Penny Gaines tweeting that everyone they talked to was solidly against Hs2 and that *really* every MP (Labour or Tory) privately opposed the project.

It was all tosh of course. Now the money and supporters have dried up, Hs2’s being built and it’s all rather pointless really.

A final effort to save the campaign from oblivion was launched a couple of weeks ago by one of the surviving ‘action’ groups on phase 1 of the route. Not that you’d notice as it’s been yet another in a long-line of damp squibs. The meeting in Balsall Common in Warwickshire. Here’s a couple of excerpts from the email that did the rounds

” We hope to attract members from both the South and the North to this meeting. We recognise that most action groups on Phase1 have faded away and this meeting is called by Richard Lloyd of Berkswell and Archie Taylor of Burton Green. We will offer coffee and biscuits but refreshments are available at next door Tesco’s.
We have a glimmer of a chance to stop the whole project as costs escalate and Brexit approaches while those on Phase 2 are perhaps in a stronger position”

“Glimmer”? Talk about optimistic! The email goes on…

“But we also have to plan for the future. Are any of the Northern Groups planning to lobby the Labour Conference at Liverpool, a week later, on the 23rd? If they are, perhaps, a few of us can help with the pamphlets. As a Labour member, I intend to write to all Labour MPs in the first week of September but articles don’t always get to the MP. But if we can give out leaflets at Liverpool, we can certainly play the northern card with the east to west alternative. If we do have volunteers to leaflet, I might go up to the Conference myself.

Perhaps the Conservative Conference at Birmingham on September 30th is more significant and accessible. Again it would be great if we can get people along. Similarly we can work on leaflets before our meeting.

I would appreciate if you can come to our meeting, or you are ready to go to Liverpool to contact me. I hope people will make this meeting. It will be great to see people from the past. It is going to be very difficult to stop it but we have a chance if we join together. I will give more details about the meeting at a later date”

So, the ‘new’ plan is to re-run the same old tactics, only this time with less money, less people and less interest! Here’s the agenda for the meeting;

stophs2 2 agenda

Note that the other national groups AGAHST and Hs2aa didn’t bother turning up. That’s because they exist in name only. Their written ‘updates’ will probably have been as blank as the Governments benefits of Brexit! AGAHST folded years ago and Hs2aa haven’t been heard from since the summer of 2016!

I haven’t seen a copy of any conclusions from the meeting or list of how many attended, but I not that it’s had no media coverage or mention on the surviving groups Facebook pages or websites other than on from a Groups on the Leeds route which described it as a ‘good’ meeting and err, that’s it!

So, what’s been the result of the relaunch. Well, yesterday a couple of people did make it up to Liverpool with the inflatable elephant and duly set it up outside. How many of them were there? It’s impossible to tell as the only picture Stophs2 tweeted out doesn’t contain a soul!

elele

By this morning the tweet had amassed a grand total of 29 retweets and 39 likes from their 6175 Twitter followers, which tells you all you need to know really…

There is one video, which is an ‘interview’ of a very scruffy and dishevelled looking Joe Rukin, spouting his usual polemical bluster, but no-one else is in sight!

Contrast this pathetic performance with what was going on inside the Labour conference. Firstly, this tweet from train builder Bombardier showing some of their young apprentices meeting the Shadow Chancellor.

bombardier

Or this, from Siemens. Shame about the quality of the picture, but you get the gist,

sie

Or this…

prescott

To say that Rukin and Co have been outclassed and outgunned is an understatement! If this is a campaign that’s been relaunched, then it slipped straight off the stocks and did a submarine impression! I don’t expect any better at the Conservative conference. If I have the time I might even pop along so that we can get some proper pictures to gauge their support by.

Meanwhile, one last word about Liverpool. This is a proper demonstration Joe – oh, and look, that’s your very lonely elephant in the background!

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Stop Hs2? I had to laugh!…

12 Wednesday Sep 2018

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

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This morning there was a Parliamentary debate on Hs2 which had been organised by Bill Cash, the MP for Stone (on the Hs2 route in Staffs). Cash is, how shall we say – not entirely connected with the real world. Not only is he an ardent Brexit supporter (and we all know just how well that’s going), he’s also been rather creative in the past with his expenses.

Still, the debate he secured this morning kicked off promptly. It was meant to help ‘revitalise’ the campaign against Hs2 as it followed on from another opinion poll commissioned by the Daily Express that showed a ‘majority’ of people oppose Hs2.

There was only one problem

The anti Hs2 ‘campaign’ (and I use that word loosely) is so short of political support that hardly any MPs turned up to the debate! I counted 5 that actually spoke to criticise Hs2. Cash delivered a long ramble which was nothing new, it was just Cash rehashed. You might as well have played one of his old speeches on a monitor and saved the old boy the bother. The usual suspects followed, the most prominent of which was the MP for Chesham and Amersham, Cheryl Gillan. Embarrassment followed embarrassment when it became clear that the anti MPs were matched and indeed surpassed by MPs who’d turned up to speak in Favour of HS2. These included Sir Robert Symes MP, the former Chair of the phase 1 Hybrid Bill Cttee, Graham Stringer MP (former leader of Manchester City Council), and of course the under secretary of state for transport, Nusrat Ghani MP, who wound up the whole sorry shambles by pointing out the political arithmetic by highlighting the overwhelming numbers of MPs and Lords who supported HS2 compared to those who opposed. In short, it was a humiliation.

Here’s a couple of pictures of the ‘packed’ meeting room. You’ll notice that the gallery outnumbers the MPs

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So, what of the Daily Express poll? Well, it’s a gauge of the number of people who’ll grumble about Government spending, but apart from that it’s worthless. If you inserted a multiple choice question that said “OK, so what are you actually going to do about HS2” you know what the answer would be: nothing – as we’ve seen from hard evidence over the years in local and general elections (much to UKIP’s chagrin). It’s just not an issue that will make people change who they vote for.

Another Stophs2 (fake) storm in a teacup!

17 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Carillion, Fake News, Hs2, Lazy journalism

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Sometimes it’s fake news that causes problems, sometimes it’s lazy journalism and other times it’s people who are either utterly incapable of reading and understanding factual material or who twist it to suit their own ends.

The latest storm in a teacup over Hs2 has elements of all this. Here’s the straight story as reported by Rail Technology Magazine.

“The former boss of Carillion’s UK infrastructure business is set to take over Balfour Beatty Vinci to lead its HS2 joint venture.” His name is Mark Davies, which is pretty easy to remember. He’s had a 30 plus year career in the Civils industry and joined Carillion after its acquisition of Alfred McAlpine in 2004. His correct title was Managing Director – Carillion Infrastructure, one of the divisions of the company.

As Carillion imploded in spectacular and controversial fashion, Mr Davies has obviously had some time on his hands, leading him to being recruited by the Joint Venture.

This is where the fun starts. In a combination of lazy journalism, mischief making and downright lies, Mr Davies has been spun as the ‘boss’ of Carillion, taking over at Hs2 itself. It’s complete tosh of course, but those who’re opposed to Hs2 are spinning like tops to make out this is the case. There’s a couple of rather major flaws with their story. Mr Davies was never the ‘boss’ of Carillion. He was never even on the Board of Directors!

The ‘boss’ (or bosses to be more precise) of Carillion when it collapsed were the chairman, Philip Green, along with Keith Cochrane who became its Interim Chief Executive on the 10th July 2017, a position he retained until the company went into liquidation in January 2018.

Whilst the Chairman and the Board of Directors have been quizzed by Parliamentary Committees and been criticised for their actions. I’ve not seen anything to suggest Mr Davies has been accused of anything. Not that this has stopped Hs2 antis trying to smear by association – as usual!

As for the ludicrous claims that he’s been made ‘boss’ of Hs2 –  I despair! He’s the MD of a joint venture that’s won an HS2 construction contract, nothing more, nothing less.

Still, facts eh?