Tag Archives: Hs2aa

The bell tolls for the anti Hs2 campaign…

22 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by 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…

Anti Hs2 scores Jan 2016

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.

give up

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

Batty BS

“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…

2015 ends with a whimper for the stop Hs2 campaign.

31 Thursday Dec 2015

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

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I can’t imagine it’s going to be the sound of party poppers & champagne corks we’ll be hearing from the anti Hs2 campaign offices today, because (let’s face it) they’ve had a bloody awful year and next year will only be worse. 2016 will see the end of their campaign as the phase 1 Hybrid Bill will complete its journey through Parliament and gain Royal Assent. After that, they have nowhere left to turn. All the major political parties remain solidly behind the project and by the time of the next general election in 2020 Hs2 will have been under construction for nearly 3 years.

The signs that the anti Hs2 campaign was collapsing have been evident for some time. They failed to bog down progress of the Hybrid Bill, then were dealt a huge blow by the result of the General Election – which laid bare the fact their political clout was negligible. In the latter part of the year Bucks Country Council Leader Martin Tett made it clear the anti Hs2 51M alliance of local council’s was redundant. Not that 51m will be missed. Their website hadn’t been updated since June 2011 and they only managed 16 Tweets through the whole of 2015!

This left just two main groups opposing Hs2 – Kenilworth based StopHs2 and the Highspeed 2 Action Alliance (Hs2aa) in the Chilterns. Many of the smaller ‘action’ groups that came under the Hs2aa banner had already faded away. Now it seems its HS2aa’s turn. Nothing has been seen or heard from them since December 7th – which suggests their legal case at the UN which was heard just before Xmas hasn’t gone well…

Having retreated to be almost a purely social media based campaign, things aren’t going well there either. Here’s the final “scores on the doors” for 2015. They show a campaign that’s not only stalled but has actually gone into reverse again in some cases.

stats 4

I won’t bore you with the usual caveats as I’m sure you know them off by heart now. The only person who is doing well is AGAHST’s former Comm’s person Deanne Dukhan. The irony is, she’s done it by not tweeting about Hs2!

The only question now seems to be how long the remaining anti hs2 groups can hang on into 2016. Will StopHs2’s financier (Warks businessman Joe Elliott) finally pull the plug? After all, once the Parliamentary process is finished, what’s the point of the StopHs2 campaign?

It’s the final countdown…

20 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2 petitions, Hs2aa, StopHs2

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Well, of 2015 anyway – although I doubt I’ll be crunching the anti Hs2 campaign’s numbers for too much of 2016 as they’re so awful!

So, without further ado, here’s the ‘scores on the doors’ – 11 months data on the antis social media campaign.

anti Hs2 stats Dec 2015

The statistics carry the standard caveat: Not everyone following is a supporter, many are there just to keep an eye on them. Also, the increases have to be seen in the context of coming from a very low base to start with. To put StopHs2’s 4547 Twitter followers in context – In December 2014 there were 45,325,078 registered voters in the UK! The anti Hs2 groups penetration is tiny & their following minute.

Another interesting fact is that, despite StopHs2 trying to bolster their numbers in recent months (this blog has obviously stung them) – their numbers are starting to fall back again & the others are doing just as bad.

Their social media campaign’s doing little other than exposing their weaknesses now more & more people are giving up on it. What it’s highlighting is their campaign is increasingly relying on their fruitcake elements to keep it alive. Here’s some examples from first Twitter, then Facebook:

sensible

jones 1

out of tweet

fb2

Does any of this sound like people who’re going to achieve the one thing they need – political backing? Of course not, which is why their campaign’s dying.

Two of their organisations (AGAHST and 51M) are already history and the  remaining two,  StopHs2 and Hs2aa are looking increasing desperate and rocky. Hs2aa have had a lousy few months. They’re running out of money to fund themselves so, as a consequence they’re reining in their minimal activities even more. Their Twitter campaign is nothing better than a desultory retweeting service that hasn’t seen any activity since December 7th. Neither has their website – other then regularly being taken down by hackers. To make matters worse, positive news on their last legal action that was due to be heard this week seems to be rather thin on the ground…

In truth Hs2aa only seem to have one aim now – and that’s to fight a rearguard action at the petitioning committee to try & secure a full length tunnel under their heartland – the Chilterns. It’s a forlorn hope.

Meanwhile, StopHs2 are doing – nothing! Joe Rukin has had a couple of turns booked at the petitioning Committee in January and that’s it. Talking of the petitioning Committee – they’ve really gone into overdrive with the intent of having everything wound up early in the new year. Just have a look at their programme for January.

There’s a few things of interest here. One is the number of locus standi challenges, the other is the number of petitioners who fail to turn up to the have their petitions heard. Clearly, many of the frivolous ones have  realised the game is up. This is good for two reasons. It’s speeding up the process and it’s freeing time for those who have a genuine grievance.

All of this means the anti Hs2 campaign’s living on borrowed time. There’s no earthly way they can achieve their aim without political support, which they’ve failed to gain. Meanwhile, the Hs2 project continues to gather momentum and support.

The only question now is which will be the next group to collapse. Hs2aa or Stophs2?

Heathrow shows the anti Hs2 campaign’s toothless

11 Friday Dec 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Heathrow 3rd runway, Hs2, Hs2aa, StopHs2, Uncategorized

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Today’s announcement that a decision on a 3rd runway at Heathrow has been postponed should leave anti Hs2 campaigners with their heads in their hands. Why? Because it highlights just how inconsequential they are and how ineffective they’ve been.

The Heathrow postponement is widely seen as a political maneuver to avoid the Tories being embarrassed during the London mayoral elections in May as their candidate, Zac Goldsmith, is an implacable opponent of Heathrow expansion.

In contrast, the Tories (and all the other parties for that matter) have shown no real concern that Hs2 would have politically adverse affects. This is a huge blow for the the anti Hs2 mob as for years they’ve  pretended the high speed line is a political hot potato. What’s interesting is that Heathrow is essentially a local London/South-East issue whilst Hs2 affects much more of the UK and far more constituencies.

As Hs2 isn’t seen as a negative political issue one can only wonder how much longer the anti Hs2 campaign can stagger on for. They’ve been on the back-foot ever since the Hybrid Bill passed with such a stonking majority, the general election result compounded their woes and they’ve had no good news for years. There’s none in the offing.

I wonder how much longer their remaining groups (StopHs2 and Hs2aa)  will last into 2016? Joe Rukin’s laughable claim that there were ‘reasons to be cheerful‘ looks increasingly likely to be his epithet.

 

A terrible time for the anti Hs2 campaign.

28 Saturday Nov 2015

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It’s that regular time of month when I take a snapshot of the state of the anti Hs2 campaign and (for them) the news just gets worse. Let’s kick off with the usual analysis of their performance across social media – which they’ve become increasingly reliant upon as their activist base declines.

anti scores

There’s now 9 months of data to analyse and what it shows is that, despite evidence that they’ve been stung into trying to improve the numbers – they’re still getting nowhere fast.

First, remember the usual caveat, not all followers are supporters, many are simply there to keep an eye on what they’re up to. Also, many of their Twitter followers are fake accounts or sock puppets so Twitter is a very poor gauge of real support. Plus, a group of people all ranting to each other don’t really have an impact outside of their own small circle. Facebook is even more insular. It’s good for getting your message out to people who like your pages, but that means you’re only really preaching to the converted. It’s also a double-edged sword as the Stophs2 Facebook page shows. On it you can see a small group of hopelessly confused people who really can’t understand why no-one is actually listening to them, although anyone looking in can easily see why. Here’s a few recent examples;

fb1

fb2

Crunching the numbers shows their Facebook campaign is moribund with only a 5.33% increase for Stophs2 and a mere 0.74% for Hs2aa. What’s even worse is the increases are from a tiny base! As for 51M – they’ve gone backwards, but as their FB page was last updated in June 2011 & they’ve effectively ceased to exist it’s moot.

Over on Twitter things aren’t much better. The two surviving groups (stophs2 & Hs2aa) are still under 5,000 followers apiece so a 10% increase in 9 months means little. Of course, many of these followers will be the same people, which limits their spread even more. The great irony in the figures is the only person with a decent increase is the former Communications Director of another defunct group (AGAHST) who’s achieved her popularity by tweeting about anything other than Hs2! Their Twitter campaign is increasingly farcical. It’s mostly in the hands of isolated individual who try to to keep it going. The ludicrous stuff they tweet is mostly outright bonkers or offensive, it certainly won’t convert the people they need to stop Hs2 – which makes it all the more counterproductive. This is starting to tell as the numbers of retweets their nonsense gets is steadily declining.

Another sign of the anti Hs2 campaign’s decline is that the Hs2aa website is STILL blocked by virus protection software some three and a half weeks after I first blogged about it.

Meanwhile, in the real world,things are even worse. Their campaign’s had a truly awful month…

The stophs2 campaign held a secret gathering of countrywide groups that was nothing short of an embarrassment. You can read about it here. All it achieved was to show how much the strength of their campaign has declined in the past couple of years. Their woes were compounded when the Chancellor, George Osborne presented his budget review. Not only did this expose their claims that hs2 would divert money from improvements to the existing rail network, it also skewered their ridiculous claims for how much Hs2 will cost as the budget was updated to 2015 prices. You can read about that here.

Budget day also exposed a growing schism between the two remaining anti Hs2 groups. Whilst Stophs2 have been trying to spin the costs of Hs2 as “spiralling” Hs2aa members were distinctly off-message at the Hybrid Bill petitions! Hs2aa’s Hilary Wharf was part of a group that was arguing the Chilterns could have a fully bored tunnel as tunnelling costs often turned out to be lower than official estimates!  You can see their evidence to the Committee here.

So, where does this leave their campaign? Up shit creek really…

They’ve utterly failed to make any political breakthrough. Their activist base is steadily declining and their stability of the two remaining groups in looking increasingly rocky. Meanwhile, the Government and Hs2 Ltd are  pressing ahead with the project whilst the Hybrid Bill Committee are steaming ahead with the petitioning process – all of which eats further into the Stophs2 activist base.

Somehow I don’t think there’s going to be much cheer at the Stophs2 Christmas party, which is going to be their last….

Financial spin & contradictions from the anti Hs2 mob.

25 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Economic illiteracy, Hs2, Hs2aa, Northern Powerhouse, Politics, Rail Investment, StopHs2, Uncategorized

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Today’s not been a good day for the anti hs2 campaign despite their high  expectations. For some reason they’d convinced themselves that there was trouble on the horizon for Hs2 and that the Autumn spending review might even see Hs2 cancelled as the Government ran out of money for investment.

For days they’d been circulating nonsense comparisons such as ‘defense spending or Hs2’ or  even ‘Police Officers or Hs2’. In the end the Chancellor made complete fools of them! Not only did he find new money for the armed forces and didn’t cut the police budget – he also confirmed extra money for transport investment including Trans-Pennine electrification and confirmed the Hs2 budget at £55.7bn in 2015 prices.

funding envelope

The poor anti Hs2 mob didn’t know how to respond. StopHs2’s Penny Gaines and Joe Rukin had been sitting by their keyboards, waiting to spin what they could, but found the cupboard was bare. They managed a few desultory tweets but Osborne had clearly wrong-footed them.

Once the news broke that the Hs2 budget had been adjusted they tried the usual daft spin to pretend that the budget for Hs2 is the same as the cost of Hs2. They were helped by one or two confused Journo’s who managed the same feat, so I must give credit to the BBC’s Paul Scoins (@paulscoins) who corrected a tweet when I pointed this out to him.

What wrong -footed the antis even more was the revelation that the updated budget also included the budget estimate for the Hs2 trains, meaning the increase was far smaller than they’d be trying to spin! What they’d failed to understand was the 2015 cost is simply the 2011 cost adjusted for inflation. Of course, if you’re going to adjust the Hs2 budget for inflation you also have to adjust the benefits of Hs2 by the same amount. Watch some of the antis really struggle with that little fact…

Meanwhile, in one of those wonderful ironies, whilst StopHs2 and a few other antis were trying to pretend that this is a real cost increase in Hs2, Hilary Wharf, a member of the other remaining anti Hs2 Group – Hs2aa – was with a group from Potter Row who were presenting their petition to the Hybrid Bill Committee. Wharf and Co are arguing for a fully bored tunnel under the Chilterns. Part of their argument was that the actual costs of tunnels can come in lower than initial budgets- a position in diametric opposition to their fellow travellers at StopHs2!

Worse was to come as details of Sir Peter Hendy’s report into Network Rail was released. This exposed the anti Hs2 mobs scaremongering on Hs2 sucking money from rail investment was complete nonsense. You can read the details on RAIL magazines website.

At death’s door: The latest look at the anti hs2 campaign

08 Sunday Nov 2015

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I thought it was time to update my look at the state of the anti Hs2 campaign now the conference season’s over & it’s effectively the end of the campaigning year. I’ll kick off with the monthly social media ‘scores on the doors’, which are as follows.

Anti hs2 stats 7 Nov 15

The standards caveat applies. Not all followers are supporters, some are simply there to keep an eye out on what’s going on. Also, whilst percentages are interesting they should be read in conjunction with the actual numbers. After all, a 50% increase on sweet bugger all isn’t much to celebrate.

I have nearly 9 months data to draw on now which paints a distinctly desperate picture. The figures show that anti hs2 campaigners best efforts to attract attention have failed. There’s been no discernible bounce from the conference season with only a handful of new followers being attracted on Twitter – and even less on Facebook.

The person who’s done the best is the former Communications Director of the defunct group AGAHST, Deanne Dukhan. The irony is, she’s done this by dropping tweeting about Hs2! Despite the fact AGAHST has folded & she’s now irrelevant I’m keeping her in to provide an useful comparison.

The antis twitter campaign is continuing to implode. Neither of the two remaining ‘national’ groups are doing anything newsworthy so the volume of tweets has decreased. They’re reduced to being a retweeting service or moaning about Hs2 and railways in general. we’re seeing bugger all from the local ‘action’ groups for the same reason – nothing’s going on. What we are seeing more of is the lunatic fringe of the campaign although how a few folk ranting on Twitter is meant to convince anyone in the political arena to cancel hs2 is a mystery.

Their Facebook campaign is even more dire. It’s well worth viewing the Stophs2 Facebook page as it offers a window on the soul of their campaign. Their problem is, it’s a bit like taking a tour of Bedlam! What you’ll see is a rag-bag of Ukippers and (presumably) Daily Mail & Express readers convinced the UK is going to hell in a hand cart because no-one is listening to them. If anything, it shows why the anti Hs2 campaign was bound to fail. Here’s a few examples;

FB 1

FB2

FB3

FB4

Now, does anyone think this sounds like a coherent and credible campaign? Of course not. What it does illustrate is that using social media is a double-edged sword. As well as helping a campaign it can also expose its weaknesses to the world…

Hs2aa’s Facebook page is even more dire. It contains little other than links to tweets from other people and comments by the same serial ranters! As a campaigning tool it’s both useless and an embarrassment. To add to Hs2aa’s woes their website is (accidentally or deliberately) compromised by a virus that means anyone with suitable software is warned off visiting.

Meanwhile, what’s happening in the real world away from social media. For the anti Hs2 campaign the answer is – not a lot. Their campaign’s completely lost momentum. Hs2aa have yet another legal appeal to be heard in December, beyond that – there’s nothing. Stophs2’s calendar is completely bare. Joe Rukin has a solitary appearance booked in front of the Hs2 Petitioning Committee. After that he’s free to keep writing job applications.

Contrast all this with Hs2 Ltd’s increasingly busy diary filled with consultations, suppliers events, tenders etc – and the almost weekly uttering of support from Government Ministers & members of the opposition, plus events like this weeks National Rail Conference.

As we head into the festive season it’s clear there’s going to be little Christmas cheer for the anti hs2 campaign. They’re staring into the abyss now. I’m willing to predict that 2016 will see one (if not both) of their national groups fold when they can no longer fool themselves that they can stop Hs2.

The anti Hs2 mobs latest nasty little tactic?

04 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Cyberattacks, Hs2, Hs2aa

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Having failed to make any impact in the real world the anti Hs2 mob have fallen back on the internet and their imaginary friends to try and “spread the word” in order to try and keep their dying campaign going.

Except it seems it’s not just the ‘word’ they’re spreading…

Here’s what happens when you have virus protection software and try to visit the Hs2 Action Alliance’s website!

hs2aa

UPDATE:

It’s now the 1st December and the Hs2aa website still produces this message which rather says something about their lack of IT skills and access to them – or their ability to pay…

Here’s why the anti Hs2 mobs Twitter campaign’s a joke.

22 Thursday Oct 2015

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

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Having utterly failed to make any impact in the real world the anti Hs2 campaign’s increasingly become a cyber campaign that’s almost totally reliant on social media to try and get its message out.

Their problem is – they’re mostly shouting at each other.

I’ve long said that their daft & desperate campaign will be an object lesson in how not to do it and here’s another of their masterclasses.

Having failed to gain much of a following on Facebook (see here) Hs2 antis have increasingly fallen back on Twitter. There’s a certain logic to this. In theory, it’s easy to pretend there’s a lot of support for your aims. Setting up a series of accounts that feed off each other to all retweet the same rubbish seems like an attractive idea. The difficulty is there’s obvious pitfalls that the ignorant or unwary can fall into – and the anti Hs2 mob do that every time!

Take today’s example. Let’s welcome the anti Hs2 mobs latest sock puppet account: @CotyHS2

This anonymous account was created today. Straight away it started to follow folk and amassed 15 within a few minutes – all of which are other anti Hs2 accounts. Here they are:

Hs2 coty

Some other anti’s started to follow back almost straight away.

coty 2

One of the first was the IEA transport ‘economist’ Richard Wellings who’s a bit of a tart. He’ll follow anyone to try to make himself look more important and influential. If you don’t believe me, take a look at his Twitter bio.

It’s so obvious that this account is nothing but an anti Hs2 mob propaganda tool and not a real person it’s positively painful.

How will any of this Stop Hs2? It won’t. Not in the slightest. Instead you have a campaign that spends most of its time ranting (pointlessly) at each other – whilst convinced they’re actually achieving something. It’s the political and campaigning version of this;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfBG0d5Oj3c”

This is why campaigners should never fool themselves into thinking a fiddled social media strategy is going to influence anyone. It’s nothing better than mutual masturbation. It might give them a warm glow but the people they think they’re influencing aren’t stupid. They have the ability to analyse metrics that show the anti Hs2 campaigns reach is tiny – and mostly ranting at itself rather than influencing outsiders.

After five years the anti Hs2 mob still haven’t learned the lesson but campaigns that follow them will ignore it at their peril.

Of course, if you want another example of a social media disaster, look no further than the StopHs2 Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/STOP.HS2?fref=ts

It has less than 7000 followers. Many of their comments are priceless. Does this look like an energetic & focussed campaign with a clear strategy & political will? They wish! Instead it’s a wonderful insight into the soul of their campaign, which consists of a few bewildered folk who have absolutely no understanding of the issues & simply can’t understand why no-one is taking them seriously. They remind me of the Duke of Wellington’s famous quote “I don’t know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but, by God, they frighten me”.

Their problem is, the ‘enemy’ aren’t frightened by them in the slightest…

The anti Hs2 mob plumb a new moral low to exploit steelworkers

19 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2aa, Rail Investment, UK steel industry

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I thought the anti Hs2 campaign couldn’t find any more of the barrel-bottom to scrape but their cynical attempts to exploit the steelworkers has proved me wrong.

One might have thought a campaign to stop the biggest civil engineering and railway construction project in the UK and possibly Europe would have the integrity, morality and PR nous to steer clear from trying to link stopping Hs2 with saving UK steelworkers jobs – but this is the anti Hs2 mob we’re talking about. Morality & integrity went out of the window years ago…

First out of the traps was the main Chiltern Nimby group, Hs2aa with a tweet of such breathtaking stupidity it spawned this blog.

Obviously, they’re so ‘concerned’ about the UK steel industry they didn’t even realise Redcar isn’t the country’s last steelworks.

We’ve had a number of people jump on the bandwagon since then. Here’s a sample of some of their tweets.

DR Kate

bullivant

DD steel

So, what do a Bucks Doctor, A Devon Reiki Master and a Camden ‘activist’ have in common? Well, you can bet your bottom dollar it’s not the welfare & jobs of UK steelworkers. If they really were so bothered about steelworkers they’d be campaigning FOR Hs2 to be built and for the steel to do it to be produced in the UK – but hell will freeze over before they do that.

Their level of intellectual & moral bankruptcy says an awful lot about the anti Hs2 campaign – as does their efforts to defend their cynical exploitation of others misfortunes for personal or political reasons.

The sooner their increasingly unpleasant campaign is put out of its misery, the better.