After a reflective weekend I’m back into the fray with a vengeance. I’ve been playing catch-up with editing last weeks rail and travel pictures to get them up on my Zenfolio website, which happened this morning. If you follow this link, you can see which galleries have been updated with new images. Here’s a couple of samples to whet your appetites. Anyone passing through the Calder Valley by train will probably have looked up at the hills above Todmorden and noticed Stoodley Pike plus the monument atop it. This was completed in 1856 and replaced an earlier one that was constructed to commemorate the end of the Napoleonic wars. 121 feet tall, it has an observation deck 41ft above ground that’s reached by internal stairs. It looks impressive from a distance, but it’s even more so close up. I can’t imagine what it must have been like as one of the people trying to build such a structure in such a windswept and desolate place with the tools available at the time.

That done, I’ve been busy sorting out other pictures for a couple of clients as well as trying to prepare for the week ahead. It’s a busy week as I’ve got a lot of travelling to do, catching up with the ever-changing rail scene as the introduction of new fleets ramps up and the withdrawal of old trains escalates as a consequence. There’s some major changes happening out there at the moment and that’s going to continue for some time. I’ve also a blog on the Trans-Pennine route upgrade to update after attending a Network Rail consultation over the weekend as I’ve a lot of new information to add.

As if that wasn’t enough I’ve got to dust off my ‘penguin suit’ ready for Thursday’s National Rail Awards in London.

After working as the event photographer between 2003 and 2017 I’ve been honoured to be a VIP guest for the past few years along with my wife, Dawn. Now I can relax and spend time with friends and enjoy the awards rather than be on duty, wondering just how many people will turn up on stage to collect each trophy. Don’t get me wrong, I loved working there, but it wasn’t without it’s stresses when you knew you had to deliver great pictures of such a prestigious event. It’s good to see Huw Edwards returning as presenter this year, he’s been one of the best. That said, we’ve had some great ones over the years and it’s always been a challenge to get pictures of them as they pace the stage.

As you can see, there’s going to be plenty to blog about over the next few days – and that’s without the long-running farce that is British politics and the Brexitshambles. The latest tragi-comedy has taken place in Luxembourg where Johnson’s utterly stupid remarks comparing himself to the cartoon character the ‘hulk’ have backfired in spectacular fashion. Here’s a headline from Rupert Murdoch’s ‘Wapping Liar’ – sorry – the ‘Sun’

The reality? Johnson went from ‘Hulk’ to sulk and ran away from a joint press event with Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel! Christ on a bike, how stupid we look to the world right now, and it’s all our fault, despite the blame game the Brexiters are desperately playing. This is the political equivalent of “a big boy did it and ran away” – and the rest of the world knows it. In fact, everyone does but the Brexiters. Start stockpiling those foodstuffs folks. This has no happy ending – unless you’re a millionaire hedge fund manager…

Here we are, the first day of September and only three weeks to go before autumn. Can I ask, who nicked the summer? We didn’t really get one up here in West Yorkshire. Sure, we had a few scattered, sunny days – but nothing that equates to those summers of memory (or even last year) where you know you could rely on the weather to be consistent. Here’s an example. Back in July, when I was judging the ACoRP awards we had a Friday where the trains were delayed by buckling rails because of the heat, yet the following Monday we were suffering problems because of torrential rain and flooding! August was much the same. The climate is changing, it’s becoming harder to predict and much more extreme. Of course, we’re going to get the usual right-wingers and conspiracy theorists tell you it’s all down to sun-spots or the fanciful bollocks that we’re actually entering a new ice-age and the planets actually cooling but none of them will address the fact that we constantly hit new temperature records.

This is the problem with living in a post-truth world where people can stand up with a straight face and tell you that they’re talking about ‘alternative facts’. Imagine, we live in a world where – thanks to those handy little smartphones most of us carry – we can check almost any fact and use our intellects and education to work out when we’re being lied to. Well, that’s how it’s supposed to work anyway.

The Brexitshambles is a classic example of this and also how the narrative can change and yet so many people never realise and blindly follow the new message like sheep. Back in 2016 the Brexiters swore that if we left the EU we would be going into a new ‘Golden age’. The EU was holding us back, but anyway, ‘Johnny Foreigner’ would soon fold when we showed them that we meant business. Here’s some of the bullshit people lapped up.

Can any Brexiter who insists that they knew what they were voting for explain how we’ve gone from this to the Tory Government now preparing to crash out of the EU without a deal with all the consequences that will bring? How have we gone from David Davis saying there’s only ‘upsides’ to Boris Johnson saying that at least we’ll still have Mars Bars and clean water?

At what point are Brexiters going to admit they’ve been conned? That this country is on a suicide course for no other reason than a bunch of media moguls, disaster capitalists, spivs with Belizean diplomatic passports and the head-banging wing of the Tory party have manipulated them? Name a single benefit of Brexit – and don’t you dare tell me it’s about democracy when you’re calling half of the country ‘traitors’ and suspending Parliament so that you crash us out of the EU without a deal.

Whatever happens the UK is fractured. The ‘united’ kingdom was always an uneasy alliance. Now it’s looking like it won’t survive English exceptionalism and their contempt for foreigners – which includes long-standing issues with the other elements of the Union: Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It seems that anything can be thrown under the wheels of the Brexit bus as long as they keep turning.