I thought I’d offer an update on the death throes of the HS2 ‘rebellion’ which is playing out in both Staffordshire and (shortly), in the Courts.
Four days ago bailiffs, security staff and police took over the last remaining protest camp on the HS2 route, the so-called ‘bluebell’ camp near Swynnerton. The few occupants remaining were caught with their pants down and the camp was swiftly repossessed. One lad got up a tree and was removed within a few hours whilst it’s believed that only 2-3 others made it into tunnels on the site. Meanwhile, a slightly larger group were surrounded and fenced-in at another nearby woods which they (complacently) thought was a ‘safe-haven’ for them. Cut off from supplies and any reinforcements, they’ve been told they can leave anytime they want, but they won’t be allowed back in.
This fiasco made local news on day one but since the media have shown little interest – and why would they? The unprepared tunnel rats have no communications with the outside world so aren’t producing any propaganda. Instead, the ‘campaign’ are relying on dire Facebook rants from two of the protesters ‘Drew’ (not his real name) who’s corralled inside the ‘bluebell B’ camp and who (judging by his video’s) seems to spend most of his time pissed and on Jim Knaggs who was at ‘Bluebell A’ but not on site when the eviction happened. If you’re suffering from insomnia you could always find Knaggs 20 minute long polemics where he invents a long (long!) list of HS2 ‘crimes’ and whatever else he can think of to fill the time with – including constant appeals to mugs to part with more of their money to fund no-hope court cases and fund the squatters beer, ‘baccy and food bills.
27 shares and 12 comments. Not much of a ‘rebellion’ is it?
Quite how any of these people are meant to be stopping HS2 when they’re hiding in tunnels or corralled behind Heras fencing away from the route is a mystery, but then sense is always in short supply when it comes to trying to talk to these people.
Meanwhile, HS2 contractors and security are busy demolishing the ‘Bluebell A’ camp and preparing to dig out whatever tiny number of tunnel rats remain. Over at ‘Bluebell B’ the impotent protesters bluster (and get pissed) in their cage whilst not being able to do anything else until they get bored, run out of food, fags and alcohol (and whatever other exotic substances they possess) and go home – or get evicted.
It’s farcical. The HS2 ‘rebellion’ has ended not with a bang, but with a whimper. There are no other camps anywhere on the route of HS2 and there’s not likely to be either. On Thursday 26th May HS2 Ltd’s legal team will be back at the High Court in Birmingham where their application for a route-wide injunction will be heard. The Final Hearing is estimated two last 2 days. If the injunction is granted (and there’s every reason to believe that it will) then any further trespass on HS2 land will become a criminal matter. The protesters claim this will make protests against HS2 ‘illegal’ – which is not the case at all. Here’s the wording of the injunction.
Protest will still be legal. Trespass, vandalism, interference and obstruction will not.
There’s another court case pending which has interesting ramifications as it will clear up the legality of protest. The Lord Chief Justice has granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court the case of an HS2 protester (Elliot Cuciurean). The LCJ has certified points of law of public importance for the Supreme Court to adjudicate upon, these are;
(1) Does the Human Rights Act 1998 require a court when determining a charge of aggravated trespass contrary to section 68 of the Criminal and Public Order Act 1994 to undertake a proportionality assessment when the actions under scrutiny occurred during a protest?
(2) What are the circumstances in which a court is required to carry out a proportionality assessment when determining a criminal charge when the actions alleged to constitute the actus reus* of the offence occurred in the course of protest?
*actus reas – action or conduct which is a constituent element of a crime
(3) What principles should a court apply both at first instance and on appeal when a proportionality assessment is required?
The Supreme Court ruling on these matters will remove any ambiguity in the future which is important as it establishes the law around aspects of the right to protest. This may help or hinder the protesters, but it’s important that it’s established.
Either way, it’s not going to save the HS2 rebellion, which is on its death-bed anyway.
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To save my blood-pressure and give my spleen a break I’ve steered clear from much political commentary recently. Let’s face it, if I was going to fact-check every lie our Transport Secretary and Prime Minister uttered I’d have a full-time job on my hands.
But today, the lies have really caught my eye because they’re on the back of a good news story which was announced earlier, which is that Crossrail – the new main line railway under London – will open on the 24th May. Of course tomorrow is the local elections across the UK in which the Tories are widely expected to get a spanking from the electorate. People are fed up of the lies and disinformation over Covid, Brexit and ‘Partygate’. The Tories answer? Double-down on the lies, get your friends in the media to plant ‘look over there’ stories and do *exactly* what you accuse your opponents of doing.
Today Transport Minister Grant Shapps tried to accuse Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London of breaking election ‘purdah’ rules by admitting that Crossrail would open this month (link). Really? Here’s Sadiq’s tweet – which makes no political point whatsoever.
Unlike Shapp’s Tweet an hour later which is emblazoned with the Conservative party logo…
It gets worse. The liar in chief, one Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, also known as the Prime Minister joined in with this tweet – in which he just couldn’t stop lying…
“I’m proud to have secured the investment”? Really? No. It’s a downright lie – as anyone who understands anything about the history of Crossrail knows.
The Crossrail Hybrid Bill was introduced to Parliament in February 2005 (under a Labour government) The Bill was enacted (as in it received Royal Assent, so passed into law) on 22 July 2008 (under a Labour Government). Here’s what the Crossrail website says about the funding mechanism.
“The funding framework for Crossrail was put in place in October 2007 when the Prime Minister announced that Crossrail’s cost will be met by Government, the Mayor of London and London businesses. A funding envelope of £15.9 billion was agreed to deliver the Crossrail scheme in its entirety.“
Boris Johnson was elected Mayor of London in May 2008, long after the deals were done. He’s lying. Again.
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It’s been a dank and dismal day here in the Calder Valley which was a shame as I’d hoped to start a new week in positive fashion. Sadly it wasn’t to be. Added to the gloom was the bounce I felt yesterday as I thought I was shaking off Covid bounced the opposite way today! This isn’t uncommon apparently. You have good days and bad days, it’s just the bad days get less bad. I’d tried to keep busy with paperwork and preparing for the week and even ventured out for a walk on my own through the local woods where I wasn’t likely to come into contact with people, but by the time I got back I was knackered! The stamina levels obviously still need a bit of tweaking. To that end I’ve loosened the reins on eating and drinking. After all, there’s got to be some pleasures left in life. Thankfully, Dawn still seems to be Covid free even though she feels that not all cylinders are firing.
Away from our own concerns there’s the tragedy of the Ukraine still unfolding. I’m resisting blogging about this (for now) as I need to be in full spleen-vent to describe my feelings about what’s going on, the atrocities occurring and the senseless waste of life on all sides. Because of this I did snap at one point earlier today when I saw a young HS2 opponent tweet about how the protesters were suffering ‘lifelong trauma’. What? from events that never happened? For years the protesters have complained about ‘brutality’ from police and security. This ‘brutality’ happens just as soon as someone says ‘no’ to them. A classic example would be a trespasser refuses to move despite several requests to do so, so the police/security use their powers and exercise reasonable force (as they’re legally entitled to do). As soon as the protester has a finger laid upon them they start screaming about being ‘assaulted’. Oh, please! Despite these protests having lasted for 5 years the only convictions for assault have been of protesters. Several charges and arrest warrants are outstanding but certain people have ‘disappeared’ in the hope of evading the police. Even though said protesters nearly all carry camera-phones to record their antics they’ve never yet managed to film a single genuine assault and the video they do produce often leads to the exact opposite result in court. Now, I’m not taking sides here (other than that of the law). If any member of HS2 security or the police does actually assault a protester they should have the book thrown at them. But that’s up to a real court to rule upon, not the court of social media. Frankly, I find it insulting that people who’ve suffered genuine traumas in their lives are being compared to a protester being told ‘no, the law applies to you too’ who them makes stuff up. It’s disappointing to see some mainstream greens supporting this position but I can see their dilemma.
The Green party began from a protest movement and it’s struggling to be a mainstream political party with aspirations of political power. It’s torn in too many directions. Because with power comes responsibility. How could you pass laws when you encourage people to break laws? It’s a question some greens would rather you don’t ask – especially coming up to the May elections. How can they reconcile support for the tactics of people allied to the Extinction Rebellion banner who routinely break the law (sometimes receiving custodial sentences) and at the same time criticise the Johnson Goverment for its law-breaking without looking like hypocrites. Clearly in ‘green’ eyes some laws are more equal than others. This leaves a huge hostage to fortune and the right-wing media an open goal.
Anyway, enough of these musings. I’m sure I’ll be revisiting them again in the future. In the meantime, here’s the picture of the day which relates to some of my earlier comments. We spotted this on out walk on Norland Moor yesterday.
The sooner this war criminal’s in the bin the better…
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The anti HS2 protesters may have done it their way but there was one major problem. Their way was an utter failure! Late to the party, After the abject failure of groups like ‘StopHS2’ HS2Rebellion was formed in 2019 as a banner under which a rag-bag of professional protesters who were refugees from other failed campaigns could coalesce and recruit young people and locals who lived along the route of HS2 to form a grassroots activist movement. It was a project doomed from the very start because of the tensions inherent in trying to weld together people with diametrically opposed outlooks and political sympathies. Anarchists who who had the dream of ‘smashing capitalism’ (bless! Ed) and thought laws only applied to other people were never going jell with Nimbys who owned multi-million pound homes, nor with landowners and farmers who actually knew something about the environment they stewarded. Add in the fact it was an impossible aim. A tiny handful of people that never numbered more than a few hundred to try and stop the largest construction project in Europe that was spread over hundreds of miles was only going to end one way. And so it came to pass.
At the height of their campaign (2020) there were more than a dozen ‘protection’ camps littering (literally) the phase 1 route of HS2. Gradually, these were evicted or abandoned as ‘weekend warriors’ who only turned up to party lost interest never made credible troops. Here’s a list of camps HS2Rebellion openly advertised on their website in August 2021 (with my annotations in bold).
There were several others that only lasted a few days/weeks that never even made the list. Here’s the current list that’s buried away on a back page of their website today.
– and then there was one…
Another factor in the mix is the fact some of the people attracted to these protests are ‘nere-do-wells’ or damaged people who lapse into drug-taking, theft and violence. Insiders attest to the fact the atmosphere at these camps could be quite poisonous and women often felt marginalised or even at risk. Some of the young people whose idealism attracted them to the ’cause’ were soon disillusioned by the reality. The aggression shown by some protesters towards ordinary HS2 workers wasn’t what these idealists expected – or wanted, it was all meant to be peaceful and ‘fluffy’ on the protesters part but the reality was anything but. Factionlism soon broke out as those behind HS2Rebellion turned out to be control freaks who tried to take over the campaign – and control the money. This didn’t sit well with some of the earlier activists. I documented some of the spectacular fallings out in this 2019 blog – “trouble at t’stophs2 mill”
The decline of the ‘rebellion’ was swift as it became obvious that all their stunts were almost exclusively for PR purposes. None of them stopped a thing. Many weren’t even on land needed to build HS2 although that was never, ever admitted. Neither was the weapons-grade lying! As far as those leading the campaign were concerned, lying was fine as it was all about publicity. It made a mockery of the Extinction Rebellion slogan ‘tell the truth’ but that’s always been a lie anyway. As far as XR are concerned the truth is what you make up.
Admittedly, work on some sites was delayed or disrupted temporarily and millions of pounds was wasted but there was only ever going to be one winner. Their tactics were hopeless, carbon-copies of the same stunts that failed to stop the road-building programme of the 1980s. They never twigged that people stuck up trees or squatting in tunnels were sitting targets. It was simply a question of how long it would take them to be removed. It was the same with their tactic of blocking site access or sitting atop vehicles. That got them arrested, with onerous bail conditions applied that limited what they could do, further draining their pool of activists which was rapidly turning into a puddle.
The last squatter camp on Phase 1 (at Wendover) was finally evicted without any media attention in November 2021. That left one camp remaining, at Swynnerton in Staffordshire where a pitiful handful of refugees from other camps had pitched up after everyone else had scattered to the four winds. ‘Bluebell’ camp as the squatters named it was all they had left. It was painfully obvious to anyone with half a brain that by this stage in the game they were wasting their time, but those at the camp had nowhere else to go. Plus, they were still managing to get mugs to fund their lifestyle through Crowdfunding. All they had to do was keep up the pretense that they were actually doing something…
So, every few days a video would appear of a handful of them ‘blockading’ a nearby HS2 worksite. There was only one problem – it was complete bollocks as it was purely for show. They’d reached an agreement with their police liasion so that in order they could legally exercise their right to protest they could parade outside the gate for an hour or so. Any longer and they’d fall foul of the law and be arrested. It was painfully obvious they were achieving nothing because if you look back through the video’s you can see the HS2 worksite expanding and the fences growing! But, it was enough to fool the mugs on social media and keep the money flowing. ‘Job’ done the protesters would retreat to camp to waste the rest of their time drinking, smoking and digging the odd bit of tunnel. Interestingly enough, the majority of their crowdfunding doesn’t come from individual ‘widow’s mites’ but large, regular and anonymous donations of £500 at a time. Here’s a screenshot.
Of course, there were a couple of very middle-class kids in the Euston tunnel who’s parent is a millionaire. I wonder…Looking through all the various Crowdfunders the protesters have organised (and there’s loads) there is a pattern of large anonymous donations. So much for a grassroots campaign. I sometimes wonder just how many 100s of 1000s of pounds have been raised and wasted on this futile campaign. No accounts have ever been held and none have ever been published. It’s been a financial black-hole. No-one knows where all the kit they’ve bought (solar panels, climbing gear, vehicles etc) has gone, other than most of it has ‘disappeared’ – along with some the personal and private property of a few of the camps inhabitants.
The lack of a genuine ‘grassroots’ has always been the anti HS2 campaigns weakness. Considering the fact millions of people live in the constituencies HS2 passes through the number of folks protesting has always been ridiculous in comparison. Even celebrities like Chris Packham with his dual vanity projects (a petition and a legal case, both of which failed) plus his weapons grade dishonesty couldn’t revitalise the campaign.
Another sign of their decline is that no-one seems to be directing HS2Rebellion anymore. The people who set it up appear to have either deserted it or taken a very back seat. Looking at the stuff on their social media feeds and accounts it looks like a bunch of clueless kids have been given the keys and allowed to post what they want – hence them endorsing those libertarian, climate-change denialists and smokescreen for the oil lobby – the Cato Institute! Link here.
The people behind HS2Rebellion seem to be Extinction Rebellion acolytes Larch Maxey and Samantha Smithson (aka ‘Swan’) plus a chap called Micheal Truesdale (aka ‘Miami’) who was involved in a lot of the spats over control of the money and protest camps. All are keeping a very low profile. Maxey and Smith have court cases pending due to various daft stunts whilst Truesdale has disappeared, having deleted his Facebook account. Most of the usual suspects were amongst the 63 (with aliases) named in this recent injunction for the real name of ‘Bluebell’ Woods (Cash’s Pit). The injunction’s interesting for several reasons. It exposes just how few people formed the hardcore of the protest, how many have since deserted the campaign, and also which ones are left – and their real names. I mean, seriously – a campaign where there’s less than 100 hard-core supporters to be found and named after four years of protests? That’s pathetic.
So, who’s vice ‘Miami’? real name Michael Truesdale, last seen wasting his time up a tree in Euston Sq gardens?
In February the ‘Bluebell’ camp was served with an eviction notice which expired on March 24th. There was a lot of bluster from some of the residents about how they were going to challenge this but they’ve gone very quiet after the hearing (let me guess, it failed. Ed). Now the stage is set for the eviction as all the players are in place for the showdown which will obviously take place in the next few days or weeks. The result is in no doubt. What will be interesting is to see how many people are left in the camp when the eviction takes place as more of the long term regulars who ended up at ‘Bluebell’ have already given up and moved on. Here’s two examples from recent weeks.
Ross Monaghan was a refugee from Crackley and Jones’ Hill woods camps (amongst others) and had convictions for assault. ‘Tepcat’ was an occupant of the Bluebell camp who’d previously drifted in and out of several other camps over the years.
Meanwhile, despite these desertions, the bluster from the remaining occupants goes on!
“Growing”? Bless! As for working ‘hard’, here’s a picture posted on one of their social media accounts in recent days which shows just how hard they’re ‘working’. After all, those cider flagons are had to lift don’tcha know! “working hard” at ‘Bluebell’ woods, thanks to mugs donating to Crowdfunders ‘cos they’ve been conned into thinking a tiny group of woodland wasters like this are going to stop the largest construction project in Europe. If this is ‘the resistance’ then it’s painfully obvious resistance is futile!
On the 5th April there’s a hearing in the High Court in Birmingham where HS2 Ltd are applying for a route-wide injunction to prevent any more of these incursions onto HS2 land and prevent unlawful activity such as blocking access to HS2 worksites. You can find all the court papers here. There’s a lot of them but some make interesting reading as they document protests going back to 2017 and expose the protesters claims of being ‘peaceful’ for the lies they are. If the injunction’s granted (and they have been in the past) expect the eviction of ‘Bluebell’ to happen very soon afterwards.
No doubt I’ll be blogging about the eviction as and when it happens as this is the final chapter in this useless and misguided campaign. It’s possible another pointless camp may spring up somewhere in the future but it’s patently obvious that what passed for a national campaign to stop HS2 died a death years ago.
Now the focus moves to Parliament as the consultation period on the Phase 2b route from Crewe to Manchester closes on March 31st. Soon, the Hybris Bill for the route will get its 2nd reading in Parliament. It will pass and the only question is how big the majority will be. There’s no credible political opposition to HS2, but then there’s no credible ‘grassroots’ campaign either. The mantra I’ve been repeating for years is self-evident. ‘Stop Hs2’ is dead….
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Gosh, is it February already? I can’t say I’m too upset. After the past two Covid coated years I was looking forward to 2022 with optimism and renewed hope that we just *might* be starting to recover from all our woes and things would start to pick up. Sadly, for various reasons January was a mixed month to say the least, not helped by the shower of shits who sit on the Government benches in Parliament. I’ve never felt as embarrassed to be British as I am now, looking at this venal, lying and duplicitous bunch who’re more interested in their own careers, partying and lining each others pockets. But I can’t say I’m surprised. Johnson has a long history as a liar and a man who cares only for himself. The fact the Tories thought this qualified him to be their leader says everything you need to know about the Conservative party in the 21st Century. The sycophants and incompetents he’s surrounded himself and appointed to high-office so they owe him personal loyalty makes us look like a banana republic. I mean, Christ on a bike, who in their right mind would entrust Nadine ‘Mad Nad’ Dorries with anything important? I wouldn’t trust her with anything sharp! Her TV interviews yesterday were full on motorway pile-ups. Despite all this, Johnson (am man without an iota of honour) seems to brazen things out, despite the Grey report nailing the fact he lied to Parliament. As a man with no shame, he did it again by accusing Sir Keir Starmer of refusing to prosecute sex offender Jimmy Savile. It was yet another blatant lie, but lies are Johnson’s stock-in trade. He tells them as naturally as breathing.
How long are the Tories going to let this shit-show go on for? Have they any idea how this, their Brexitshambles and their empty bluster against the EU makes this country look abroad, or do they just not care as long as there’s still some money to be made out of it and most people seem in ignorance of what they’re getting away with – or just don’t care?
Sorry, I wasn’t intending to vent my spleen when I started typing, but the words came far too easily!
Away from the political and economic shambles its also been turbulent times here in West Yorkshire, but that’s been down to natural events – the weather! Having survived to named gales we were caught unawares by another one today which literally seemed to slip under the radar. Dawn and I went out for a walk this afternoon wondering if it was a wise move as the amount of trees that were losing branches was becoming worrying. Fortunately we survived unscathed but when I nipped out this evening I noticed a neighbour’s new fence blocking a nearby road. Hopefully the calm will arrive tomorrow. It doesn’t matter too much as I’ve another day based at home, so I don’t have to negotiate my way around a rail network choked with blown-away trampolines, shed roofs or fallen trees.
OK, on to the picture of the day, which has a very different vibe to all this. It’s from my latest batch of old slide scans. It dates from May 1996 and shows a rather special place. Here’s a pub that has what must be a unique location. The Red Lion is in the village of Avebury which is inside a massive Neolithic ditch containing several stone circles. Imagine sitting with your pint outside here, gazing out over a scene like this?
You can find (or buy) many more pictures from Avebury on my Zenfolio website if you follow this link.
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Monday was an interesting day as the Hybrid bill for the latest section of High Speed 2 from Crewe to Manchester and beyond was deposited in Parliament. The bill contains changes that have been made over the past year, such as extending the depot at Crewe, a new Northern link to allow HS2 trains to call at the station and regain the main line, plus an extension of Manchester Airport station and provision for links to the truncated Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) lines. There’s also details of a new train depot at Annandale in Dumfries and Galloway. You can read the full details and peruse the selection of documents here.
The next stage will be in February when the bill gets its 2nd reading. This is the most important stage as it contains a vote on the bill in the House of Commons. When the bill passes the vote, the principle of the bill is established and it becomes unstoppable. The next stages (Committee and petitioning stages, debate in the Lords and final 3rd reading) are important, but procedural. None of them can stop the bill from becoming law – despite what some of the lines opponents pretend! The truth is, HS2 has such great cross-party support in Parliament, both in the commons and Lords, that it will fly through the vote. The only question is just how big the token opposition will be. Let’s face it, what’s the point of some of the Tory MPs who voted against it in the past because it was passing through their constituencies voting against it now it’s being built somewhere else – and annoying their party managers in the process?
So, the only unknown at the moment is which MPs will be appointed to the Committee which will be appointed to oversee the petitioning process and how many people with a genuine interest (or grievance, because there will be some people who will be adversely affected) will petition the committee.
On phase 1, opponents of HS2 tried to kill the project my putting in mass petitions. It was a futile act as many of them were pro-forma letters, so the Committee just lumped them all together to get through them. Even so it took a long time. At the end of the process the outgoing Cttee recommended changes to the Hybrid Bill process.
These lessons were learned on the Hybrid Bill for phase 2a from the West Midlands to Crewe so the process was much quicker. Plus, nowhere near as many people petitioned. It went down from 1600 to just a couple of hundred. Part of the process included challenging the ‘locus standi’ (a right to appear in a court or before any body on a given question) of certain groups and individuals. To petition the Ctte you have to prove you are materially affected by the Hybrid Bill and the building of that section of line. That disbars groups like Extinction Rebellion and StopHs2.
One of the interesting things about the Phase 2b route is that there’s always been so little organised opposition along it. Apart from some long-standing (but ineffective and moribund) Stop Hs2 ‘action’ groups in rural (and expensive) parts of Cheshire there’s never been a single group in the Greater Manchester area or in any towns along the route. It’s all been rural Nimbyism. It’s why whenever one of the few derisory stophs2 protests have happened in the city, it’s always by people from out of town! (more on which later).
So, what was the response of what’s left as an opposition to HS2? Well, they organised (and use that word loosely) two days of ‘action’, billed this on their various websites, culminating on protests in London, Birmingham and Manchester on the day the HS2 bill was deposited.
OK, that was what was billed, but what actually happened? Friday was a taste of the farce to come. There was no ‘media storm’, in fact the mainstream media almost totally ignored them and they caused barely a ripple on social media either. Here’s a classic from the day.
Aww! Bless! They’re boasting of a lone protester asking motorists to honk in support of scrapping a green railway because that causes road congestion and inconveniences that well-known example of green transport- err, car drivers! The optics of this are hilarious, but that’s never sunk in with the protesters who proudly boast of having set up banners on bridges over motorways! You have to laugh!
Things didn’t go any better on Monday. I’d been working in Leeds that morning but had enough time to get over to Manchester to watch their demonstration in Piccadilly Gardens scheduled for noon. It took a bit of finding at first as there was no-one in the gardens. I eventually found them huddled under a the statue of Wellington, which was an excellent choice as they really met their Waterloo!
The handful of protesters were trying to assemble their white elephant and prepare their banners whilst a bunch of TV crews and reporters who outnumbered them waited patiently for them to get their acts together and the circus commence. When they were finally ready they set of for a single circuit of part of the gardens before returning and posing for the camera crews. Here’s a little video of the procession.
The person doing all the shouting is one Karen Wildin, an Extinction Rebellion/Hs2Rebellion activist from that well known Manchester suburb of *checks notes* err, Leicestershire! More on this later…
Here’s another video of them all posing for the media after their five minute amble around the gardens. It took that long as the elephant can’t see where it’s going! I’m sure that must be a metaphor for something!
So, there you have it. 10 people, two more dressed as an elephant and a child, led by a woman from Leicestershire. And how many of them were actually from Manchester? I’m willing to bet none…
Sadly, the members of the 4th estate who were there never thought to ask such pertinent questions. Karen was interviewed by Sky news and trotted out the usual trite and dishonest tosh, whilst John, the bloke from Warrington was interviewed for a minute on Heart radio and came out with the standard scaremongering about ‘ecocide’ plus the fantasy ‘cost’ of HS2 being £200bn!
Whilst I was watching the circus and John recognised me and tipped off Wildin as to whom I was. If you see her Sky interview you’ll notice her looking very furtive and constantly looking out of shot to her left (at me!) Here’s my view of events.
The whole farce lasted less than two hours. After they’d done their media interviews they packed up, whilst they were doing so Wildin buttonholed me and tried to argue with me about HS2. I’ve been their bete noir for years thanks to blogs like this and they don’t take kindly to someone telling the truth. That’s not a good idea when you’re talking to someone who knows far more about the project and politics than they do, nor someone who asks awkward questions and won’t let you duck and evade them (like asking how many of the demonstrators were actually from Manchester!) It didn’t go well for Karen who got more and more flustered before finally storming off after calling me a tw*t and a d*ckhead. Lapsing into abuse when things get uncomfortable is their normal modus operandi.
Their tiny band then traipsed back to Piccadilly station for the final farcical act. Yes, they’d arrived by train! The very thing they’re protesting against building more of!
The other protests in Birmingham and London weren’t much better, although they had marginally more people. A demonstration at Curzon St caused minor disruption to a lorry trying to enter the site before police intervened.
In London, a group of people protested outside Euston station by carrying banners and banging drums (well, that’s REALLY going to stop HS2! Ed). Interestingly this protest was timed for later in the day, presumably so some of those protesting in Manchester could get back to London in time to attend!
No problem here! The protest as Euston, which seems to have got its messaging mixed. Is this a demo against HS2 or Tory legislation? I do love the fact even one of the Extinction Rebellion drummers is having to wear ear-defenders!
And the sum total of all this? Zero. Today it’s business as usual on the HS2 construction sites, whilst Parliament prepares for the HS2 Phase 2b bill’s second reading. All the protesters have achieved is to demonstrate just how powerless they are when it comes to stopping HS2. It’s not going to get any better as their campaign continues to collapse into infighting and squabbles over increasingly scarce resources as the numbers of protesters and funds to support them dwindles. Interestingly, there wasn’t sight nor sound of any of the usual suspects from StopHs2 which has ceased to exist nowadays. Joe Rukin has retired, leaving Bournemouth based Panny Gaines as their only representative. Despite their being direct trains from Bournemouth to Manchester (via Birmingham) Penny never showed her face. This was almost exclusively an Extinction Rebellion event, plus a couple of Nimbys. None of the usual ‘stars’ from XR turned up either. No Larch Maxey, No ‘Swampy’ and no ‘Swan’. That’s because most have them have been hamstrung by bail or conditions or convictions – and the fact squabbles in the campaign are putting others off. I doubt I’ll be writing about the protesters again for a while. Well, until their next futile stunt, anyway. Oh, you’ll be able to see more pictures of the daft demo in Manchester by the end of today. They’ll be added to this gallery.
What I will be writing about will be the progress of the HS2 Phase 2b Hybrid Bill and also some site visits to various HS2 construction areas over the next month, so watch out for them.
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It’s been a busy week here at Bigland Towers. Despite the sunny weather I’ve been stuck indoors trying to catch up on paperwork, deal with picture requests from clients whilst continuing with decluttering – and scanning old slides. But now I’m getting itchy feet. The good weather is forecast to be around for a few more days so tomorrow I intend to get out with the camera in order to document more of the changing face of the railways. That’s getting harder to do as the Government and Dept of Transport cut many rail services from the timetable from Monday. An example is Manchester – Euston which has gone from three to one train an hour. All this just as it seems that Covid cases have peaked and are in decline, although the data is too fresh to draw firm conclusions. Mind you, with the political shambles we’re seeing at the moment I’m not expecting anything better. We have a Transport Minister who’s still trying to pretend his widely-derided (dis)Integrated Rail Plan is the best thing since sliced bread and castigates its critics, whilst everyone else outside of his Westminster bubble knows it’s a lemon. The railways are having an unhappy time of things at the moment due to a complete lack of direction and the feeling that the only people in charge are the bean-counters in the Treasury – the people who are the living embodiment of the old phrase about knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Still, I’m looking forward to escaping the confines of the Calder Valley for a while, just to remind myself what the wider world looks like again. No doubt there’ll be a rolling blog appearing…
In the meantime, here’s the picture of the day selected from my latest batch of old slide scans taken in 1996. A lot’s changed over the past few years, but these standing stones at Avebury in Wiltshire have seen millennia come and go. After all, many of them have been standing since 2900 BC!
Sadly, I can’t see myself making it to Wiltshire tomorrow, but I hope I can keep you entertained with tales from somewhere less ancient…
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Welcome to my first blog of 2022! I’m opening the year with a light-hearted look at an old subject which is unlikely to feature much this year as the anti HS2 ‘campaign’ (and I use that word very loosely indeed) now resembles Monty Python’s famous parrot!
With all the protest camps on phase 1 of HS2 having been evicted or abandoned (despite what the @hs2rebellion website claims) there’s just a solitary camp in Staffordshire remaining – although that’s living on borrowed time. The tiny handful of regular occupants are good at bluster (claiming their campaign is growing) and wringing Crowdfunded money from mugs who fall for their spin, but what they’re not good at is doing anything to impede – never mind stop – HS2, as their latest pantomime demonstrated.
Their normal stunt is to turn up at a local HS2 compound, film themselves failing to stop any work, then buggering off back to camp before they get arrested. Their gullible followers on social media fall for this and throw money into the bucket to keep them in food and fags for another few days.
Over the Christmas holiday they tried a different stunt which went woefully wrong!
The M42 motorway was closed between Xmas eve and New Year’s eve in order to prepare groundworks for the ‘Marston box’, a bridge which will carry HS2 over the M42.
The protesters decided it would be a cunning plan to try and disrupt this work, so a few Bluebell occupants, a well-known but equally useless Extinction Rebellion activist from Nottinghamshire and a couple of youngsters from who knows where headed over to the work on the 29th. Quite how this one man and his dog operation (there was only about 6-7 of them) was meant to stop such a huge project is a mystery, but most of their actions are purely for the sake of the cameras nowadays anyway.
It went badly. Three of them ended up getting arrested, including the gobby but hopeless character who calls himself ‘run away Jim’ who was nicked for sitting atop a wagon for a little while. Their friend from Notts, Karen Wildin* also got nicked for breaching her bail conditions. The video’s were farcical as they showed just how useless the protest had been, and also how small. One young protester hadn’t even got a clue where she was and kept claiming she was blocking the ‘M25 North’!
Wildin was seen on film protesting that the police refused to tell her why she was being arrested, despite the fact it’s clear from her commentary (and subtitles) they’d told her it was because she’d breached her bail conditions – conditions which would have been clearly explained to her at the time. But then Wildin isn’t the sharpest tool in the box. In another video she can be heard unthinkingly spouting the usual XR propaganda, including the claim that HS2 is merely a ‘shuttle service’ between airports. Any enquiring mind might ask, “why on earth do you need a shuttle service between airports? Who flies in to Heathrow to fly out of Birmingham, or vice versa”? It’s one of the most intellectually vacuous of all the anti HS2 claims, but enquiring minds are as rare as rocking-horse sh*t when it comes to these protesters.
Oh dear, poor Karen, your own words show you knew exactly why you were being arrested (again).
So, how much disruption was caused by this laughable protest. The sum total of zilch! The M42 was meant to reopen by 21:00 on New Years Eve, but as the local paper, the Coventry Telegraph reported, the work finished early – by 16:00! In fact, torrential rain caused more disruption to the work than the protesters!
After being released on bail the hapless protesters returned to their camp (or Notts, as Wildin’s bail conditions ban her from land owned by HS2) but they won’t be there for long as the camp is living on borrowed time and HS2 bailiffs and security will soon be arriving to take possession. Like all the other camps it won’t be much of a fight.. Soon all that’ll be left is another woodland full of crap and detritus left behind by the hopeless protesters. This will bring to an end the pathetic tale of the protest camps, none of which stopped a thing.
As for the claims that their campaign is ‘growing’, their own social media accounts belie these claims. Time and time again they carry tales of protesters who’ve given up and moved on elsewhere, often to other hopeless causes. Their final acts are often to try and bum more money in the process…
The support they get in some of their new protests is in marked contrast to their claims. “Digger Down” was one of the occupants of the pointless Euston tunnels, now he’s protesting about trees in London, with the same levels of success and support!
The @hs2rebellion pantomine has had its last season. Most of the actors in this tiny troupe are now ‘resting’ (one way or another) and don’t expect a summer performance either! With the rate things have gone they’ll be lucky to fill a phone box in 2022. The only appearances they’ll be getting booked for are those in Court…
Happy New Year!
*Wildin has a track record of failure as Extinction Rebellion ‘cannon-fodder’ Having sat up trees on the HS2 route only to be turfed out toot-suite she tried her hand at sitting atop a biomass train at Drax power station. That went as well as expected! She also ignored ‘lockdown’ to pitch up in Euston to film herself at the tunnel protest. The expression ‘rebel without a clue’ springs to mind…
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Yay – I got the month right from the off! For some strange reason my brain seems to be stuck in November, which is why I’ve cocked-up two recent December blogs and backdated them until kind readers have pointed it out. I suppose I could always try the Captain Mainwaring defense from ‘Dad’s Army’ and pretend I wondered who’d spot it first. Truth is – it wasn’t me!
There’s not going to be a long blog tonight, mainly because this hasn’t been the most exciting of days. The Calder Valley’s spent most of the day bathed in fog and I’ve been stuck at home sorting out paperwork, old slides and the occasional Xmas present. I did get out for a wander late in the day in order to get some shopping and get my daily exercise, so a wander in to Sowerby Bridge was in order. We may be in the run-up to Christmas, but the town seemed quite subdued for a Saturday at this time of the year. I suspect the reality of the new Covid strain’s starting to concentrate a few minds even though Calderdale has (for now) seen Covid cases decreasing.
Whilst we’ve been lucky I couldn’t help suck my teeth at today’s news that the anti-vaxxers and Covid conspiracy nuts decided to hold a rally in London. If there’s one place where Omicron is going through the roof it’s London. Still, a cynic might argue this is social Darwinism in action and if this means the shallow end of the gene pool gets deeper this is no bad thing. Will they be missed? Nope…
Once back at home I indulged in some cooking therapy and knocked up a veggie casserole which was an ideal accompaniment to the miserable weather. I love any recipe that contains Cumin, Garlic and Smoked Paprika and this one certainly did.
To pass the time I’ve been scanning and storing lots of old travel slides. They won’t see the light of day just yet as they’re in reserve to give me something to do over Christmas during those quiet ‘down time’ moments when everyone’s stuffed to the gills with Xmas fayre and falling asleep in front of the TV. But here’s a snippet. I’ve finished scanning the Bali pictures from 1994-95 and moved on to UK images from the latter year. So here’s one of the last Bali pictures. I’ve always loved the sculptured landscape of Bali and the way farmers have managed to carve out paddy fields from the most extreme of slopes. Here’s an example.
These fields are near some fascinating old Buddhist temples at Tampaksiring in the islands hinterland. Spot the nursery field where young rice plants are grown before being pricked out by hand across the other terraces….
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
This morning I woke up to the welcome news that Johnson’s Tories had been humiliated in the North Shropshire by-election, losing a seat they considered theirs as a right to hold to the Lib-Dems. It was a massive 34% swing that saw the previous Tory majority of 23,000 become a Lib-Dem one of nearly 6000. One can only hope that this is the start of a shift that will see UK voters reject the kakistocracy we’ve had in charge ever since Johnson was elected in 2019. But I’m not going to hold my breath…
As if to celebrate the news the weather decided to grace the Calder Valley with sunshine. Well, the tops of the valley anyway, the lower levels have been hidden in mist for most of the day! Undeterred I decided to have a day out and head West with the camera, escaping the confines of the office now my computer problems have been resolved. If only every problem was as easily solved by a phone call!
My day out saw me heading West to old haunts, in this case Wigan, Southport and Liverpool where the weather held and sunshine reigned. I needed some pictures of the ‘new’ Class 769s (former electric trains converted to bi-modes with the addition of a diesel engine) and also the brand-new Class 777s for Merseyrail which are being built by the Swiss company Stadler. For once my luck held and I managed to complete my quest. 769s were running services to Southport and when I arrived one of the new 777s was sitting in the station whilst the crew took a break. I had enough time to grab shots of it at the seaside resort before getting ahead of it to take pictures at Hall Road on the edge of Liverpool. Sadly, by that point the sun had been overwhelmed by cloud. Even so, I managed a reasonable shot of old and new together, which is today’s picture of the day.
On the left is a Class 508 unit which was built by BR at York between 1979-80. These units were built as 4-car trains for the former Southern region and operated out of London Waterloo for several years before being reduced to 3-car trains and sent North to Merseyside in 1984-85 to replace the Class 503 electric trains which had been built by the London Midland and Scottish railway in 1938. Now it’s their turn to be replaced by the Class 777s one of which is seen here on a test run from Southport to Sandhills in Liverpool. 52 of these new units are on order and will start entering into passenger service sometime in 2022. There’s around half a century of the evolution of train design captured in that picture. I remember the 507-508 taking over services on this line over 40 years ago. Barring medical miracles I don’t expect to be around in another 40-plus years to see what replaces the 777s! Still, never say never…
If you want to look back at the Merseyrail system over the years you can find pictures going back to the 1990s in two different galleries on my Zenfolio website. Images from 2003 to the present day can be found here. Shots taken when the franchise was run by Arriva (from 1997-2003) can be found here – and pictures from the British Rail era can be found in this gallery, but you’ll have to do a lot of searching!
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Paul Bigland 