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/
My usual apologies for the absence of blogs recently. This has been due to trying to clear the decks in the run-up to Christmas, the odd festivity – and the fact my diary keeps changing due to the uncertainties around Covid regulations and the reactions to them as people try and work out what to do – such as scrabbling around trying to find Lateral Flow Test kits after Johnson dropped his latest bombshell on the NHS without any prior warning. To be honest, we’re lucky on the flow test front. Whilst I was up at COP26 in Glasgow kits were being given out on Glasgow Central station so I picked up several boxes to bring home. Try getting them now. Dawn tried online only to be told there’s not one available for 30 miles! Quiet how people are meant to do a daily test when there’s no bloody test kits available is a mystery known only to Johnson. Anyone would think he’s making this up as he goes along. I mean, only a complete idiot would announce such a policy without checking that there’s sufficient stocks of test kits available, wouldn’t they? Oh, wait…
In response to the news I’m seeing a number of things being cancelled. Thursday’s annual Railway Carols service in London was cancelled at the end of last week and postponed until 2022. This week I’ve had a dental appointment cancelled with just 48 hours notice. I know of many other people who’re seeing Xmas meals and parties cancelled at short notice – just what the hospitality industry needs right now. Now, I understand the need to stay safe, I really do – but this is turning into yet another omnishambles and there’s a lot of very unhappy people faced with making tough choices who’re looking at what’s coming out about Johnson and Co’s behavior this time last year and thinking ‘you’re having a laugh!’. Actually, what many people are saying is far more expletive-driven but I’d get banned from a lot of social media for articulating it verbatim and with the passion it deserves. It will be interesting to see how all this anger may manifest itself in Thursday’s by-election in the Tory safe-seat of North Shropshire. Maybe some of us will be getting an early Christmas present.
Maybe the new Covid variant will do us all in the UK a favour by finally dropping the scales from some people’s eyes so that they finally appreciate just what a bunch of incompetents and shysters have in Government at the moment, but I won’t be holding my breath. Instead, I’ll be trying to make the most of the festive season and hope 2022 will be the year we finally see the back of all this crap.
OK, sorry for the political rant but some times I’ve got to do a spot of spleen-venting. I’ve tried to be a good boy recently, despite everything that’s going on (and don’t even get me started on the Brexit shambles otherwise we’ll be here all night), but sometimes needs must.
Right, back to cuddly, fluffy things like the picture of the day. Today’s is another in the series of old slides I’ve been scanning which were taken in Bali in January 1995.
These brightly painted outrigger fishing boats are pulled up on the beach at Padangbai on the Eastern end of Bali. Padangbai’s the port for ferries across to the island of Lombok further East. Between them you cross the Wallace line. This is a faunal boundary line drawn in 1859 by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and named by English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley that separates the biogeographical realms of Asia and Wallacea, a transitional zone between Asia and Australia.
Behind the boats are a row of simple beachside restaurants where fresh fish straight from the boats would be sold freshly grilled or baked. You really can’t get much fresher than that!
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I hadn’t intended going anywhere today, exactly the opposite. I’d a shedload of pictures to sort out after my trip to the North-East the other day plus paperwork and all manner of gubbins. But I was up bright and early so managed to crack on with a lot of stuff, then realised that – actually – we’d been gifted a stunning day weather-wise. I didn’t want to venture too far, but the North’s railways are very much in the news at the moment due to the weapons-grade dishonesty from the Prime Minister and Grant Shapps (the Transport Minister, but don’t feel embarrassed if you’ve never heard of him before, he’s a classic Johnson appointee in that respect). So, I decided to head out to the railway between Leeds and York which is being electrified. Well, sort of – ish.
At the moment the wires are extending West from Colton Junction on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) along the route to Leeds but they peter out just before they get to the junctions East of Church Fenton. For those in the know, Church Fenton was *meant* to be where HS2’s Eastern leg joined the existing network. Well, before Johnson mothballed it anyway. Here’s the view from the footbridge at the station looking East. No, that’s not a railway bridge in the distance. That’s where the overhead masts end…
Although the day was sunny it was also bloody cold – and the existing train service isn’t exactly what you’s call ‘metro style’ either. Having arrived at Church Fenton I hung around long enough to get some useful shots and the early signs of hypothermia, then decided to move on to Ulleskelf, slightly further East. The only thing was – it was quicker to walk the two miles between them than it was to wait for the next train! OK, maybe I’m a glutton for punishment (and exercise) but the walk seemed like a good idea. Besides, this part of Yorkshire’s flat – which is why it’s so cold! Little old me was one of the few things in the way of the wind.
To be fair, there’s not a lot of reasons to hang around in this part of the world anyway. The old station building at Church Fenton’s been converted into an Indian restaurant but it’s not open until later. Neither’s the pub, but there is a very good community run shop only a few minutes walk away. It’s a friendly little place that stocks an amazing range of stuff – including some bottled real ales from local brewers.
The walk to Ulleskelf was mostly on farm tracks apart from the last mile, so it wasn’t taxing. Sadly, my timing wasn’t particularly good as I still had far more time to hang around than I’d needed to get the shots I’d planned – and the nearby pub only opened 3 minutes after my train was due to depart, so I spent a fair bit of time wondering what the hell I was doing this for. Talk about suffering for one’s art! Still, I did get the pictures I wanted – and more – as the light played ball for once.
Here’s a sample.
Remember, this line was meant to have been electrified years ago, but it was cancelled by a Tory Transport Minister. Now it’s being done piecemeal with no real plan, but this is the line Boris Johnson’s spinning as a ‘quicker’ upgrade than HS2. The fact HS2 would have acted as a bypass here and would have meant places like Ulleskelf (where this picture’s taken) could have had a far better service than the piss-poor one it has now is the last thing he’s bothered about.
I’m of the opinion George Osborne, the Tory Chancellor who championed the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ actually meant it. With Boris Johnson, what we’re left with is a (Peppa) Pig’s arse…
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This morning the final two useless anti HS2 protesters came out of the pointless Wendover tunnel. Oh, you didn’t know that three had given up earlier in the week? Neither did the rest of the world as it received no media attention – much to the chagrin of HS2rebellion and the rest of the protesters! The world’s moved on and the fact a tiny bunch of people were holed up in a tunnel that wasn’t even on the route of HS2 so couldn’t possibly stop any work wasn’t in any way newsworthy.
Now the final two, a lad who calls himself ‘Satchel’ plus the much better known but equally useless ‘Swampy’ have given up after being cornered by the bailiffs.
So much for all the bluster about staying underground for months! They made 28 (pointless) days, whilst the whole eviction took 32. Whilst they’ve played troglodyte the former camp above their heads has been demolished and gradually cleared by bailiffs – which has beeb a major task due to the massive amounts of crap these supposed ‘environmentalists’ have dumped on the site. It was a shit-tip, as these pictures from inside the camp show.
Of course, it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened and those underground were forced to give up.
And the sum total of what they’ve achieved is? Zip. Nada. Nothing. Sweet FA.
Not a single days work building HS2 has been lost because of the stupid actions. At the end they didn’t even get the media attention they craved as no-one from the mainstream news agencies could be bothered with them. This whole (non)event ended with a whimper. The protesters weren’t even arrested as it’s not a crime to seal yourself in a tunnel where you couldn’t possibly get in the way of HS2 construction (as the court case against the Euston protesters established). Criminally stupid, yes, but not illegal. Of course, the protesters are trying to claim this as some sort of ‘victory’, but it’s obvious to anyone with half a brain it’s anything but!
So that’s it. No ‘protection’ camps survive on the phase 1 route of HS2, every single one (and there were only a handful) ended in failure.
The fat lady’s sung….
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Apologies for the lack of a blog yesterday but Wednesday turned out to be extremely hectic. As usual, plans kept changing due to ‘events’. I had to miss the last day of the railfreight conference as there was just too may things going on at once. I really could’ve done to clone myself. I kept getting phone-calls from agencies who’d spotted that I was in town and wanted to book me for other COP26 events. Us photographers were much in demand, which made a pleasant change after 2020!
Whilst I was at Glasgow Central I got t a tip-off that the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson was arriving by train and would be visiting (albeit very briefly) the Battery and Hydrogen trains on his way through the station. Needless to say, this turned into the usual security hoo-ha involving police sniffer dogs and heightened security, but I managed to be in the right place at the right time and get the shots I needed. Including this one…
Apart from the fun and games I also travelled on the Hydroflex and the D-Train, pictures of all these events will appear on my Zenfolio website by the weekend.
Today *should* be less frantic. I’m working on the Hydroflex again covering events taking place on the train, after which I get to go home, although I’ll be just as busy there editing and writing up my experiences. I’ll add more to this blog later in the day, hopefully from the Hydroflex, but if not, certainly from my train back South…
17:00.
17:00.
Phew! Yet another busy day. I’m writing this from my Southbound Pendolino as I head home. Part of me is glad it’s all over as it’s been a frantic time and there’s oh, so many pictures to edit and words to write, another part is going to miss the buzz as (from a railway perspective) it’s been brilliant and very positive couple of weeks. On a personal level, I’ve had a great time catching up with old friends (and making some new ones) as well as getting to know Glasgow far better thanks to Peter who took me to places I’ve never explored before. I’ve also enjoyed the camaraderie, which is something that Covid had put the mockers on for the past year. My only hope now is that COP26 actually delivers on the changes we need…
My Pendolino’s busy but not overly so. I’ve managed to bag a table on which to set up the mobile office in order to edit pictures and get then out to a client in time for a press release. Opposite me is a chap who’s been at COP26 who’s on his way back to London. He’s as knackered as I am and is snoring gently as he catches up on some much needed sleep! Sadly, the great weather we enjoyed in Glasgow didn’t last more than a few dozen miles outside the city. We’re forging our way South through the dark and rain.
18:25.
I’m back to kicking my heels in Preston, waiting from my connection home. The Glasgow train arrived 14 minutes late due to being trapoed behind late running trains but that’s actually worked to my advantage as I’d nearly an hour to wait here anyway.
Having been away in the in the land of Saltire liveried trains for so long it seems odd to see Northern trains bland blue and white again.
19:00.
On the last leg home care of a 3-car Northern Class 195, which is busy but not unbearably so – and not as packed as my Southbound Pendolino! As COP26 is drawing to a close thousands of people are departing the city. Many of them by rail. Well, unless you’re an idiot Green Party Council Leader from Brighton who decided to take an internal flight from Gatwick as the trains were “too unreliable”. The other irony? He opposes us building HS2! Oh, he was at COP26 to lecture others on cutting carbon emissions too. I hope Greta kicked his sorry arse…
22:40.
Right, I’m home, fed and watered and about to spend the rest of the evening away from screens to catch up with my other half as it’s our 4th wedding anniversary today! Goodnight!
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/
As I’m busy with other things and I’ll be busy reporting on positive progress with building the new HS2 railway I haven’t paid what passes for a campaign to stop Hs2 much attention recently. Mainly because it’s collapsed into a farce. Yes, there’s still four or five people holed up in a tunnel at Wendover, waiting to be dug out by bailiffs. But as they’re not even in the way of HS2 construction and aren’t achieving anything, what’s the point? Their few friends are realising no-one else is interested either, so spend their time trying to drum up support by pretending this self-isolation is somehow heroic rather than what it really is. Dumb and pointless.
The eviction of the Wendover camp brought an end to the protest camp network, depriving those involved of refuges. Now, many of the tiny hard-core have drifted away. The arrival of winter’s speeded up that retreat. Oh, a few still turn up to HS2 compound gates to wave flags and video themselves before buggering off again, pretending they’ve actually achieved something, but it’s painfully obvious to any impartial observer this is just window-dressing as there’s over 300 active HS2 worksites and less than three dozen regular proteters.
So, like StopHS2 before them, HS2Rebellion have little left other than social media. They try to keep up the pretense of actually doing things by posting whatever they can find that’s critical of HS2, or even high-speed rail per se. Because this was never really about ‘green’ issues at all. Like Extinction Rebellion they’re an offshoot of – this is all about politics, not the environment. XR and HS2rebellion are (laughably) all about trying to bring down capitalism and democracy which they want to replace with the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ through citizens assembly’s. Or in other words, they want power.
There’s one huge problem. They’re politically inept and hopelessly naïve. Many of them have as little understanding of politics as they do of real environmentalism. Their ideology’s a mess, as is their knowledge of the real world influencers (who aren’t who they think). Here’s an example. Yesterday HS2rebellion published this on their Facebook page.
Apart from the fact this obviously nails their colours to the anti-rail mast, you have to ask, did any of them bother to check who the Cato Institute is, what its beliefs are, or who funds it? Clearly not.
Why, because the Cato Institute is (yet another) right-wing, libertarian lobby group that’s been prominent and influential in spreading climate-change denial! It was set up and bankrolled by the Koch Brothers (Charles and David) in 1977. The brothers are (or were, David died in 2019) some of the richest people in the world. Their company, Koch Industries is the largest privately held company in the USA. It made its money through oil. For decades, the brothers have used their massive wealth to gain political and social influence, shaping American (and thus world) policy on a number of fronts which includes trying to undermine efforts to tackle climate change, opposing public transport projects (like high-speed rail) and pouring money into numerous conservative political campaigns. Friends of the environment they’re not. All this is well-documented and anyone with a real interest in these issues has known about the Koch brothers for donkey’s years.
But not HS2rebellion – who’re happy to promote the ideology of the climate-change deniers and puff their influence through advertising the ‘think-tanks’ they fund!
Mind you, HS2rebellion aren’t alone in this. Many supposed ‘greens’ are happy to promote similar propaganda from the UK version of the Cato, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), another bunch of right-wing lobbyists masquerading as an educational organisation as a cover for what they really are – a bunch of political lobbyists.
Rather foolishly, the IEA complained about the broadcaster James O’Brien for calling them out. The OFCOM judgement is worth reading as – not only was the complaint thrown out – the judgement exposed the IEA for what they really are. You can read it here.
At the behest of their anonymous paymasters (the IEA refuse to come clean on who funds them) the IEA also engage in trying to undermine action on Climate Change. Here’s an example. This bunch of nonsense has appeared on the website of ‘Transport Watch’.
But who are ‘Transport Watch’? Well, until recently they were one man – Paul Withrington, a retired road planner who was obsessed with the idea that all the UKs railways should be tarmac’d over and replaced by fleets of coaches. It was quite mad and no matter how many times Withrington was challenged on the maths and the physics of the idea he was so obsessed nothing could convince him he wasn’t talking out of a fundamental orifice. Withrington used to turn up at events like Infrarail in the hope of buttonholing Ministers to press his lunacy but most saw him coming and managed to avoid him. Needless to say, Withrington was grist to the mill for the lobbyists of the IEA and fell in with their risibly named ‘Head of Transport’, Richard Wellings – a man who’s never held a proper job in his life – much less had any frontline experience in transport. The pair of them co-authored an IEA paper called ‘paving over the tracks’ in 2015. It’s completely crazy of course, but he who pays the piper…
Withrington died in January 2021 and it appears that he bequeathed his baby to the IEA, because who’s name is on the bottom of that climate change denialism and scaremongering? Yep, one Richard Wellings. ‘Transport Watch’ seems to be a way for the IEA to publish even more loony conspiracy theories in an attempt to undermine the fight against global warming whilst trying to maintain plausible deniability. In fact, the only articles that have appeared on the TW website have all been authored by Wellings. I’m not going to give them the pleasure of a boost by providing a link to their website, but if you’re really curious it’s easy to find and verify everything I’ve said about them.
These are just some examples of why I’ve long held the belief that much of what passes for a UK ‘green’ movement simply isn’t fit for purpose. They’re tone-deaf and utterly unable to tell when they’re being played by the far smarter and much more intelligent right-wing, which would be funny if it wasn’t so dangerous and damaging. The fact UK ‘greens’ are doing the climate-change deniers and oil and roads lobby’s job for them by opposing green public transport shows just how screwed-up this country is nowadays. Their European (and Scottish) cousins are far more savvy. Sadly, we’re lumbered with the dogmatic and disconnected likes of Baroness (“I like trains, me”) Jenny Jones, and the demagogues of Extinction Rebellion gluing themselves to or opposing us building public transport. What a time to be alive…
Meanwhile, we have the fun and games up at COP26, where Extinction rebellion protesters arrived by train. Here’s the ‘Red rebels’ on Glasgow Central earlier this week after arriving from London. These are the very same ‘rebels’ who could be seen protesting at HS2 construction sites.
‘cos dressing up in red rags and opposing HS2 is obviously going to save the planet…
An irony that is completely lost on these people is the very railway they’ve been protesting against would (by slashing Anglo–Scottish journey times) be a viable alternative to Europe’s busiest domestic aviation routes, those from Aberdeen/Glasgow/Edinburgh to the London airports as this graph makes clear.
You can find lots more information on Anglo-Scottish air traffic from Chris Ogilvie (@Ogilvie_CJ) on Twitter.
I’ll be back in Scotland next week for more COP26 rail related activities, so watch out for other blogs. Needless to say – unlike our Prime Minister – I’ll be letting the train, not the airlines take the strain…
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/
Apologies for a lack of a blog yesterday, but as it was my birthday other matters took precedence. I won’t go into much detail about the day other than to say I received some lovely presents, had a convivial day with t’other half (and a lovely lunch with the in-laws) and was blown away with the amount of birthday wishes I received via social media – which was very humbling. So thank you – one and all.
Today it’s been back to the grindstone – although at a less than frenetic pace. I’ve mostly been housekeeping and preparing for the next few days away. I’d half-hoped to get out and tick another job of the list but the weather’s really not been up to it. A weather front has swept in from the West which brought quite a bit of rain later in the day – just when I had some free time, but that’s the law of Sod for you. I still managed to get a walk in as I needed to pick up some ingredients for tonight’s meal as I was on cooking duty. Mind you, that’s something I really don’t mind as I enjoy it and find it therapeutic. Not that I’m going to be cooking again for a while…
Tomorrow I head up to Scotland for several days as I have a series of jobs to do around the railways and COP26. It won’t be my only visit either. I’m really looking forward to my time North of the border, the events that are planned – and the chance to catch up with several old friends. I’ll be rolling blogging over the next few days so you should get a flavour of what’s going on as Scotland prepares to host this most important summit.
That said, I can’t help but feel a sense of despair and disbelief at the antics in Westminster as expressed through the budget. We’re days away from a crucial event that’s highlighting the fact Governments really need to step up to the plate and tackle climate change. So, what does our Chancellor do? Announce that he’s going to cut Airline Passenger Duty on internal flights. The flights that are THE most polluting! Christ on an effing bike – the rest of the world must be looking at us and thinking – are they for real? Here’s a graph that illustrates the problem.
Oh, and let’s not even go there when it comes to the Government umming and aahing over building HS2 (the greenest form of UK transport) at the same time…
Right, now I’ve got that off my chest, here’s today’s picture, which is a little different – just so that you don’t get bored. When I cook I like to prepare ingredients in advance. We have a wonderful array of bowls and dishes that we’ve picked up in Thailand and Vietnam that help me do this, so here’s tonight’s seafood risotto in kit form…
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/
I woke up to the news this morning that HS2 contractors, police and bailiffs had begun the long-awaited eviction of the last anti HS2 squatters camp remaining on phase 1, the risibly named “active resistance” camp outside of Wendover, Buckinghamshire.
As it’s situated alongside the busy A413 road the operation’s begun on a Sunday in order to lessen the disturbance to locals (most of whom will only be too glad to see the back of the squatters). It’s difficult to say at this stage how few people are still occupying the camp but the numbers are small – as can be judged from the absence of comments and livestreamed videos from inside the camp compared to previous evictions. As news of the eviction has spread on social media a few more people have attended but as they can’t get into the camp they’re doing little other than creating a nuisance to traffic!
Events are unfolding on the HS2 Rebellion Facebook page where some videos are being posted, but they make it clear that the squatters and their few friends watching outside are vastly outnumbered. A large number of the familiar faces who were the ‘hard-core’ of the protesters are noticeably absent. Currently, the bailiffs are repossessing areas of the woods and erecting fencing. There’s very little in the way of confrontations as even the squatters seem to have realised the futility of their actions. The numbers watching the videos are also markedly down from previous events, which suggests many of the keyboard warriors and armchair activists have lost interest as the result is only going to go one way. None of the livestreams have had viewers above double-figures! Mind you, as the one’s on the Rebellion FB page are from fantasist and liar Mark Keir (the Walter Mirtty type who claimed to have watched the Roald Dahl tree being cut down in Jones’ Hill Woods) that’s hardly surprising. His commentary’s so away with the fairies you’re better watching the videos with the sound off!
I’ll keep you informed of how things progress as it could be several days before the farce is finally over.Whenever that is, it can’t change the fact that the ‘rebellion’ against HS2 was always more bluster than fact. It took little more than a year for the protests to collapse in ignominy. Now the fat lady’s singing…
UPDATE: Sunday evening.
It’s only day 1 of the eviction and already some of the handful of squatters have been removed. One left of their own accord as they were feeling ‘unwell’ and another two were removed from a bathtub up a tree! I mean, seriously? a bathtub up a tree? The camp has been established for two years and if that’s the best they can come up with. Needless to say, the bailiffs soon pulled the plug on them!
The farce will continue tomorrow and for a few days hence. However long it takes doesn’t really matter as (like the Euston tunnels) this camp isn’t stopping construction of HS2 in the slightest. Oh, if you are tempted to watch any of the videos on Facebook, I would seriously recommend turning the sound down if the commentator is Mark Keir! He’s made a tedious ass of himself as usual today, at one point claiming ‘victory’ because a cherry-picker was being moved so (according to him) the eviction was over for the day – only for said cherry-picker to then pluck the pair from the bathtub! Keir reminds me of the old adage – “How do you know when he’s lying? His lips move”!
Just how away with the fairies these people are is demonstrated by this earlier tweet from an old face. “Boots” (aka William) – the ‘eco-warrior’ who’s recently flown back to the UK from one of his regular jaunts to Spain.
Apart from the fact you can file this under ‘it never happened’ the idea that these people (who have minimal supplies as the donations have been running out) can hold out for ‘months’ is hilarious! You just know this tweet isn’t going to age well…
So, turn down the sound (you won’t learn anything factual) and pull up the popcorn as the eviction unfolds over the next few days…
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Over the past few days the media has been covering the story of the trial of seven HS2 ‘rebellion’ protesters who were arrested after being evicted from the tunnels they’d dug under Euston Square gardens earlier this year. After the eviction which lasted over a month the Metropolitan police charged the protesters with aggravated trespass.
Yesterday, at Highbury Magistrates court District judge Susan Williams dismissed the charges against the seven, leaving HS2 ‘Rebellion’ in boastful mood – as this post on their Facebook page demonstrates.
“Victory” for the tunnellers? Really? Why? What did they stop?…
So why did District judge Susan Williams dismiss the charges? Well, the answer’s rather embarrassing for HS2rebellion and the hopeless protesters. It’s because whatever they did in Euston Gardens they were never going to stop HS2 being built as the gardens weren’t an active HS2 worksite. Put simply, you can’t ‘stop’ what isn’t happening! This article in the Guardian newspaper sheds more light.
Laughably, Daniel Hooper (better known as ‘Swampy’) is quoted as saying. “Our plan is to stop HS2”, completely ignoring the fact he couldn’t possibly do so by digging a tunnel under Euston Gardens, which is why the Judge dismissed the case. Even Baldrick can come up with a better plan than this! But this is typical HS2Rebellion and their through the looking glass world. It’s very Orwellian,1984 truthspeak – ‘failure is victory’…
Ironically, I’d been highlighting the fact these protesters were useless as they were nowhere near an active HS2 worksite right from the start of the protest and in blogs like this one from February, before the farce came to an end.
Of course, HS2 Ltd were disappointed that the charges (brought by the Metropolitan Police) were thrown out of court as the whole fiasco is estimated to have cost £3.5m. After all, Just think how many trees that could have planted? I’d suggest that the police need to work more closely with lawyers in future to ensure that any charges levelled are appropriate and stand a chance of sticking in court. Even so, this was no ‘victory’ for the protesters Their raison d’être is to stop HS2, but yet again they’ve proved themselves to be abject failures – and now their day is done…
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Remember this list of Hs2rebellion (what ‘rebellion’? Ed) protection camps from last month? Well, you can scratch another one off the list. The barely functional and utterly pointless Wormwood Scrubs camp is no more!
Having been served with an eviction notice the squatters were ordered to demolish the mess of pallet towers and other structures they’d cluttered a corner of the scrubs with. As they didn’t have the numbers to put up any resistance they’ve meekly complied. Of course, they couldn’t have done this without the aid of the local authority who’re having to cart away the mess they’ve made at local taxpayers expense. Here’s a picture from their Facebook live feed today, which was filmed yesterday.
The remains of the Tower they’d spent ages building that was completely useless. I wonder what the Environmental Impact Assessment was for this pile of junk? Here’s how it looked when I visited the site at the end of August.
To say their camp was a complete waste of time is an understatement. They never stopped any of the work that HS2 contractors are undertaking to divert a sewer. You can see what’s actually happening on Wormwood Scrubs here. Here’s a map showing the extent of the area temporarily affected. The squatters camp was in the hatched area at the top right hand side of the map.
Now the new access road has been completed the temporary track matting is being removed, allowing the grassland to recover. The map also puts into perspective the ridiculous claims of the protesters that HS2 is ‘destroying’ Wormwood Scrubs! Only a tiny area is being hoarded off whilst the sewer’s diverted and once the work’s completed this will be returned to nature.
The removal of the Scrubs camp brings an end to the sorry tale of anti HS2 protests in London which have singularly failed to stop anything – just as they’ve failed everywhere else on the route. Now there’s just one (equally useless) camp left on the Phase 1 route, the laughably named ‘active resistance’ camp near Wendover. This has also been served with an eviction notice and the clearance of this final camp is expected anytime. I suspect that – despite the blustering name, there’ll be little resistance when the bailiffs move in! Sadly, local taxpayers will be left to pick up the bill once more for clearing up the mess left by these faux ‘environmentalists’. The one success Hs2Rebellion and the protesters have had is in wasting millions of pounds of other people’s money, both taxpayers and the mugs who’ve coughed up tens of thousands of pounds to support them through crowdfunding, none of which has never ever been accounted for…
It will be interesting to see how HS2Rebellion spin this latest failure in their fortnightly newsletter, which is due out today. I expect it’ll make ‘Comical Ali seem reasoned and objective!
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Paul Bigland 