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.
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/
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…
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/
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…
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 need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
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/
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!
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 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/
