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Paul Bigland

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Not time for blogging, I’ve been too busy editing pictures – and watching the Government (and hopefully, Brexit) implode.

04 Tuesday Dec 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Birmingham, Brexit, Politics, Railways

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Birmingham, Brexit, Politics, Railways

As the old Chinese curse goes “May you live in interesting times”. We certainly are. According to the BBBC, tonight’s vote in Parliament which decreed the Government was holding Parliament in contempt was the first time it’s ever happened.  Just think on that…

It’s hard to explain to people unconnected with politics or economics just what an absolute f*****g shambles this county is in at the moment. Or as I saw on Twitter earlier;

fucktangular

I think “fucktangular” pretty much sums up the Brexitshambles, the Government and the ‘opposition’ at the moment. Never has this country been so ill-served by its political classes. Meanwhile, in other news most people will have missed, one of the architects of this mess, one Nigel Farage, has announced his resignation from UKIP as it’s completed the job he started and morphed into the British National Party. Their new Leader, Gerald Batten has welcomed arch-racist, several times convicted criminal  (and self publicist) Stephen Yaxley Lennon (aka “Tommy Robinson”) into the fold. Apparently, it’s OK to be a racist with a blazer in UKIP, but bomber jackets are just too common!

So, whilst Britain goes to hell in a hand-cart and we have five days of these political shenanigans to look forward to as our (entirely self-inflicted) national humiliation plays out in front of the world’s media I’ve not been eating popcorn, I’ve been editing pictures for clients and my website. Here’s a few samples to lighten the mood.

DG314373. HST Sheffield. 3.12.18crop

An East Midland Trains HST plays ‘peek a boo’ through a doorway at Sheffield station.

DG314173. Christmas Market. Bimingham. 30.11.18crop

The German Christmas market’s in full swing at the moment. Ironically, it’s sponsored by the city of Frankfurt – although how long this might continue in a post-Brexit world is open to conjecture. The fact this Bierkeller is filled with the younger generation says it all really.

DG314118. Curzon St Hs2 station site. Birmingham. 30.11.18crop

A birds-eye view of the site of the new High Speed 2 station site in Birmingham. Demolition of the old concrete foundations of the parcels distribution site is well underway.

 

 

 

 

What a f*****g Brexitshambles!

15 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Brexit, Politics

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Brexit, Politics

So, less than 24 hours after the Government supposedly signing off Theresa May’s 500 page draft Brexit deal, the Brexit rats start deserting the sinking ship, first to go: Raab C Brexit, the Brexit Secretary and man who never realised the significance of the port of Dover as a trade route! He was quickly followed by a minor minister responsible for Northern Ireland whom most had never even heard of, Shailesh Vara. An hour later, Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey followed.

All of them complained that the deal was a bad deal. No f*****ng shit, Sherlock! There never was going to be a better deal than the one we had and to see them now complaining that (in actual fact) Brexit leaves us with less sovereignty than we had makes my blood boil!

The sight of the Brexit fundamentalists having to admit that the whole shabby process they pushed for will not end up with the sunny uplands they promised would be funny if it wasn’t so serious. The damage these people have done to the country due to their ignorance and obstinacy in refusing to deal with reality is only just starting to become plain. Let’s just remind ourselves of some of the false claims they made.

brexit lies

No ‘downside’ eh? A ‘better deal’ eh? We ‘hold all the cards’? Pfft!

Can you imagine what our European neighbours are thinking of us as they watch this shit-shower unfold? Britain has been brought low by the ignorance and dogmatism of its politicians, the manipulations of media moguls, billionaires, and spivs carrying Belizean diplomatic passports – plus English arrogance and the insane belief that somehow we were special and these things only happened to foreigners. Meanwhile, there’s several million EU nationals living in the UK (and vice versa) living their lives in complete uncertainty.

How this complete shambles will play out over the next few days and weeks is anyone’s guess. May’s deal is so much waste paper now. It’s  been binned along with Britain’s standing in the world. meanwhile, the clock continues to tick. We’ve wasted two and a half years as our politicians argue and manoeuvre amongst themselves. Or, in the case of the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, go missing entirely.

Britain is about to be served a very large slice of humble pie and the really stupid thing is – we baked it ourselves.

 

‘Raab C Brexit’ didn’t understand the significance of Dover…

08 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Brexit, Politics

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Brexit, Politics

This country is deeply, deeply screwed. Here’s the man in charge of negotiating Brexit admitting that he didn’t understand the significance of Dover. Presumably the existence of the English Channel (which has been around for the past 10,000 years) was dismissed as ‘Project Fear’ by him and the other hardline Brexit supporters. Watch the car crash here.

This is the level of intellect and understanding we’re seeing from Brexit supporters. It would be bad enough if this was just some bloke on the street. It’s not, It’s a Government Minister for God’s sake. Can you imagine the laughter this is going to provoke on the other side of that stretch of water Raab was clearly unaware of the significance of? Or in capitals around the world. Brexit has made the UK a laughing stock and it’s time we woke up to that fact. English arrogance is going to be our undoing…

Rolling blog: On the march…

20 Saturday Oct 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Brexit, London, Politics, Rolling blogs

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Brexit, London, Politics, Rolling blogs, Travel

Literally. It’s 06:23 and I’m sat on a rail replacement coach in Halifax which will take me on the first leg of my journey down to London to join the ‘Peoples March’ protest against the shambles that is Brexit.

Sadly, Dawn can’t join me, but I won’t be marching alone, far from it. Thanks to the wonders of social media I’m in contact with other members of the railway family who are marching too.

My intention’s to update this blog throughout the day, although that might be difficult as I get the impression that this is going to be a very big event, far bigger than last time (and that was major) so I expect the central London phone network will struggle again.

06:38

We’re on the move. There’s 10 of us on this coach which is taking us to Wakefield, where it connects with the Grand Central service to London. This weekend the final stage of the Calder Valley resignalling is commissioned, so there’s no trains running through Halifax.

My readers outside the UK are more than likely bemused by Brexit. I don’t blame them as it doesn’t make any sense to many of us either, and we’re living with the shambles day in, day out!

Brexit is an object lesson in how easily an old, complacent democracy in a country that’s always had far too high an opinion of itself can be manipulated in the internet age. In short, the result of the 2016 referendum was manipulated by the use of social media. Sadly, our politicians (of all parties) have proved they’re not up to the job of dealing with the mess caused. Instead of being honest about the fact the promises made by Brexit leaders couldn’t ever be delivered we’ve had 2 years of political farce that’s damaged the country’s economy and international reputation as well as created a climate of hostility towards non-natives. The genie of racism and good old fashioned fascism has been let out of the bottle.

So, many of us are marching. We want our country back. We want it back from spineless politicians who (in private) admit they’re leading us over the edge of a cliff but won’t do anything about it. We want it back from the emboldened racists and populists. We want it back from the millionaires and spivs who funded and ran the corrupt Leave campaign and who stand to make money from this mess. We want it back for the young, who’re being denied the opportunities and freedoms we’ve enjoyed for 40 plus years by the old and poorly educated (who make up the majority of Leave voters).

Will we succeed? Who knows, but we’re not going to give up easily…

09:23

My Grand Central train’s currently being held at Peterborough due to a points failure. Hopefully we’ll be on the move shortly.

Meanwhile, I’ve been busy editing pictures and keeping track of the progress of some other members of the ‘railway family’ who’re on their way to the march.

12:58

Made it!


19:40

Well, what can I say other than wow! I’m now on a train back North after an incredible day. I managed to meet up with two other railway folk at Kings Cross (Colin E and Gary K). The three of us walked to Marble Arch to join the march and it was only when we got there and started to see the crowds that we realised “this is going to be big, very big”.

We made it down to the Hilton hotel and waited, and waited and waited. Eventually, more than an hour late, the march set off. That’s when we realised the true size of it. It dwarfed the previous march (which had been pretty damned big by an order of magnitude.

Now, I’m no stranger to these events. I first went on demos back in the 1970s and I’ve been to all the major ones (one day I’ll get round to scanning all my old photos). I was at miners strike demos in the 80s-90s and the infamous poll tax riot. I was also at what was the largest demo the UK had seen to date – the anti Guf War demo in 2003. To my mind, this was the biggest I’ve ever seen.

20:53

OK, I’m taking an enforced break in Doncaster on my way home, so here’s the first few pics from the event from the lens of my camera (not my phone). I’m not allowed to use a drone over the crowd, so this is what you can do with a camera lofted high above the crowd on the end of a monopod!

DG311955crop

DG312073crop

DG312281crop

Sunday. 14:17

I’ve spent the morning editing the pictures from yesterday and adding 103 of them to my Zenfolio website. You can find them here.

Crunching the StopHs2 social media stats: September 2018

30 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Hs2, Politics, StopHs2

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Hs2, Politics, StopHs2

It’s the end of September and it’s time to have a look at the StopHs2 ‘campaign’ social media stats. I’ve analysed the August numbers here.

Firstly, let’s get some context. There’s 6,567,433 folk who live in the 63 constituencies that Hs2 will run through. That’s a lot of people. Now, if the majority of them are up in arms about Hs2 you’d expect the sole surviving ‘national’ anti Hs2 group to have a large social media following, wouldn’t you?

In fact, their following is tiny. They have just 6180 on Twitter, or 0.094% of the 6.5 million

stophs2 twitter

On Facebook they only have 8604 followers, or 0.13% of 6.5 million. So, as you can see, they’re not exactly setting social media on fire. But those headline numbers are only part of the story. How many of those followers actually engage with them through comments, retweets aor likes? How many actually help ‘spread the word’?

Bugger all, as the next set of numbers shows. Here’s a look at every Tweet and Facebook post that StopHs2 have made in September with a number of people who’ve responded up to today. Lets have a look at Twitter first:

hs2 twitter

 

Their ‘best’ day for retweets was the 24th September, with a ‘massive’ 61 – or 0.98% of all their followers. So, not even 1% of their followers are spreading the word on Twitter, which tell you a lot about how active those followers are! Then again, if you can be arsed to look up who their followers actually are (it’s boring, trust me) you find a mish-mash of the far-right, a few greens, lots of anonymous accounts and the few who you think ‘what? Why?’ Here’s some examples.

followers 6

So, it’s a rabble, not a serious campaign. Nor will it influence anyone who matters. 91 of them follow me and I can see that a lot of them are people who’re just there to see what nonsense Stophs2 are spouting, they’re not actually supporters of the campaign. If Stophs2 are relying on Twitter to get their message out, they’ve failed miserably.

Now let’s go and have a look at Facebook.

stophs2 facebook

Their ‘best’ result was on the 6th September when they posted pictures of Chiltern viaduct designs and 348 people shared it. That’s just 4% of all their followers. Most of the time they don’t even make it into triple figures and have less than a 1% response rate. Now, does that sound like a growing campaign to you? Mind you when you see some of the responses it becomes clear that many of their followers have – how shall I put this – a tenuous grasp on reality. Have a look at these ones.

hs2 fb

And…

fb2

Meanwhile, their ‘relaunched’ campaign is due to hold a protest outside the Tory party conference which should be fun as their last one at the Labour conference was a disaster! I’ll keep you posted…

Stophs2? Give over…

26 Wednesday Sep 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Politics, StopHs2

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Hs2, Politics, StopHs2

It’s the party conference season once more, which means StopHs2’s inflatable elephant is dug out of storage, checked for punctures and wheeled out for utterly pointless ‘demonstrations’ of Stophs2 impotence outside the events.

Gone are StopHs2’s ‘glory’ days when they could afford a stand inside the conferences and find enough volunteers to staff it. In those days you’d get Penny Gaines tweeting that everyone they talked to was solidly against Hs2 and that *really* every MP (Labour or Tory) privately opposed the project.

It was all tosh of course. Now the money and supporters have dried up, Hs2’s being built and it’s all rather pointless really.

A final effort to save the campaign from oblivion was launched a couple of weeks ago by one of the surviving ‘action’ groups on phase 1 of the route. Not that you’d notice as it’s been yet another in a long-line of damp squibs. The meeting in Balsall Common in Warwickshire. Here’s a couple of excerpts from the email that did the rounds

” We hope to attract members from both the South and the North to this meeting. We recognise that most action groups on Phase1 have faded away and this meeting is called by Richard Lloyd of Berkswell and Archie Taylor of Burton Green. We will offer coffee and biscuits but refreshments are available at next door Tesco’s.
We have a glimmer of a chance to stop the whole project as costs escalate and Brexit approaches while those on Phase 2 are perhaps in a stronger position”

“Glimmer”? Talk about optimistic! The email goes on…

“But we also have to plan for the future. Are any of the Northern Groups planning to lobby the Labour Conference at Liverpool, a week later, on the 23rd? If they are, perhaps, a few of us can help with the pamphlets. As a Labour member, I intend to write to all Labour MPs in the first week of September but articles don’t always get to the MP. But if we can give out leaflets at Liverpool, we can certainly play the northern card with the east to west alternative. If we do have volunteers to leaflet, I might go up to the Conference myself.

Perhaps the Conservative Conference at Birmingham on September 30th is more significant and accessible. Again it would be great if we can get people along. Similarly we can work on leaflets before our meeting.

I would appreciate if you can come to our meeting, or you are ready to go to Liverpool to contact me. I hope people will make this meeting. It will be great to see people from the past. It is going to be very difficult to stop it but we have a chance if we join together. I will give more details about the meeting at a later date”

So, the ‘new’ plan is to re-run the same old tactics, only this time with less money, less people and less interest! Here’s the agenda for the meeting;

stophs2 2 agenda

Note that the other national groups AGAHST and Hs2aa didn’t bother turning up. That’s because they exist in name only. Their written ‘updates’ will probably have been as blank as the Governments benefits of Brexit! AGAHST folded years ago and Hs2aa haven’t been heard from since the summer of 2016!

I haven’t seen a copy of any conclusions from the meeting or list of how many attended, but I not that it’s had no media coverage or mention on the surviving groups Facebook pages or websites other than on from a Groups on the Leeds route which described it as a ‘good’ meeting and err, that’s it!

So, what’s been the result of the relaunch. Well, yesterday a couple of people did make it up to Liverpool with the inflatable elephant and duly set it up outside. How many of them were there? It’s impossible to tell as the only picture Stophs2 tweeted out doesn’t contain a soul!

elele

By this morning the tweet had amassed a grand total of 29 retweets and 39 likes from their 6175 Twitter followers, which tells you all you need to know really…

There is one video, which is an ‘interview’ of a very scruffy and dishevelled looking Joe Rukin, spouting his usual polemical bluster, but no-one else is in sight!

At #Lab18 Conference @joerukin from @stophs2 says it’s not too late to stop the project @ITVCentral pic.twitter.com/Fg3MBP5PWC

— Alison Mackenzie (@Alison1mackITV) September 25, 2018

Contrast this pathetic performance with what was going on inside the Labour conference. Firstly, this tweet from train builder Bombardier showing some of their young apprentices meeting the Shadow Chancellor.

bombardier

Or this, from Siemens. Shame about the quality of the picture, but you get the gist,

sie

Or this…

prescott

To say that Rukin and Co have been outclassed and outgunned is an understatement! If this is a campaign that’s been relaunched, then it slipped straight off the stocks and did a submarine impression! I don’t expect any better at the Conservative conference. If I have the time I might even pop along so that we can get some proper pictures to gauge their support by.

Meanwhile, one last word about Liverpool. This is a proper demonstration Joe – oh, and look, that’s your very lonely elephant in the background!

sodem.PNG

sod 2.PNG

An unhappy return…

21 Friday Sep 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Brexit, Germany, History, Politics

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Brexit, Germany, Politics

After a brilliant week in Berlin it’s time to call it a day and head home. Normally, this is something I’d look forward to. The good bit is that I’m coming home to be with my wife. The bad bit is that I’m returning to a country that’s completely taken leave of its senses.

I’ve been busy working at Innotrans, so I’ve not been keeping up with the news – until now, when I’ve seen what’s happening with the Brexit shambles.

The utter stupidity of most of the UK’s politicians (and sadly, a fair chunk of voters) is depressing beyond words. Our arrogance is about to be our undoing as it’s looking increasingly likely we’re heading for a no deal Brexit. If that happens, the UK’s going to get a very hard lesson in humility. Part of me thinks that lesson is long overdue. Let’s face it, we’re a country that has far too high an opinion of itself and its place in the world because of our history. What many haven’t learned is history is just that – the past – and it’s where we’re stuck. We seem incapable of moving on and learning what our place is in a fast changing world – hence our mad pretence that we will prosper after Brexit.

We’ve relied on that arrogance to cushion us from what’s happening in the wider world, the one that many on our island nation know little about. We ignore the fact that what is today won’t always be. Here’s a little factoid I picked up at Innotrans – ironically, it was from an information leaflet published by the UK’s Rail Industry Association (RIA).

By 2050, Indonesia is expected to be the worlds 5th largest economy. That’s the position we held before the Brexit referendum. So where will we be in 2050? The only way is down…

What makes me angry is the lies and denial of reality. The Brexit vote was a fiddle. It was won by cheating and lying on an industrial scale but few seem to care. Our democracy has become so stale it’s been easily undermined by a few people with the money and will to do it. We’ve been bought and no-one’s really bothered – least of all the Brexit fans who screamed long and loud about how we needed to leave the EU because it was “undemocratic”. What a joke that’s turned out to be, but the joke’s on us.

Our Prime Minister has made a fool of herself in talks with EU leaders through misplaced arrogance and trying to push a deal that the EU said was impossible 2 years ago. The British still don’t understand who they’re negotiating with and pretend this is a negotiation between equals (It’s not) and that threatening to shoot ourselves in the head by leaving without a deal is somehow a credible threat that will make the EU cave in on its fundamental principles (it won’t). After all, why should they? Why would anyone rewrite the rules of the club for someone who’s leaving? Especially when those rules are enshrined in international treaties?

It’s stupidity beyond words. Here I am coming back from an international trade show that I’ve been able to attend and work at because of our membership of the EU. What hoops will I have to jump through next time, in 2020? And all for what? “Take back control” was a sick joke and it looks like we’re about to find out just how big a lie it was – too late.

Arrogance and a misplaced sense of superiority have been our undoing before (see my earlier blog about the fall of Singapore). Now we’ve added complacency about the state of our democracy to that list. Our institutions have proved to be unfit for purpose and toothless in the modern world – just look at the Electoral Commission for evidence of that. But what are we doing about it? Nothing. Most people don’t even care. That’s a sure sign of a country in decline.

We’re wrecking our economy, our international standing in the world and our relationship with our European neighbours and all for what? A bunch of lies.

We have 6 months left to stop the greatest act of self-harm any country has inflicted on itself in peacetime. Will we come to our senses?

Update: 12:09.

I’ve landed back in little Britain…

From what I can see of the UK media we’re heading for disaster. The rhetoric I’m seeing about ‘traitors’ is deeply disturbing. As a country we seem completely out of touch with reality. May’s Chequers deal was never going to be accepted by the EU, so why all the outrage? It’s painfully bloody obvious that we can’t impose our will on the EU, so why’s this a surprise? We ask for the impossible.

Thin gruel…

11 Tuesday Sep 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Brexit, Musings, Politics

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Brexit, Musings, Politics

There’s not much of a blog tonight folks, just a few observations and musings. I’ve been working from home again, trying to catch up with writing, picture editing and all those household bits and bobs that I need to before I’m back on the road again in a few days time.

I’ve added more than two hundred rail and travel pictures from around the UK to my Zenfolio website – which you can find by following this link to the latest updated galleries. One of my favourites is this moody view of Inchkeith, seen from the footbridge of Kinghorn station, Fife.

DG308136. Inchkeith seen from Kinghorn. Fife. Scotland. 9.9.18

Much as it’s nice having this time at home, I can’t wondering if our cat (Jet) hasn’t taken out a life insurance policy on the pair of us as he’s started to lie here…

JET

Meanwhile, in Alice in Wonderland, the Brexit shambles limps on. The group of fanatical Brexit supporters in Parliament known as the ERG (European Research Group) have launched their report on the ‘benefits’ of Brexit. As expected, it’s batshit crazy and has already been torn apart by real economists and lampooned by others. Here’s my personal favourite – it’s a picture from the launch by Dan Kitwood of Getty Images in a tweet from Otto English.

otto

And on that note – goodnight!

What a Brexitshambles…

09 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Brexit, Politics

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Brexit, Politics

This morning I woke up to the news that the Minister charged with leading us out of the EU, one David Davis, has resigned only a short while after the weekend at Chequers when the Government was meant to ‘unite’ around a negotiating position for Brexit. The cynic in me wonders if Davis, the man whom Dominic Cummings once described as “thick as mince, lazy as a toad and as vain as Croesus” couldn’t face the walk down the Chequers drive if he resigned then and had his Ministerial car taken off him.

To say that Brexit is a shambles is being kind. Shambles? It’s a train crash! After 2 years the Government managed to hammer out an agreement amongst itself that didn’t survive a weekend. What’s even more stupid is that agreement was never going to be acceptable to the EU, as the EU made clear years ago!

Meanwhile, whilst those determined to drag to UK over the edge of a hard Brexit cliff play out their games, more and more businesses warn of the consequences (the latest being Philips). What’s should be blindingly obvious by now is that – despite agitating for over 30 years for us to leave the EU, none of these Brextremists had a workable plan. When they finally (narrowly) got their wish, they hadn’t got the faintest clue what what to do next. Their only ‘plan’ is for the country to commit economic suicide by crashing out of the EU without a deal and then blaming the EU!

The arrogance and hollowness of the Brextremists claim that “they need us more than we need them” is plain. Not a single one of their claims has come to pass. The EU hasn’t blinked (it was never going to). Their threat to leave without a deal was always crass stupidity, the equivalent of pointing a shotgun at your own foot and saying “If you don’t give me what I want, I’ll pull the trigger. I’m serious!”

Meanwhile, the rest of us are caught up in this political (and economic) farce of epic proportions. Yet many people seem completely unaware of the consequences and dangers. They’re bored with Brexit. They just want the Government to “get on with it”, without having the faintest clue what ‘it’ is. Never has political apathy been so dangerous.

David Davis quote

I thought my marching days were over!

23 Saturday Jun 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Brexit, Democracy, Politics

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Brexit, Democracy, Politics

It’s a funny old world. Here I am, sitting on a train to London to join tens of thousands of other people who will be marching to protest about the shambles known as Brexit.

I thought my marching days were over. As a veteran of the Miners strike, CND protests, Poll Tax fracas and Gulf war demo (amongst others) I’d hoped we’d moved on as a country. How wrong can you be?

Now we’re in the biggest mess we’ve faced since World War 2, and it’s entirely self-inflicted!

Our politicians have failed us, they’re incapable of publically admitting what a shambles Brexit is and the price the country will pay for it. Instead, some are outright lying about it. So, I find myself having to hit the streets of London once again. What a sorry state this country’s in.

Expect some pictures later…

20.36.

What a fantastic day! I’ve a huge amount of pictures to share of this brilliant event, but here’s one of my early favourites.

DG300536

Sunday. 24th June

Getting back to Halifax after the march was fun due to delays on the East Coast Main Line thanks to a failed train near Peterborough. I ‘enjoyed’ an enforced stay in Doncaster, then our train was terminated at Wakefield and we were taken to Halifax by road. I finally got home at 02:15 this morning, but it was well worth it. I’ve added another couple of pictures from yesterday, but the rest (there’s around 60) can be found by following this link to a gallery on my Zenfolio website.

DG300482

DG300719

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