Tag Archives: Politics

The petitions process ends, not with a bang – but a whimper…

09 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2 petitions, Hs2aa, StopHs2

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Last Thursday the House of Commons Hs2 Hybrid Bill Committee heard its last petition. At the close of events, Mr Strachan, one of Hs2 Ltd’s QC’s made this statement, which put the process into context;Strachan 1

Strachan 2

Yet, for all these remarkable numbers, the process ended with a whimper as the last two surviving anti Hs2 groups (Hs2aa and Stophs2) failed to make any impact with their final petitions.

Part of Hs2aa’s final ask was that Hs2 should have a 300kph speed limit imposed upon it. To justify this they used an ‘expert’ witness. Sadly for them this expert managed to make a fundamental error in his argument, asserting that existing high speed trains used in Germany, France & Japan all had top speeds of 300kph. Here’s a slide from his presentation.

hs2aa expert

The reality is very different. The Siemens Velaro E has a top speed of 350kph and the version used by Eurostar (the e320) will run at 320kph – the same as the Velaro D in Germany. Here’s a look at the Velaro family.

Alstom TGVs operate at between 300-320kph whilst the newer AGVs run at speeds up to 360kph.

The Japanese high speed fleets also operate at 320kph with the newer N700 capable of 330kph.

Oh, and that still leaves the Bombardier ETR 500 Frecciarossa (max speed 360kph) and the Spanish Talgo T350 (350kph). So, as you can see, the 300kph claim by Hs2aa’s “expert” is misleading nonsense. You can read about Europe’s top 10 high speed trains here.

Needless to say, Hs2aa’s QC had a hard time trying to sell these claims. You can watch the days proceedings here.

The final days hearings on Thursday weren’t any better. Joe Rukin presented StopHs2’s final comments and asks which were so poor that Hs2 Ltd’s QC didn’t even need to reply, pointing out that everything Rukin raised had been said before, so there was no point in wasting the Committee’s time responding!

Petitions done and dusted, the Committee have retired to compile their final report and recommendations, which may be available before the end of February. Expect the Committee to put the final nail in the coffin for antis claims that Hs2 should terminate at Old Oak Common not Euston as well as the idea that Hs2 should be tunnelled all the way under the Chilterns.

This leaves the anti Hs2 campaign with nothing else to do until the House of Lords petitioning process starts later in the year. This is a big problem for them as they’ve no way to keep their campaign going. It’s been losing momentum ever since the Hybrid Bill passed 2nd reading with such a stonking majority. There’s been nothing but bad news for them ever since and the lack of anything happening outside of social media means that many people have given up on the anti campaign.

To add to their woes the social media campaign’s floundering, badly. There’s hardly any activity from either of the two groups. Hs2aa have only tweeted 4 times in 2016. Their website’s been updated 6 times but most of that is the ‘news’ about their appearance at the Committee! Their Facebook page is equally bereft of real news, most of what appears is their tweets about “empty” trains!

StopHs2 are in just as poor a position. They’ve nothing going on so they’re reduced to recycling old stories. Their Facebook page is a joy to behold. The few people commenting (always the same few names) can’t understand why they’ve failed to stophs2 – although the nature of their remarks makes it obvious to outsiders! Twitter isn’t much better. They’re so bereft of ideas they’re now trying to get the Cubbington pear tree top of an EU vote, so they’ve been posting this in several languages;

tree

Quite how voting for a tree is meant to stop hs2 is a mystery, but I suppose they’ve got to keep the bloke bankrolling them thinking they’re still doing something!

In truth, the whole stophs2 Twitter campaign is becoming an embarrassment. Now that most sensible people have abandoned them the lunatics have taken over the asylum. It’s as mad as a box of frogs! Here’s a few examples from today.

nut 1

Nut 2

Nut 3

Nut 4

Is it any wonder sensible folks have given up on the anti Hs2 campaign when this is what it’s sunk to? How is this vacuous nonsense meant to persuade intelligent folk to support them? All it does is expose the fact their campaign’s a shambles.

I wonder how many more folks will desert it in the next few weeks before the Lords take up the reins & continue the progress of the Hs2 Bill into law?

Trump trumps the anti Hs2 mob.

09 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Bigotry, Hs2, Mid Cheshire against Hs2

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Nowadays the anti Hs2 campaign provides more comedy gold than it does a credible threat that can stophs2. The past 24 hours have provided yet another  example of that, as well as a lesson in how not to use social media.

Since May 2014 there’s been an anti Hs2 Tweetbot in town with the laughable moniker of ‘Hs2Facts’. It’s laughable because facts are in short supply – although there’s unintentional humour in abundance. This particular tweetbot started a poll, asking folk to register their Yes/No votes on Hs2. Like much of the anti’s social media campaign – all it’s done is shoot them in the foot. After 18 months the result is? A grand total of 220 no votes. To make it even more delicious the twitter names are displayed – so straight away you can see it’s all the usual suspects.

tweetbot

Meanwhile, in the real world, real people have got rather upset about American Presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s tirades and his call to ban Muslims from the USA. So much so that yesterday, one person decided to set up a petition on the Governments website, calling for him to be banned from th UK. 24 hours later, this was the result:

trump.PNG

It puts the anti Hs2 mob claims of support into perspective, doesn’t it? Remember, these same nutters once claimed that their protest was bigger than the one against the poll tax!

The anti hs2 mobs social media campaign is the gift that keeps on giving…

UPDATE:

It’s Thursday morning and the Trump petition has now passed the 402,000 mark with little sign of it slowing. If you want to add your name, here’s a link

Meanwhile, the anti Hs2 mob are still stuck on 220…

Jeremy Corbyn dashes the anti Hs2 mobs hope he was their saviour

19 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Jeremy Corbyn, Politics

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Members of the anti Hs2 mob are rather like folks who are waiting for a messiah – always hoping someone, sometime, will turn up to save them. The last false prophets were UKIP who the antis worshipped as the party who would kill off Hs2. It was never going to happen & everyone else could see through them, but that’s faith for you. Both UKIP & the anti hs2 mob would much rather you forgot this risible claim:

ukip

Since UKIP were shown to have feet of clay the antis have been scrabbling around for another saviour. This time they latched upon Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn. This was because an article published in the Guardian reported that Corbyn was due to deliver a speech condemning Hs2 & announcing his decision to oppose it (they even carried quotes from a draft of the speech).

However, when the speech was delivered & the report appeared, all reference to Hs2 had mysteriously disappeared. In many ways this wasn’t a surprise as Corbyn was in danger of walking headlong into a Tory trap. I blogged about it all here.

Then, yesterday, Corbyn published this on the rail network & his plans for renationalisation. In the report’s bullet points was this:

“Stimulate the economy by increasing investment in new high speed rail, creating jobs and connecting more towns and cities”

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/jeremyforlabour/pages/153/attachments/original/1439891675/Railways_JeremyCorbyn.pdf?1439891675

Clearly, some folks have been having words in Jeremy’s shell-like…

Whilst there’s no explicit mention of Hs2 – does anyone seriously think Corbyn would now oppose building hs2 in favour of going back to the drawing board, setting back plans by decades? Not only would this leave us with rail gridlock, it would put in jeopardy massive regeneration schemes in Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester & other Labour strongholds, costing thousands of jobs. Also, note Corbyn talks of increasing (not diverting) spending on High Speed rail.

As Corbyn is hands down favourite to win the Labour Leadership there’s now no chance that the Hs2 Hybrid Bill won’t pass its 3rd reading.

So, it looks like the anti Hs2 mobs search for the messiah continues, with time running out. Corbyn is not the messiah, he’s just a very naughty boy for leading the anti Hs2 mob on!

Labour hopeful Corbyn blindly walks into Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse trap.

04 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by in Andy Burnham MP, Hs2, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Labour election

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I’ve long suspected that Labour leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn would prove to be hopeless on understanding detailed issues. His tone is that of a man who likes broad brushstrokes & airy rhetoric, but doesn’t really understand the rest of the country outside his constituency in North London. I used to live in an adjacent constituency to his (Hornsey & Wood Green) where his reputation was similar. He’d been a Haringay Councillor there between 1974-1983. Jeremy has never bothered himself with having to make hard, practical decisions. He’s the perpetual backbencher. As far as I’m aware, in all that time he’s only ever chaired one real Committee, the rest are all talking shops like the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Chagos Islands (where? Ed.)

So, it was no surprise when the Guardian reported on Corbyn’s pitch to the North & ‘response’ to the Governments ‘Northern Powerhouse’ plans. In it, Corbyn comes out with classic soundbites on the railways, London and Hs2:

As the Guardian reported. Corbyn will also raise a question over the government’s plans to build the HS2 high-speed railway line to the north, on the grounds that it will drain other lines of investment and turn northern cities into “dormitories for London businesses”.

Apparently, his document says: “The Conservative government has torn schools away from the support networks of local authorities, regardless of the wishes of teachers and parents, and made them accountable directly to Whitehall, bypassing parents and local communities. They have suspended the much needed investment in rail infrastructure in the north to fund HS2, a project with the aim of turning our great regional cities into dormitories for London businesses.”

Apart from the obvious factual error that rail investment in the North hasn’t been ‘suspended’ (yes, one scheme, trans-Pennine electrification has been paused, but that’s so the scheme can be rescoped to include the extra work the local train operators have been pressing for) Corbyn clearly has no idea about what’s going on with the railways – or Hs2. Also, money hasn’t been diverted from funding rail investment in the North to Hs2 – they’re completely separate budgets & Network Rail’s money is intact – as the Transport Minister has made clear. Either Corbyn has no idea how things are funded (likely) or he’s playing a dishonest political game (also likely). Another stupid soundbite is that Hs2 will turn Northern cities into “dormitories for London businesses”. He completely ignores the major regeneration schemes in Northern cities that are being driven by Hs2. One only has to look at the plans for Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Manchester Airport to see how out of touch with reality Corbyn is – and that’s before we look at plans that are yet to be finalised for regeneration for the Hs2 Phase 2 sites at Toton and Sheffield Meadowhall – and Crewe. Let’s be clear, all these schemes hang on Hs2, cancel it and you can kiss goodbye to them – and the 10s of thousands of jobs they’ll create and thousands of homes they’ll provide.

Something else Corbyn’s rhetoric ignores is the thousands of skilled apprenticeships that Hs2 is creating in the North. The Hs2 training college is due to open on two sites in Birmingham and Doncaster . These will be a keystone in training our rail engineers of the future & helping to create a skilled workforce. Kiss Hs2 goodbye & you can kiss these opportunities goodbye too..

Clearly, this is a view of the world as seen from Islington. It has nothing to do with anything based in reality on the ground,or in the North.

I’ve little doubt that the alarm bells will be sounding in the Labour held cities of the North which are staunch supporters of Hs2. We could be seeing the start of a North-South divide within the Labour party here if Corbyn persists with this nonsense or, (heaven forbid) gets elected as the next Labour Leader. If that happens, he’s handing the next election to the Tories on a plate as he’ll have walked headlong straight into Chancellor George Osborne’s trap. The Tories will be able to show that they’re getting on with regenerating the North whilst a Corbyn led Labour party would pull the plug on Hs2 & the huge regeneration schemes coming in on the back of it. Caught in the middle would be the Labour held authorities in the North who’ve worked so hard to get the benefits for their areas. So, we’d end up with A London-centric Labour leader at loggerheads with the Labour heartlands of the North – and Osborne laughing on the sidelines!

Needless to say. I won’t be voting for Corbyn as Labour leader, he’d be a disaster for the North and the Labour party. One can only hope that the other Labour leadership contenders like Andy Burnham see the opportunity this offers them & decide to stand up for the North.

UPDATE: It wasn’t long before a response came from the North care of Manchester’s leader, Sir Richard Leese, who tweeted this riposte;

Leese

What I predicted is already coming to pass…

Interestingly, all reference to Hs2 has been dropped from Corbyn’s Northern Future paper, which can be found here

More grandstanding from Labour’s Michael Dugher.

26 Friday Jun 2015

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One of the more depressing aspects of yesterday’s announcement of delays to Network Rails modernisation plans was the predictable reaction of Labour’s Shadow Transport Minister, Michael Dugher.

“Since 2010, passengers have had to endure a catalogue of failures on our railways. Ministers may try to shift all the blame to Network Rail, but this has happened on the government’s watch and the responsibility for this mess lies squarely with the government.

“Labour has warned time and time again that there needs to be fundamental change in how our railways are run. But the Transport Secretary has dithered and delayed.”

Irony is not Dugher’s forte. He lambasts the Government for ‘shifting the blame’ onto Network Rail whilst he shifts the blame onto the Government. Because, let’s be clear about this – Labour has as much responsibility for this mess as anyone.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog. The problem with electrification schemes is they’re like buses. There’s nothing for ages then they all come at once. We have Great Western, Trans-Pennine and Midland Main Line – along with a rolling programme of schemes over the border in Scotland. That’s a huge amount of work. But why does it all have to be done now?

Because the last Labour government did bugger all, that’s why

Between 1997 and 2010 Labour approved one measly scheme of less than 20 miles, the minor link line between Crewe & Kidsgrove. Contrast this with the previous Tory administration which managed to electrify the East Coast & Great Eastern main lines, amongst others. Not bad for a party whose leader (Margaret Thatcher) supposedly ‘hated’ railways.

Labour sat on its hands & let the DfT pretend that there was no need to electrify as some new technology was just around the corner. This faith in what Roger Ford of Modern Railways coined ‘bionic duckweed’ was bonkers- but it suited Labour as it meant they didn’t have to spend any money. It was only when Lord Adonis came along that the position was reversed & a tranche of schemes was announced. But by then it was too late.

Starved of work, the skilled engineers who’d electrified the East Coast had scattered on the four winds & the industry lost the ability to carry out major schemes. That skills shortage still exists – and not just in OLE. It’s the same in signalling & in design.

Dugher conveniently ignores this and Labour’s role in sowing the seeds of today’s problems. We’ll get no ‘mea culpa’ from him. But then this is the man who’s said Labour has “too many pointy heads & not enough street fighters” when clearly, the opposite is true. Attack dogs like Dugher got Labour into this mess in the first place & they’re one of the reasons why Labour failed to win the 2015 election. To be frank, people are sick of this style of politics, but Labour isn’t listening. Mary Creagh outlined the problem in her interview with the Guardian when she withdrew from the Labour leadership contest. In it she highlighted why Dugher replaced her – Labour wanted to ‘pick a fight’
That went well, didn’t it? Instead of gaining support, Dugher rapidly lost it. He managed to alienate many people in the rail industry – and quite a few of them were Labour voters!

Following their election defeat, Labour said they would listen to people & analyse what went wrong. Sadly, there’s little evidence of that happening. Dugher is still Shadow Transport Minister & now he’s running Andy Burnham’s campaign for the Labour leadership.

If Labour really DO want to listen, then I have a few suggestions.

Ditch your obsession with who owns the railways & concentrate on what you want the railways to deliver.

A bit of humility & understanding wouldn’t go amiss. How about admitting your part in past problems & actually come up with some solutions instead of grandstanding?

How about committing a future Labour administration to a rolling programme of investment that will even out the ridiculous peaks & troughs that have led to a skills shortage? This will have several benefits. It will create skilled jobs and save money through economies of scale. If the train builders know that over the next 10 years they’ll have orders for thousand of new electric trains we can get them for a decent price – oh, and prise the DfTs dead hands off train specifying & ordering train. That’ll save a few bob too..

Also, how about supporting the industry instead of using it as a political football?

In fact, there’s a whole host of ways the industry could advise you on. But that means listening, not lecturing, something you’re not good at. Contrast Dugher’s approach with The Tories Claire Perry, who does listen and actually had the sense to ask the industry what it needs from Government. Novel, eh?

Sadly, I’m probably wasting my time typing this. Dugher has stuck his fingers in his ears & Labour’s promise to listen & learn from its mistakes is looking increasingly hollow. We’ll end up with a new Labour leader but the same old problems will remain. I don’t see anything that will bring people back to Labour & Labour back to power.

Crazy anti Hs2 campaigner of the week – No 6

20 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Politics

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As the anti Hs2 mobs social media campaign descends into farce its getting harder to single out one Tweeter as their whole campaign is reliant on the mad, bad and er,’eccentric’ who think ranting on Twitter actually changes anything.

But one Peter Deeley has managed to impress with his splenetic ranting & ability to live on another planet to ordinary people. Here’s a selection of his tweets;

Deely 1

In three tweets he manages to use just about every anti Hs2 campaign cliche (cost, corruption the NHS & polls). But there’s more…

Deely 3

Like most of the dwindling band of anti Hs2 folks, he can’t get his head around the fact they’ve got nowhere, so he clings onto their cherished belief they’re somehow a ‘majority’ & wraps himself in their Linus blanket, the opinion poll. His problem is, opinion polls don’t elect Governments, voters do – and the majority of voters aren’t really bothered about Hs2.

So, let’s have a look at the facts which Mr Deeley doesn’t mention.

He’s the Chair of a defunct anti Hs2 ‘action’ group who called themselves SNAG (South Northants Against Hs2). His problem is, South Northants is anything but against Hs2 & his group has effectively ceased to exist! Here’s a link to their website.

A browse through it reveals that they’ve not published meetings of any minutes since the 3rd March 2011. Nor have they held any events (or have any planned). Their ‘latest news’ is over a year old. They haven’t exactly got their finger on the pulse of the political scene either..

SNAG politics

Philip Hammond left Transport way back in October 2011 & Theresa Villiers became the Minister for Northern Ireland in September 2012!

SNAG as an ‘action’ group has sunk without trace leaving Mr Deeley clinging to the lifebelt that Twitter offers him as a way of keeping his moribund campaign afloat. He’s had his day in front of Hs2 Hybrid Bill Committee (for all the good he did – see here).

With this level of opposition to Hs2, is it any wonder the Transport Minister has been able to assert that the argument has been won? It’s more and more obvious that the campaign against Hs2 is all over – bar the tweeting..

2023 Update.

Poor Deeley has learned nothing in 8 years. He’s one of a tiny handful of Nimbys still tweeting about HS2 and still recycling the same straw-grasping he did in 2015 about opinion polls. But, since then there have been THREE general elections that have shown the futility of his claims as in each one voters have chosen to elect a party committed to building HS2 – and now it’s being built past Boddington. Construction of Phase 1 in Northants is in fill swing. Deeley never stopped a thing – and never will…

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More election dishonesty from Hs2aa.

03 Sunday May 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, General election, Hs2, Hs2aa, Politics

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Having blown all their money (and that of a lot of taxpayers) on futile attempts to stop Hs2 in the courts the High Speed 2 Action Alliance (Hs2aa) is doing very little nowadays. However, it has produced a card to help support the ineffective ‘no votes for you with hs2’ campaign. It’s their usual mixture of spin & lies in the form of 5 loaded ‘questions’ that are supposedly meant to put MPs ‘on the spot’.

HS2_5QuestionsForAnyoneWhoWantsYourVote-724x1024

I’ve dissected each for the benefit of those MPs who might not know how to deal with these loaded questions.

1). 452 MPs have already answered this by passing the Hs2 Hybrid Bill with a massive majority! Contrast that thumping total to the 41 MPs who voted against the bill. As Hs2 remains the policy of all the major political parties & all those likely to form the next Government I don’t think this one will bother any MPs.

2). “Hs2’s absurdly high speed, faster than any other train operating in Europe” – claims Hs2aa. Like most of their other claims it’s load of deceitful rubbish. Hs2 is designed to allow trains to run at 400kph in the future when the technology allows. In the meantime, they’re expected to run at 360kph. In fact, that technology already exists and started running in Italy last week. TRENITALIA launched its new flagship high-speed train on April 25 -the Frecciarossa 1000. Also known as the Zefiro 300, this Bombardier built train has a design speed of 400kph;

Here’s the technical details of the train;
http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/frecciarossa-1000-very-high-speed-train/

Here’s an article on the launch of the Italian service;
http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/high-speed/trenitalia-launches-frecciarossa-1000.html?channel=

At the moment the Frecciarossa 1000 will be limited to speeds of 300kph. Sound familiar? Yes, it’s exactly what Hs2 have in mind. It’s worth remembering that Hs2 won’t be up & running until 2026 & who knows what speeds the next generation of high-speed trains will be capable of by then. So Hs2’s planned speed of 400kph is an eminently sensible choice that future-proofs the line – and Hs2aa are being dishonest with their claims (again).

3). ‘Adequate’ compensation. Ignoring the irony of Hs2aa (a group that’s lost dozens of court cases) talking about a lost court case, let’s remember one thing. That court case wasn’t about the amount of compensation, it was about the methodology of the compensation scheme. For some people, no level of compensation will ever be enough. In truth, the Hs2 compensation scheme is more generous than previous ones. No-one would want to see people compensated unfairly, but what all this is about is a cynical attempt to load more costs onto the Hs2 bill to make it seem unaffordable.

4). Cuts – yet another cynical ploy. We’re the 6th richest nation on the planet. The cost of Hs2 is spread over 18yrs at less than 0.17% of GDP (or around £2.5bn pa at the height of the projects spending). The idea that scrapping Hs2 will stop cuts elsewhere is nonsense. Where to cut is a political decision more than a financial one – and the different parties have different ideas on how & when to do it.

5). Hs2 ‘cuts £8.3bn of existing rail services’ This is Hs2aa’s biggest & boldest lie. I’m copying my original exposure of this to save you having to look for it.

“It is true that in the Economic Case analysis (table 9 on page 78) is a figure of £8.265 billion, labelled “classic line savings”. So what’s that all about? Well first, it refers to the full network in Phase 2, not Phase 1. Then, it’s a Present Value, that is, 60 year’s worth of annual sums all rolled into one. So the annual figure relevant to Phase 1 will be a lot – and I mean a lot – smaller.”

The cuts lie has also been nailed by the plans that have published to EXTEND rail services after Hs2 is built. As usual HS2aa ignore such inconvenient evidence as it shows them up for what they are, nothing but a deceitful bunch incapable of telling the truth.

So, next time somebody waves around Hs2aa’s ‘5 questions’ card, feel free to link to this.

The anti Hs2 campaign in the last week of the election.

02 Saturday May 2015

Posted by in General election, Hs2, Hs2aa, Politics, StopHs2

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As we’re in the final week of the election campaign I though I’d take a look at how the anti Hs2 campaign’s going. The answer is – very badly indeed.

Their laughable ‘no votes for you with Hs2’ campaign has got absolutely nowhere. It’s not even persuaded individual politicians to backtrack on their support for Hs2 never mind the actual parties. Instead, all the major players (including the SNP) have restated their support for the Hs2 project in no uncertain terms. Take this example from Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, who gave an interview to the Liverpool Echo;

Ed Balls

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/general-election-2015-ed-balls-9148898

Or this, from Labour leader Ed Miliband, who was talking to the Yorkskire Evening Post:

Ed Milliband

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/labour-will-back-hs2-miliband-1-7194044

All political parties know that (in reality) the anti Hs2 campaign is tiny. It has little real support & commands fewer votes. To illustrate this fact here’s the latest antis social media ‘scores on the doors’. These are a record of the leading anti Hs2 groups & leaders following on social media (Twitter & Facebook). Note the usual caveat. Not everyone following them opposes Hs2. Some followers are pro’s there just to keep an eye on them!

Scores

To say the results are pathetic is an understatement. They started off from a ridiculously low base and have hardly made any progress since February.There’s been no election effect at all. To put their campaign numbers in perspective, the total number of UK parliamentary electors in 2013 was 46,139,900. I’d work out what % of the electorate is actually following StopHs2 or Hs2aa but I don’t have a calculator that works to that many zero’s!

That’s not all. The main players (Stophs2 & Hs2aa) have been almost absent from the fray. Having run out of money & with a shrinking activist base they’ve relied on both UKIP & the Greens to make all the running. Their problem is – both parties are slipping in the polls.

What will be interesting to watch is what happens to their campaign after the results of the election come in and it becomes obvious they’re a disaster for them.

Watch this space…

On the road again..

30 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by in Politics, Railways, UKIP

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– well, rails really, but you know what I mean!

After a day at home I’m heading South on Grand Central’s 08:04 from Halifax to Kings Cross. I’m actually on my way to Norwich as Abellio Greater Anglia are showing off the first of their refurbished Mk3 sets to the press tomorrow. Norfolk’s county town isn’t the easiest place to get to from West Yorkshire so I’m heading down a day early & using the time to get pictures for my library. For once I’m not working over a bank holiday & I’m looking forward to having some quality time at home on my return.

Before I left this morning I remembered to get my postal ballot in for the general election. The list of candidates caused a wry smile. Despite the range of parties they all (bar one) had something in common. They all live in Yorkshire. The one that doesn’t is (yep, you’ve guessed it) the UKIP candidate, who actually lives in that well known Yorkshire town of Canterbury, Kent!

20150430_065014

I dunno, coming up here, taking our votes…

The latest scores on the anti Hs2 mobs doors.

23 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2aa, Politics, Railways, Scores on the doors, StopHs2

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It’s that time of month to look at the anti Hs2 campaign’s ‘progress’ when it come to getting their message out to all those imaginary millions who oppose Hs2 in the run up to the election. As there’s only 2 weeks to go – you’d think they’d be seeing support swell.

Of course not. It’s all a figment of their imaginations. I’ve shown the Twitter & Facebook followers with % increases or decreases and once again, the news for their campaign isn’t good..

Anti scores Capture

The usual caveat applies. Not everyone following them is a supporter. Many will be there just to see what they’re up to.

To put these numbers into perspective, in 2013 the total number of UK parliamentary electors was 46,139,900….