Tag Archives: Politics

Happy Mondays…

12 Monday Feb 2024

Posted by in Halifax, Musings, Photography, Politics, West Yorkshire

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Right – I’m back! My enforced absence from blogging is coming to an end. From now (and for the foreseeable future) normal service will be resumed. There’s plenty for me to blog about as my travels around the UK rail network will resume shortly, along with magazine articles and site visits.

On Friday I spent time with friends from the nearby Mytholmroyd station group who were having a planning meeting to give new members the chance to have their say and offer idea on the groups 2024 programme. This year sees the 150th anniversary of the opening of the station building they’ve worked so hard to restore and bring back into community use. Here’s a couple of pictures from the event.

Admiring a selection of vintage photographs of Mytholmroyd and the railway which had been brought in by one of the new members.
The results of the brainstorming was a plethora of suggestions and new ideas for activities in 2024.

A you can see, there wasn’t just food for thought on offer but an excellent supply of pies, quiches, sandwiches and other goodies sourced locally from Jo’s kitchen.

My weekend’s been spent at home, sorting out the contents of my office in order to have a good clear out of stuff I no longer need but that’s been hanging around for ages. In some cases since I moved here from London. Our shredder’s been working overtime to deal with a mound of old bank statements and other confidential paperwork. The local charity shops and our recycling centre are getting a fair share of trade too! Part of the clear out saw me having to take a trip into Halifax itself and a visit to the market, so I couldn’t resist trying out my new Nikon Z9 and 50mm lens I’ve just bought to get a few shots whilst the refurbishment of the building is underway.

The multi-faced clock which dominates the centre of the covered market in Halifax.

Meanwhile, Monday has seen me busy as Bigland Towers, continuing the office clear-out and lining up various activities for the coming week – although some are dependent on the weather behaving itself, which is looking doubtful. Mind you, it’s Valentine’s day on Wednesday so my focus (as you can imagine) will be elsewhere! To add to the weeks entertainment we have two by-elections on Thursday, one in Wellingborough and the other at Kingswood near Bristol. Both were Tory safe seats but with the Conservatives being as popular as a fart in a spacesuit the chances of both seats being lost is very real. Expect lots of wailing and gnashing of Tory teeth on Friday. My reaction?

Either way, I’ll try and keep you entertained with comment, analysis (and pictures) on a regular basis from now on. Cheers…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Economics 101. The difference between Capex and Opex, why you don’t spend the former on the latter – and why Rishi Sunak is perpetuating a con…

07 Sunday Jan 2024

Posted by in Economics, Hs2, Politics, Railways, Rishi Sunak

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This is a rewrite on a much earlier blog which is now out of date due to a changing financial world, but where the basic economic rules still apply. Rules that our (hopefully soon to be Ex) Prime Minister – despite his time as Chancellor of the Exchequer – seems to be unaware of. More likely? He’s gaslighting you. Let me explain…

What are Capex and Opex – and why does the difference matter?

Capital expenditure is an expense incurred to create future benefit, such as buying new assets for a business – like buildings, machinery or equipment. Doing so generates profits for the future over several tax years. Hs2 is a very good example of the principle. It will generate jobs (which generate tax revenue), kick-start regeneration in some of our major cities and make the UK a more attractive place for businesses (which generate corporation tax). Capital investment on decent infrastructure is well understood as bringing economic benefits. This BBC article sums up the situation. As capital expenditure will generate tax revenue year after year it’s not just a one off. That income stream would enable the Treasury to spend money on many different things, from the NHS to social welfare, to more modern infrastructure and even tax cuts if it so chose.

Operating expenditure covers the day to day functioning of a business, like wages, utilities, maintenance and repairs. It also covers depreciation. It’s money needed every year. It’s not a one-off – and it doesn’t generate any extra income the way Capex does.

The UK has a poor record for capital expenditure on infrastructure. It’s why so much of the countries infrastructure is old and outdated (like the railways) and why our productivity is so low.

The OECD (Organisation Economically Developed Countries) recommends that baseline infrastructure investment is 5.5% of GDP annually for an economy with aspirations to growth. We’ve only spent this amount twice since WW2. This is especially relevant now as the UK desperately needs to invest in ‘green’ infrastructure to both tackle and be resilient to Climate Change. HS2 was one of the projects that ticked all these boxes. The importance of such investment has been thrown into the spotlight by the recent storms that have closed railways and flooded large parts of the country. We need modern infrastructure designed and built to cope with them.

Now to the present. Rishi Sunak has announced he’s ‘scrapping’ HS2 and diverting the capital expenditure to operating expenditure, like filling potholes and subsidising bus fares. It’s economic madness, but it’s also a con as the ‘diverted’ money doesn’t exist. There’s no pot of money sat in the Treasury labelled ‘for HS2’ that’s waiting to be diverted elsewhere. HS2 is funded from Government borrowing and the money for the sections of HS2 Sunak has cancelled isn’t on the Governments books as it wasn’t due to be borrowed for many years yet. It’s fantasy money, as real as the stuff you play Monopoly with. Sunak knows this, but he’s taking voters for fools as he also knows most people have no understanding of either economics or Government finances.

Sadly, much of the media is helping him perpetuate the con by lazily copying and pasting his claims and not once asking any awkward questions, informing people of economic basics (like Capex and Opex) or doing any analysis of his claims.

Don’t be fooled.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

The Tories are just taking the p*ss now.

21 Thursday Dec 2023

Posted by in Hs2, Levelling up, London, Politics, Railways

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Yesterday the Government was busy on social media, spreading a message so asinine that satirists across the country were immediately put out of work. Converted to electricity, the levels of derision this poster generated could have powered the UK for a day at least. Here’s how the message appeared on Twitter (bugger off Musk, I refuse to call it X).

Network North – London?

The ridicule was savage and widespread. It soon got picked up by the national media such as the Independent, who highlighted it here.

I’ve blogged many times in the past about this whole scam (there is no money to redirect from HS2, it wasn’t due to be borrowed for years yet) but unashamedly, the Tories keep doubling down on the lie. This particular stunt appears to be a pathetic attempt to prop up the flailing campaign for London Mayor of Tory no-hoper Susan Hall, hence this awful tweet featuring Transport Minister Mark Harper, exposing the fact that ‘levelling up’ the North-South divide actually means levelling up London’s roads.

Rather then fill in any holes Harper continued to dig them for himself with these follow up tweets.

Needless to say they went down like a cup of cold sick. Many commentators pointing out the gaslighting here. ‘Network North’ now covers the whole of the UK, apparently! None of this money exists and there’s a huge elephant in the room that Harper is deliberately ignoring. It was a footnote on page 24 of the risible ‘Network North’ fantasy list.

What business cases? Fantasy projects don’t have them and never will.

Clearly, the Tories have given up any pretense of being honest or credible. They really are just taking the piss out of people. No-one with half a brain falls for this stuff. You have to wonder what they were thinking when they produced this stuff. I feel sorry for the decent people working for the Department of Transport who’re having their reputations besmirched by association with this crap.

The derision at this idiotic attempt at currying favour with London motorists whilst alienating the rest of the UK is still spreading. I can’t wait to see what stupid stunt they come up with next! It’s worth remembering that Harper and Co recently announced they were giving Transport for London just £250m of the £500m funding TfL had requested. Now suddenly there’s another £235m available for London. Anyone smell a rat?

Meanwhile, if you’re a Tory voter who lives anywhere outside London and the South-East, all I can say is – what on earth are you thinking? They’re taking the piss out of you too…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

19th December picture(s) of the day…

19 Tuesday Dec 2023

Posted by in Food and drink, Halifax, Hs2, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, West Yorkshire

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It’s been another mixed-fortunes sort of day here at Bigland Towers. Unlike yesterday where I didn’t even set foot outside the door this morning I walked into Halifax in order to get the frames for my glasses changed. The old new ones had worn very rapidly, so Specsavers agreed to exchange them for new ones which (hopefully) wear a little better. Whilst I was in town I took the opportunity to have a wander around, enjoy the atmosphere and indulge in a spot of Xmas shopping. Nowadays Halifax has a far nicer feel to it than nearby Huddersfield. Partly due to the town’s new-found status as a tourist attraction thanks to TV programmes like ‘Gentlemen Jack and ‘Last Tango in Halifax – and of course the fabulous Piece Hall. That said, there’s still a lot of the old working-class Halifax left in the form of the towns denizens. One thing that struck me was the amount of smokers (admittedly, mostly elderly) sucking on fags as they wandered between shops. That’s something that was very different to my recent trips back to London. Sure, you have smokers there too but many are tourists – and the population’s numbered in several millions, not less than 100,000 the way Halifax is!

Having swapped my frames and found some presents by chance I called into the old market to pick up a rare treat. There’s a Thai cafe in the old market hall that sells the Northern Thai dish called Kow Soi. You rarely see it on Thai restaurant menus and it’s one of my favourites, so I couldn’t resist. Having walked back home I’ve spent the rest of the day sorting out various strands of work as well as updating old and publishing new blogs. I’ve a few more backdated scribbles in the pipeline once I can dig out the archive pictures but I suspect they’ll have to wait until the new year.

This evening’s been spent gritting my teeth to resist shouting at the TV following Rishi Sunak’s latest appalling performance in front of a House of Commons Committee. Sunak’s billed by his supporters as a ‘details man’. Yet, when questioned he has the attention span of a Goldfish (‘I can’t recollect’) or he just makes stuff up, then falls apart and blusters when questioned by someone with a bit of nous and persistence. He’s shifty and evasive, whilst acting like he’s the CEO of UK PLC and how dare anyone question his authority? He was hung out to dry several times, including over HS2, the rail union RMT tweeted this which hits the nail squarely on the head.

Sunak then on the make the outrageous claim that the bit of HS2 he hasn’t cancelled ‘triples’ capacity on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) which is a blatant lie – especially as Sunak’s done his best to make sure HS2 doesn’t get to Euston! There’s not one iota of factual evidence anywhere to substantiate that claim, but that’s classic Sunak. Say something that isn’t true then claim it was your ‘recollection’ (or not, if you’re denying something) – and the truth and facts be damned.

On the bright side, tonight there was more signs that the country is getting sick of these shysters. Whilst the media’s been concentrating on Miriam Cates, the latest right-wing Tory MP likely to fall foul of Parliamentary Standards, one of the other 7 Tory MPs under investigation has been booted out through a recall petition. Peter Bone, another rabid Brexiter and all-round bad egg had been suspended from Parliament for some weeks. 13.5% of his constituents signed the recall petition (the threshold is 10%) so he’s out and a by-election will be held in the New Year.

Right, time to go, so here’s today’s picture, which is of the Thai cafe in Halifax market. With prices like this for such delicious food and great portion sizes, why would you say no?

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

12th December picture of the day…

12 Tuesday Dec 2023

Posted by in Calder Valley, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, West Yorkshire

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It’s been another day spent cooped up in Bigland Towers for me although Dawn’s gradual recovery from the lurgi has enabled her to fly the coop and head off to meet her colleagues at the Community Rail Network in Huddersfield for the day.

Mind you, I’ve not missed much. We’ve had thick, low cloud throughout the day here in the Calder Valley. Initially I thought it was fog but this afternoon, after finishing penning my latest article for RAIL magazine I ventured down into Sowerby Bridge. After dropping a hundred meters I realised that actually, it wasn’t fog – I’d been in cloud level all day! I must admit, I’m beginning to tire of the endless dull days and wet weather. It saps the soul after a while. That’s why I’m looking forward to being able to get out and about more from today. I’ve still got stuff to do that requires the mobile office, but that can be done on the move as I don’t need the reference materials that line my office shelves. The only question’s going to be – where to go? Where’s the weather going to play ball? The answer seems to be – go West…

An attraction in that direction is that whilst Northern trains no longer have any diagrammed work for their shrinking fleet of class 319 trains (more of the fleet have gone for scrap already) several sets still get pressed into daily use between Liverpool-Wigan-Manchester and Blackpool. Maybe one last spin and photographs?

As I type this the news has just come in of the latest Tory psychodrama in Parliament. Sunak’s managed to get his Rwanda bill passed with a majority of 44. This is no victory, there’s lots more stages in the process which will drag out for a long time yet. Parliament goes into Christmas recess on the 19th December and doesn’t return until January 8th. The farce will drag on for months, then there’s consideration of the bill by the House of Lords who are almost certain to reject it in its present form (if the Commons don’t beat them to it after the Committee stage). It’s madness – utter madness. How can the Tories govern the country when they can’t even govern themselves? Whilst the rest of the country is bothered about real issues, like the economy, climate change, the NHS and more, the Tories are now stuck in an endless Rwanda loop. Of course, some backbench Tories will be very happy about this as it brings them into the limelight – especially those ‘red wall’ Tories like Miriam Cates (Penistone and Stocksbridge) with wafer-thin majorities who’re going to be binned on current polling projections. They know the Government’s toast. They’re just hoping a spell centre-stage might just save their own skins.

Expect little political or economic cheers this Christmas. The Government’s caught in a death-spiral and Sunak doesn’t have the nous to get himself out of it. Just look at his recent evidence to the Covid enquiry. Sunak was ‘bigged up’ by the Tories as a man with attention to detail. In contast, his evidence to the enquiry showed up a man with none at all. A man with such selective amnesia he couldn’t remember going to meetings, what was said in briefings, or even what direct advice he was given. As for Whatsapp messages – FFS! How is it Sunak and Johnson are the only people on the planet whose Whatsapp messages disappear when they change phones? They’re taking the piss! If Sunak ever writes his memoirs it’s going to be the thinnest book ever as the man can’t remember a bloody thing…

OK, time to go. I’ll leave you with a picture taken a few years ago. This is what the Calder valley is meant to look like – when it’s not got its head in the clouds! This is the view over Sowerby Bridge and the valley looking West from atop the Wainhouse Tower adjacent to our house, taken in August 2019.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Has Rishi Sunak ever read ‘Alice in Wonderland’?

08 Friday Dec 2023

Posted by in Musings, Politics, Rishi Sunak

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It’s a rhetorical question really as his policies on stuff like Rwanda make it painfully obvious he hasn’t.

Why?

Here’s an extract from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ which could easily be subtitled ‘Rishi in Blunderland’. It’s where Alice is in conversation with the Queen of Hearts.

“Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said. ‘One can’t believe impossible things.’

I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

There you have it. Sunak and the Tory party’s whole Rwanda policy summed up. They believe in impossible things – only Sunak spends far more than half-an-hour a day in doing so, his whole time as Prime Minister is based on fantasies.

Right now the Tories are trapped in the literary and literal past. A past where you could just make stuff up and pretend it’s real and everyone will believe it. Hence pretending that the Tories getting legislation through Parliament to say Rwanda is ‘safe’ means anything in the real world, or outside the UK.

There’s another author they’ve fallen foul of. Eric Blair – better known as George Orwell. Frankly, there are so many quotes from his novel ‘1984’ that are relevant for today, but the Tories Rwanda policy brings this one to mind.

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

So far, their policy has cost nearly £300m – without a single person being moved to Rwanda – unless you count three Home Sectaries. That’s money that could have been spent recruiting people (who will than pay tax) on processing people’s immigration claims in the UK and clearing the backlog that’s occurred because the Tories have weaponised immigration. but that doesn’t suit their political agenda. They’re using immigration as a dead cat to distract from their appalling record on the economy and much more.

We’re told to believe that Rwanda is a hill that Sunak is willing to die on – no matter how stupid that is. But that’s the Tory party at the fag-end of 2023. They’ve been driven mad by a succession of lies and liars going back to the Brexit referendum of 2016. That’s when the rot set in. Unicorn thinking has bedeviled them ever since.

It’s time for a change. The UK deserves better than this political shit-show and asset strippers.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

6th December picture of the day…

06 Wednesday Dec 2023

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics

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It’s already midweek here at Bigland Towers but the days have been merging somewhat. Poor Dawn’s really been knocked by the virus she picked up so her nights (and mine) have been disrupted by coughing fits. Our local GPs surgery have been excellent, so Dee’s now on a course of antibiotics which will hopefully shift the infection. In the meantime I’ve been around to cook, clean and mop (metaphorical) fevered brows. The weather here in the Calder valley’s been cold and mostly miserable, although we did have a stunning winters day yesterday as the sunshine was wall to wall. I’d love to have got out but there’s too much to do at home right now. As well as being a good husband/nurse I’ve been busy sorting out pictures and preparing for my next series of articles for RAIL magazine – as well as researching pictures for and publishing yesterday’s blog on the Class 319 trains.

In between I’ve been watching the slow implosion of the Government as the Conservative party continues to rip itself apart over an impossible policy (Rwanda) and their obsession with immigration, as if it’s somehow going to save their skins politically.

Yesterday they announced an utterly mad and on the hoof idea to restrict immigration by raising the wages threshold for people wanting to bring their spouses to the UK. It would mean 75% of Britons being banned from doing so as they don’t earn enough money. The policy started to fall apart as soon as it was announced, like all knee-jerk ideas that ignored expert opinion, reality, facts and law.

Today the shitshow has reached new levels, or more accurately – plumbed new depths. Former Home Secretary Cruella (don’t you mean Suella? Ed) Braverman, surrounded by a coterie of Tory ultra-right wing MPs made a speech to the House of Commons denouncing the PM in which she said the quiet bit out loud, admitting that all this is about one thing and one thing only, keeping the Tories in power (and her as new Leader, obviously). As if it couldn’t get any worse, the Home Secretary James Cleverly announces a revised Rwanda policy that is so right-wing (throwing down a ‘I dare you’) challenge to the judiciary and international law even the Rwandans back away from it, saying they can’t be party to an agreement that doesn’t respect international law! Can you imagine? Finally, Immigration Minister, Robert Jenrick – the man who insisted cartoons in detention centres to calm incarcerated children should be painted over ‘cos it made them too ”welcoming’ has resigned because all this wasn’t right-wing enough! To add the icing on the cake we’re now told right-wing Tories are submitting letters to the 1922 Committee to precipitate YET ANOTHER tory leadership election, which would lead to the 6th Tory PM since 2010!

Mad, utterly mad! But this is the state of the Tory party (and sadly, our Government) in 2023. We have a dysfunctional Goverment intent on keeping itself in power to continue picking at the carcass of the British economy and damn the consequences for ordinary people. They’ll be alright Jack. They’ll have their Government pensions and the rest od us can go swing as they reckon they’ll have done enough damage that Labour won’t be able to survive more than one term in office before they stage a return to suck more out of us. Jesus, what has the UK become? And yet, there’s still around 20% of voters who think this bunch are doing a good job and are worth re-electing. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry…

Meanwhile, in the background, the Covid enquiry is playing out with that sack of custard Boris Johnson taking the stand and blustering, lying and evading all the way through.

So, what happens next? God knows. It’s like the introduction of the 1970s American spoof TV series ‘Soap’ which had the introduction “confused? You will be – after the next episode of – Soap!” Only ‘Soap’ was funny – and more plausible…

So, what picture am I going to leave you with today? I know. The Grim Reaper has been shopping early for Christmas, having taken several people this past couple of weeks, including politician Henry Kissinger, musician Denny Laine and former UK Transport Minister and Chancellor, Alistair Darling.

Darling was everything this Tory bunch shysters and chancers will never be. A serious politician who, on his death, no-one had a bad word to say about (even if they hadn’t agreed with him politically). Imagine if it had been Boris Johnson and not Alistair Darling as Chancellor during the 2008 world banking crisis? It wouldn’t just have been his wife, mistresses and the UK he’d have screwed….

I photographed Darling several times. This occasion was the National Rail Conference in March 2006.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

18th November picture of the day…

18 Saturday Nov 2023

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, Railways

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Not a day as I’d planned, admittedly. Poor Dawn went down with a migraine yesterday. It’s floored her so she’s spent the best part of 24 hours confined to bed. So, I’ve stayed home and put on my nurses and Chef’s uniforms. Not an image to conjure with – honestly!

There’s always plenty for me to do at home with a mix of work and household chores. Admittedly, I’m starting to chafe at the lack of exercise due to being restricted by events, including my elbow playing up, but c’est la vie. One thing I did manage to complete yesterday was judging the shortlist for the Community Rail Awards photographic competition. It was tough going as there were so many good photographs but I’ve whittled them down to a personal shortlist of 10. Next week myself and my fellow judge will hammer out the final shortlist. The 10 we agree on will then go on to a public vote next year. It’s always a pleasure to judge the competition as the pictures really are a great snapshot of the years varied activities around the community rail network. With all the crap that’s going on in the world right now they project a ray of hope.

The downside of being at home is that I have time to follow what’s going on in the UK political arena, which is an absolute shit-show when it comes to the Government who’ve completely lost any semblance of a plot. Yesterday I blogged about the latest Sunak con about potholes. Whilst I was doing that he was busy setting another – even bigger – trap for himself over Rwanda and the asinine slogan ‘stop the boats’, which he can’t. Instead of taking the Supreme Court ruling on the chin he’s blustered and pretended he’s going to pass legislation to ‘solve’ the problem. Apparently, with a wave of a legislative wand, Rwanda can become a ‘safe’ country and he can ignore the ECHR and international treaties. It’s utter bollocks of course. There simply isn’t time to get such legislation through both Houses of Parliament before he has to call the next general election and those international treaties (such as the Good Friday Agreement) are not going to go away and will be enforced by the international community. But Sunak has form for not thinking things through and for listening to the mad ideas of the swivel-eyed loons of Tufton St. Just look at his disastrous decision on HS2 which is also going to blow up in his face.

Honestly, how on earth has this country sunk so low?

Right, time to go. Tomorrow’s another day. Dawn’s starting to feel better so I’m off to spend some quality time together. I’ll leave you with today’s picture which is – oh, hang on – I’d not thought of one, shit! A quick trawl through the pictures that are on my laptop has found this. I run a ‘mystery stations’ competition on Twitter and this was a recent picture. Do you know where this station is? Some people did, but not many…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Rishi Sunak and the great HS2 ‘released funding’ con. part 5. £8.3bn for potholes? You’re having a laugh!

17 Friday Nov 2023

Posted by in Calderdale, Hs2, Rishi Sunak, Transport

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This morning the media – including the BBC, who really should know better – are running headlines puffing the latest Sunak con over HS2 and ‘released funding’. Here’s the BBCs uncritical advert for the Government filed under ‘business’ which is headlined thus;

‘Rishi Sunak sets out how pothole funding from HS2 savings to be used’

God, where to start? Firstly, let’s ask how the BBC can be an uncritical organ for this propaganda? Filed by ‘business reporter’ Faarea Masud it’s little more than a cut and paste job from this press release. Not once are the claims analysed, critiqued or put into perspective, never mind numbers crunched. Alarm bells should ring when a ‘business reporter’ doesn’t even point out the economic madness and illiteracy of using Capital expenditure (Capex) for Operational expenditure (Opex). There’s good explainer of the difference here.

Can you imagine the howls of outrage from the Automobile Association who’re quoted in the article if the Government had announced they were scrapping the RIS2 new roads programme to use the dosh to fill in potholes instead?

Let’s be clear about one thing. This £8.3bn doesn’t exist. It’s a back of a fag packet calculation of money that hasn’t even been borrowed yet. The money to build Phase 2b of HS2 wasn’t due to be borrowed for many years yet (the Hybrid Bill authorising construction hasn’t even passed through Parliament, never mind actual construction contracts been awarded). There’s no pot of money sat in the Treasury labelled ‘for HS2’ just waiting to be rebadged.

The pothole ‘plan’ is credited to Sunak, but it’s Transport Minister Mark Harper who’s quoted in the article. Harper lets various things slip but the BBC immediately drops the ball by not questioning anything he says. For example, this supposed £8.3bn will be spent over 11 years, so the annual amount is chicken-feed when it comes to putting right the effects of 13 years of cost-cutting by the Tories. The DfT let the cat out of the bag in the report when they explained that;

“The Department for Transport said local authorities in England would get an extra £150m for road repairs this year, and the same amount for 2024 and 2025. The rest of the funding will be allocated over the next decade”.

So, that £8.3bn becomes £150m and after 2024 nothing is guanteed for anything as the Tories will have lost the election. This is classic ‘jam tomorrow’. It’s nothing more than an election bribe in the hope it will fool the feeble-minded (and the BBC). Let’s add some perspective the BBC fails to. There are 317 councils in England), so that £150m is less than £474,000 per council! I live in Halifax in West Yorkshire, it would probably cost that much to resurface the long pothole-filled road outside my home! Yet, according to the Department for Transport, in 2021-22, only 7.5 miles of roads in Calderdale were fully resurfaced, up from three miles five years before. In 2023-24 Just £3.17m is earmarked for road maintenance in Calderdale, any extra money won’t even touch the sides of the problem.

Potholes? This is the stretch of road right outside our home. It’s been like this ever since I moved in, just before the Tories won the 2010 election. Every year it gets worse as the winter weather breaks up the surface even more. Every couple of years the deepest holes get a ‘temporary’ repair. The whole half mile and more looks like a patchwork quilt.

The BBC puff piece contains another cut and past quote from Sunak which is complete bollocks;

“This unprecedented £8.3bn investment will pave the road for better and safer journeys for millions of people across the country and put an end to the blight of nuisance potholes.”

The ‘blight’ of potholes is down to the Tories. They’ve underinvested in this country’s infrastructure from day 1. We’ve now had 13 years of decay where Councils estimate the cost of repairing just local roads was closer to £14bn! An imaginary £8.3bn – even if it was real – won’t fix the roads. This is desperate stuff from a Government that’s ruined the country and completely run out of ideas what to do now. It’s like the infamous ‘cones hotline’ from the John Major era. What’s depressing is the way much of the media (national and local) is regurgitating this guff and presenting it as if it’s anything other than what it really is – a damning indictment of 13 years of austerity, economic mismanagement and a crippling lack of vision and purpose.

So, Sunak’s lying – again. We’ve heard all this before. Like this tweet from 2021 which hasn’t aged well at all – just like the road outside my house!

The one thing we do need to put an end to – as soon as possible – is him and his rotten and dishonest Government. He’s putting the con back into Conservatives.

Don’t fall for the con, or the Conservatives.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
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11th November picture (and spleen-vent) of the day…

11 Saturday Nov 2023

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics

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My, wasn’t that predictable? Today’s scenes from London went on as suspected. The Metropolitan police reckon that 300,000 people joined the march calling for a cease-fire and end to the violence in Palestine and Israel. The demonstration included a cross-section of people and religions, including both Jews and Muslims. No arrests were reported and the demonstration went nowhere near the Cenotaph. But then it was never planned to. Protests about the situation in Palestine/Israel also passed off peacefully in Cardiff and Glasgow.

Meanwhile, egged on by the rhetoric from Home Secretary Suella Braverman, a few hundred far-right knuckle-draggers – including professional far-right grifter Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka ‘Tommeh’ Robinson turned up at the Cenotaph in London to ‘protect’ it from *checks notes* themselves. After which, they went on the rampage through central London (including Chinatown and Pimlico) which led to (so far) over 100 arrests.

Having incited such violence and hatred it’s hard to imagine any other Home Secretary staying in their job, but this is a Tory Government ‘led’ by Rishi Sunak who’s so weak that it looks likely Braverman will get away with it. Sunak has condemned the “unacceptable scenes” but not his Home Secretary who incited them, who apparently, has his ‘full support’. Will she classify the far-right running battles as a ‘hate march’ the way she did the peaceful protest? Of course she won’t.

God, what has this country become – apart from a plaything/battleground of yet more internal Tory party ambitions and lies? Surely, the few remaining decent Tories (yes, they do exist) must make their voices heard. Or is the party too far gone? I fear that question’s rhetorical.

Meanwhile, I’ll end this blog with a literal ray of sunshine. Things can only get better…

Decent folk of the UK watching the sun set on the Tory party and 13 years of shit…

Sunday update.

The Met police now confirm that some arrests *were* made at the main demonstration and that 3 people are under investigation for hate crimes (the banners they were carrying were appalling). The Met also say that while the march itself did not see such physical violence, serious offences relating to antisemitic hate crimes were being investigated (and rightly so).

Sadly with such a large crowd (300,000) you’ll always get some bad eggs, it’s a statistical certainty. But those few shouldn’t detract from the fact one demonstration was overwhelmingly peaceful – and one was not. One was condemned by our Home Secretary and one was egged on. Guess which was which.

It’s no wonder the UK’s Jewish community is feeling under siege at the moment. I’ve no sympathy for anyone espousing violence (from any side) towards anyone. I can only hope our political ‘leaders’ like Braverman are seen for what they are – cynically manipulating sentiments for their own ends.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312