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The truth about Jones’ Hill woods and Roald Dahl that you won’t hear from anti HS2 protesters…

09 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by Paul Bigland in Hs2, Lazy journalism, Protest

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Hs2, Lazy journalism, Politics, Protest, Railways

Mind you, you won’t hear the truth from much of the UK media either! Sadly, many journalists lazily recycle whatever the protesters tell them without once bothering to fact-check any of it – which is why this fairy story about a supposed connection between Dahl and Jones’ hill woods has managed to spread.

Who to trust? Was Jones’ Hill woods really the inspiration for Roald Dahl to write ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’?

Well, how about the Roald Dahl museum? If anyone should know about this they should, surely? This is what they say about the inspiration for Dahl’s story on their website.

“Roald Dahl lived with his family in Great Missenden, a village in Buckinghamshire, UK. Their house was surrounded by fields and woods. As a passionate lover of the countryside, there was one particular tree – known locally as “the witches tree” – that sat on the lane near the Dahl home and came to inspire one of Roald’s own favourite stories: Fantastic Mr Fox.

The “witches tree” was a large, 150-year-old beech. Sadly the tree is no longer standing but when his children were growing up Roald always used to tell them that it was where Mr Fox and his family lived, in a hole beneath the trunk, just as the Fox family do in the story.”

So, not only was it NOT Jones’ hill woods – it wasn’t even a woods but a single tree that no longer exists and hasn’t for donkey’s years (hardly surprising as Beech trees have a typical lifespan of 150–200 years). Yet again we find those opposed to HS2 just making stuff up for their own ends (just like the ‘children’s memorial’ and dozens of other ridiculous claims).

The story gets detailed even more in this report called “Finding Fantastic Mr Fox” by the BBC’s ‘Countryfile’ which claims that:

“Beloved children’s author Roald Dahl once lived and worked in rambling Gipsy House, on the edge of the sleepy Chilterns village of Great Missenden, and when stumped for inspiration he would walk in nearby Angling Spring and Hobshill woods. It was among these ancient beeches and carpets of bluebells that Dahl set some of his best-loved stories, including my favourite, the tale of Fantastic Mr Fox. Dahl had a favourite tree, an enormous gnarled specimen in the heart of the wood, which he called The Witches’ Tree“.

Note no mention of Jones’ Hill woods, even if this report slightly contradicts the Roald Dahl museum.

And there’s more! In 2016 the Independent newspaper carried a story called ‘on the trail of Roald Dahl in Great Missenden‘. In this piece it claims that;

“Angling Spring wood was the inspiration behind one of the writer’s most charismatic characters, Fantastic Mr Fox. The gnarled Witches Tree is said to be where the four-legged family lived.”

Yet again, no mention of Jones’ Hill woods. But there’s more..

The Bucks geology website has an illustrated guide to walks around Great Missenden published by the Chiltern’s Conservation Board (who also might be expected to know the truth) which contains this informative piece.

So that’s another vote for Angling Spring wood – but no mention of Jones’ Hill! Here’s some more perspective courtesy of the Ordnance Survey. I’ve marked the position of Jones’ Hill and Angling Spring woods in relation to Whitefield Lane in Great Missenden, where Dahl lived. As you can see from the map, it backs onto Angling Spring wood.
Distance wise, Jones’ Hill is over 3 miles walk from Great Missenden High St. In contrast, Angling Spring woods are right next to Dahl’s home! Now, if you’re going walking with young children, which woods would you chose to take them to – a local one near home or one that’s more than a six mile round trek where you have to walk past loads of other woodland just to get to it?

If I can fact-check this claim by spending just a few minutes on Google, why can’t the BBC or any other journo’s do the same? Because it’s just too easy to swallow whatever the protesters tell them as it makes a nice tear-jerking story and to hell with whatever the truth is! As the old adage goes, never let the facts get in the way of a good story…

Not letting the truth get in the way is exactly what HS2Rebellion and the protesters have done. Yesterday HS2rebellion reposted serially failed Green Party candidate Mark Keir claiming to be pointing out the actual ‘Mr Fox’ tree being felled in Jones’ Hill wood on their laughably entitled and thoroughly dishonest “Save Roald Dahl wood” Facebook page!

How you chop down a tree that fell down in a completely different wood in 2003 is a mystery known only the anti HS2 protesters.

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

HS2 protesters go ‘beyond the fringe’…

07 Wednesday Apr 2021

Posted by Paul Bigland in Hs2, HS2Rebellion, Protest

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Hs2, HS2Rebellion, Protest

Those of you of sufficiently advanced years or whom have a penchant for classic comedy may know of the 1960s satirical series ‘Beyond the fringe’ that starred Peter Cook, Jonathon Miller Alan Bennet and Dudley Moore. In one memorable sketch Peter Cook and Johnathon Miller spoofed the British in World War Two. The skit contained these (now famous) lines:

Peter Cook: “I want you to lay down your life, Perkins. We need a futile gesture at this stage. It will raise the whole tone of the war. Get up in a crate, Perkins, pop over to Bremen, take a shufti, don’t come back. Goodbye, Perkins. God, I wish I was going too.”

Parodies beget parodies – albeit sometimes unintentionally, and today – with their ‘war’ going so badly the anti HS2 protesters at Jones’ Hill wood provided their very own ‘futile gesture’!

This morning a handful of them attempted to block a road by the tried, tested (and serially failed) method of a ‘lock-on’. In this case an old oil drum containing concrete that a couple of protesters fastened their arms into. Some even boasted about the barrel used as it had been recovered from a previous camp and nicknamed ‘big boy’. The ‘cunning plan’ being this device would supposedly take ages to break into so they’d cause maximum disruption by preventing HS2 workers getting to work. Only a futile gesture it was…

The protesters and their ‘lock-on’ were in place before contractors arrived for work but they didn’t stop anyone getting there, they merely caused a traffic jam as vehicles were left nearby. The police soon arrived en-masse and shortly after midday the ‘lock-on’ had been cut up and rendered unusable and the pair of protesters taken away, presumably to be charged under S241 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 for trying to prevent people going about their lawful employment. So, that’ll be two more of the tiny number of protesters left having their wings clipped by bail conditions then! It’s a kamikaze tactic that doesn’t stop a thing, but it gives the protesters something to stick on social media where they’ll get lots of ‘thoughts and prayers’ from useless keyboard warriors – as if that will stop HS2!

Here’s the Facebook post from serially failed Green Party candidate Mark Keir who’s one of the tiny number of regular protesters at Jones’ Hill wood.

The numbers for likes, shares and comments aren’t exactly what you’d call setting the world alight…

At this stage I don’t know if other arrests were made, but the fact there’s only a handful of protesters taking part tells you all you need to know. Meanwhile, what was happening inside Jones’ Hill wood? It was business as usual for HS2 ecologists, contractors and security staff – as this screen-shot of another of Keir’s video posts demonstrates!

So much for stopping people getting to work! In the video Keir hurls insults and expletives at the HS2 workers and security people as they go about their work unhindered.

It was also business as usual at all the other 300+ worksites on the HS2 route too as this was the only protest. Elsewhere there were a few people grumbling as they filmed work going on, but that’s hardly stopping HS2, is it?

I wonder how many more of these futile gestures the protesters can afford to mount before they run out of volunteers? The more the merrier in some ways as it has the effect of stripping the camps and making them easier to evict when the time comes – which will be soon for the remaining few camps. It’s soo tempting to resort to another WW2 parody about ‘for you, the war is over’ – but I’ll resist the temptation – honest!

Of course, the protesters like to claim that they have almost universal local support for their stupid stunts. The reality is rather different. Some residents don’t take very kindly to having these waste of time protests blocking roads – as this illustrates…

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If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

It’s the end of the line for ‘StopHS2’

04 Sunday Apr 2021

Posted by Paul Bigland in Hs2, Joe Rukin, Politics, Protest, StopHs2

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Hs2, Joe Rukin, Protest, Railways, StopHs2

Funny how you never hear real news on the StopHs2 website – especially when it relates to yet another of their failures! Just as there was total radio silence about ‘Campaign Manager’ Joe Rukin’s embarrassing (and expensive) legal fiasco last October, there’s been no public announcement that the man’s finally admitted what the rest of us have known for years – he’s been wasting his time!

This fact has finally dawned on Rukin, who sent an email around to the groups supporters at the end of March – after yet another legal failure when his latest application for a Judicial Review was dismissed. Here’s part of what Rukin has said.

True to the end, Rukin’s not been honest with people. The truth is that he’s been looking for a proper job for several years now and the real reason he’s stayed is because he didn’t get one. Rukin’s retirement means that the only person left is Bournemouth based Penny Gaines, so effectively, it’s game over. I mean, seriously – ‘StopHs2’? based in Bournemouth? As a campaign group StopHS2 have been irrelevant for several years as they never managed to secure what they needed to stop HS2 – political support. The writing’s been on the wall since 2014 when the Phase 1 Hybrid Bill passed with such whopping majorities (both in the Commons and Lords). Cross-party support for HS2’s never wavered (despite some of the nonsense claimed by people like Rukin) and without the political numbers adding up in their favour – they were toast. The demise of StopHs2 puts the final nail in the coffin that already contains the remains of ‘AGAHST’ (Action Groups Against HS2), the High Speed 2 Action Alliance’ (HS2aa) and dozens of local ‘action’ groups up and down the HS2 routes.

Now, the only thing left is the dwindling number of protesters allied to Extinction Rebellion, Hs2Rebellion and the local Nimbys who support them. It’s only a matter of time before the bell tolls for them too. Despite their bombast and bluster they’ve not stopped a thing. Now they’re reduced to boasting of ‘delaying’ pockets of work on HS2 (conveniently ignoring the fact what’s caused the most delays to the project has been the Government shilly-shallying with reviews). The protesters ‘protection camp’ network has been shrinking ever since last summer, with many camps now being redundant as there’s nothing left to ‘protect’! Meanwhile, site clearances and construction on Phase 1 have ramped up massively, completely overwhelming the puddle of protesters. Now, Phase 2 has been given the go-ahead and a contract to create new woods and wetlands as part of early environmental works on the route between the West Midlands and Crewe was signed on April 1st.

The days of the final ‘protection camps’ that have any relevance to the route are numbered and we can expect to see their demise happen soon. No doubt there will still be isolated protests here and there and some people will be left in pointless camps on private land, out of harm’s way, but they’ll be posturing, nothing more.

The campaign to stop Hs2 never stood a chance. Now it’s spluttering to an ignominious end…

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Thank you!

Hs2’Rebellion’, the latest farce…

16 Tuesday Mar 2021

Posted by Paul Bigland in Hs2, Politics, Protest

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Hs2, Politics, Protest

There’s an old philosophical question that’s really rather apt when it comes to the farcical ‘campaign’ against HS2. It’s “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” One could update it to the present day to ask “If an Hs2rebellion protest camp’s evicted and no-one was around to Livestream/video it, did it really happen”?

This question could have been posed today when an eviction took place today of the sole anti HS2 camp north of Warwickshire. Named ‘Camp Isla’ after someone’s canine friend, it really did seem to be a one man and his dog operation! Although it appears on Hs2Rebellion’s dwindling list of ‘protection’ camps, it hasn’t been any trouble for HS2 as nothing much has been happening – until today, when this appeared on the camp’s Facebook page.

This eviction must hold a special place in the annals as since this appeared, not a single video, livestream, photograph or any verifiable record of the event has appeared – despite the appeals for people to turn up to ‘protect’ the camp. This is all the more mysterious when one looks at some more claims made when the camp went from one man and his dog to group of people down a tunnel and folk festooning the trees! .

Needless to say, not of this has been supported by the slightest bit of evidence from anyone. I’ve little doubt an eviction has happened – but the rest strikes me as pure fantasy. Not one of them has a camera-phone? Well, that’s a first. Normally the internet is awash with long and boring livestreams recording every eviction.

Of course, the daft thing about all these Walter Mitty fantasies about tunnels etc, is they soon fall apart in the cold light of day. I suspect (and not for the first time) the ‘camp’ Facebook account will be kept alive to churn out messages of support, fictitious updates and claims of winning – but the reality will be very different. Mind you, the HS2Rebellion website is rather good at that too. Here’s the list of ‘protection’ camps they claim exist, with the reality added…

So, 8 camps. 3 of which no longer exist, 2 more which have been partly evicted and 2 more (Crackley and Denham) which are almost certainly redundant as there’s left to ‘protect’ anymore! Some ‘winning’! Two other camps have never made the list as one (Leather Lane near Jones’ Hill woods) didn’t last a fortnight whilst the other on Wormwood Scrubs has no permanent site and has less than 5 regular occupants! In fact, if you added up the regular occupants of all these camps together I doubt you’d find more than a few dozen people.

Pitch this against the largest construction site in Europe with 10s of 1000s of workers over 300 worksites on a 140 mile long route and you can start to see the futility of all this. Mind you, so can many of the protesters, which is why so many of them have wandered off back to other causes to fight yet more lost battles for Extinction Rebellion and other groups – hence some of the Euston tunnel refugees appearing in Lichfield to spray paint on a factory supposedly supplying military equipment to Israel! Obviously, political activism (just like being a SPAD to the PM) makes you immune to Covid or the need to follow lockdown rules! Whilst XR and it’s friends might not think those rules apply they might find the new police, crime, sentencing and courts bill which passed second reading by 359 to 263 votes rather harder to ignore as provisions in it will criminalise some of their activities. Despite my own personal reservations about the bill I will be interested to see how quickly it becomes law and how it’s used in practice against groups like Extinction Rebellion and HS2Rebellion.

Of course, today happened on the same day that HS2 Ltd announced the start of work on what will be one of the most visible civil engineering projects on phase 1 – the 3.5km long Colne viaduct on the edge of London. Unlike ‘Camp Isla’, this won’t be a one man and his dog operation! The world’s moved on even if the remaining protesters haven’t. Poor ‘Isla’ is left barking up the wrong tree – in more ways than one…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

It’s the Hs2 ‘rebellion’ pantomime season!

25 Thursday Feb 2021

Posted by Paul Bigland in Environment, Hs2, Politics

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Environment, Hs2, Politics, Protest, Railways

As the final curtain is about to fall on the pantomime that was the HS2 ‘rebellion’ tunnel fun at Euston, another pantomime has opened at Calvert in Buckinghamshire, where a rag-bag of Nimbys and activists have congregated at Poors Piece wood. But first let’s recap and chart each act in the pantomime.

The theatre curtain rose back in January when police and bailiffs moved in to clear the garden at the front of Euston station which had become a refuge for various Exinction Rebellion/Hs2Rebellion ‘activists’ and a cadre of homeless people who found shelter and security in numbers. As a PR stunt the anti HS2 protesters had dug tunnels under the gardens and 9 of them did white rabbit impressions just as soon as the eviction started. Whilst the rest of the rabble were quickly cleared from tents and trees the troglodytes in the tunnels refused to come out at first, but then departed in dribs and drabs over the days. The most famous occupant of the tunnels was ‘Swampy’, an old road protester from the 1990s who was down there with his young son. What most of the media who covered the story neglected to mention was that ‘Swampy’ was a serial failure who never managed to stop anything, but hey – at least he got publicity!

The description here is pure ‘Comical Ali’! A “hugely successful occupation”? This was as much use in trying to stop Hs2 as is Americans sending ‘thoughts and prayers’ to stop school shootings…

On Monday another serial failure (Larch Maxey) gave up after being cornered by bailiffs. Today (day 30) three more of the tunnellers (including ‘Swampy’ and son) gave up and came out of their own accord. According to Hs2 Rebellion the final (anonymous) troglodyte will give up tomorrow after 31 days, bringing the whole farce to an end. Why a farce? Because they never stopped anything! The big joke about the camp in Euston Gardens is that it’s not cost HS2 a single day in construction time because the gardens are nowhere near an active HS2 construction site! It was pure theatre, nothing more. The theatrics have continued with the protesters claiming the event as some kind of victory – although how having 9 protesters holed up in a tunnel where they can’t stop any work is a ‘victory’ is a mystery…

Several of the protesters evicted from Euston gardens later turned up at the abandoned Harvil Rd ‘protest’ camp in Uxbridge, only to be evicted again within days as that camp was cleared and demolished without them putting up a struggle.

All the remaining ‘protest’ camps are feeling the pinch at the moment as HS2 Ltd are ramping up construction and clearance work along the phase 1 route. At the recent National Rail Recovery Conference Hs2’s Chief Executive announced that the company now has 300 separate worksites in operation. Yet the protesters number less than a few dozen hard-core – which is why the same few faces keep popping up time and time again.

This has been true at the latest eviction at Poors Piece this week where another semi-abandoned camp (which had less then half a dozen regular occupants) had an influx of refugees from Euston and Harvil Rd in a desperate attempt to bolster numbers to attract some more publicity, because let’s be honest – they stand no chance of stopping the eviction, far less actually stopping HS2! The same farcical scenes have played out this week when all the protesters bravado and bluster soon came to nothing as tree-houses quickly fell to the bailiffs, police and HS2 workers who promptly moved in to begin clearing up the mess.

In a lovely touch of irony, some of the protesters from the nearby Wendover camp who turned up at Poors Piece for a day were disconsolate on their return to base as they found Hs2 had been busy clearing woodland uninterrupted whilst they’d been away!

The result of the Poors Piece eviction is beyond doubt and I’d be surprised if it lasted more than another couple of days, despite all the bluster and rhetoric from the protesters and a couple of local Nimbys who bolster the protest but who clearly have nothing better to do. In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that these events are more about egos and publicity than being any serious attempt to stop Hs2. This protest is one of the first of the social media age and it’s becoming obvious that a cross-section of those involved are using the protests to boost their social media status as an ego-trip although a minority are more circumspect and use false names or identities.

In fact, the whole StopHs2 ‘campaign’ has changed direction in the past year. The original (Nimby based) groups like the High Speed 2 Action Alliance (who folded in 2016) and StopHs2 (aka the Joe Rukin show) have faded into the background. Now, the running is being made by a rag-bag of Extinction Rebellion devotees, self-publicists, some old road and fracking protesters and hippies – and a smattering of Nimbys. The real aim of the protests now seems to be to raise support for Extinction Rebellion (and make a few bob).

When Extinction Rebellion first appeared on the scene I was broadly sympathetic. I thought that by raising the profile of environmental issues and the desperate need to tackle climate-change, they might actually do some good. Then I watched in bemused amazement as they started to increasingly dumb things, like attacking public transport. That made me start to examine who they really were and it made me realise that they were just another hard-left (anti capitalist) group who used environmental issues and animal rights to further their political agenda – just like the far right in the shape of Britain First and the BNP have done (as well as the vote Leave campaign).

What a lot of this is really about is two things. Recruiting young people through manipulation and indoctrination – and also using social media tools to raise funds.

I’ve blogged about this before when I highlighted the split between some of the people allied to Extinction Rebellion and the ‘old school’ more anarchic protesters who don’t like XR’s command and control tactics – and stranglehold on the money! Over the past couple of years through various Crowdfund appeals and other donations pages six-figure sums have been raised to fund legal cases or to ‘support’ the protest camps (or even individual protesters!). There’s only one problem. No-one has a clue where the money really goes and no-one ever publishes any accounts! The money just disappears and no-one is held responsible for it. There are several example of this. Here’s one.

Over £42,000 raised. Where’s it gone? No-one knows. There’s no updates and there’s no accounts. There’s not even anyone named as being in charge. This is just one of many such fundraisers that go to prove the old adage that “a fool and their money are easily parted”.

Another example is ‘celebrity’ environmentalist Chris Packham, who ran a crowdfunder to raise money for his vanity legal cases against HS2. They were doomed to failure from the start but the money rolled in. Was all the money spent? Who knows. What happened to any surplus? Dunno – as it’s now a year on and Packham (to my knowledge) has never published any accounts or updates explaining what happened to the money. I wonder if the taxman knows either?

The more I dig into the anti HS2 ‘campaign’ the more it starts to look like a scam. Because, let’s face it – it doesn’t have a hope in hell of actually stopping HS2! How can this tiny bunch of protesters halt the largest construction project in Europe when they can’t even stop themselves being evicted? There’s so few of them now they’re doing little more than fire-fighting, stripping bare the remaining camps of people to try and put up a show at the latest one to be evicted.

Mind you, the Poors Piece eviction is showing another (unpleasant) side to these supposed ‘peaceful’ protesters…

Many of those drafted in to ‘defend’ the camp are young people from middle-class backgrounds who would normally be at college if it wasn’t for Covid. They’re a particularly foul-mouthed group who think nothing of hurling vitriolic personal abuse at anyone involved in the eviction – be it HS2 workers, bailiffs, police or the other emergency services. I’m going to take the gloves off now and say that hearing a bunch of self-entitled kids who’ve probably never done a days work in their lives telling anyone and everyone that they know everyone’s job better than them is a nauseating sight. Many of them throw an absolute strop when an adult has the temerity to say ‘no’ to them, but then that does rather reveal something about their backgrounds. Here’s a fine example.

Middle-Class kid who’s never done a proper day’s work in their life accuses working people of being ‘class traitor scum’. There’s a word for people like that…

There’s plenty more examples of this behaviour on the various videos the protesters stick on their Facebook pages. You can find some of them here. “Peaceful” people my arse! The level of delusion and disinformation coming from these people is weapons-grade. It seems the one thing Extinction Rebellion and the other anti HS2 groups are good at is indoctrination, because the nonsense they get people to spout (and believe) is incredible. Here’s an example from the person who was the founder of StopHS2. This appeared yesterday…

Oh, please…!

That so many of the protesters are (or were) college kids is a fatal weakness of the anti HS2 campaign – and especially now that the Government has mapped a way out of lockdown and return to normal with schools and colleges reopening! Many of these mouthy youths are going to find there’s other more pressing activities that will be taking up their time…

The more digging one does into these protests and the people behind them the more it becomes obvious that this is not really about HS2. It’s not even about the environment – or Climate Change – because if it was they’d be following the science and protesting about the new roads building programme. HS2 is being used by Extinction Rebellion as a tool to increase their influence and raise money – and a lot of fools are parting with it…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

Another Stophs2 apathetic fiasco!

19 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Anti Hs2 mob, Harvil Rd Hs2 protest, Hs2, StopHs2

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Tags

Anti Hs2 mob, Harvil Rd Hs2 protest, Protest, StopHs2

I’m working in central London today and serendipity meant that nearby the Harvil Rd stophs2 protesters were ‘up before the beak’ at the Royal Courts of Justice, where Hs2 Ltd and the DfT had applied for an injunction against 8 named protesters (that’s all there is on a regular basis). Here’s the details, care of the protesters own Twitter account.

cv

Rather foolishly considering they’ve so little support, the protesters called for a demonstration outside the hearing. They publicised it via Twitter and the Penny & Joe show (formerly known as Stophs2) joined in…

stophs2

10.30-12.30? That suited me fine, so I decided to pop along and see how they were doing and what the media scrum would be like. Would the City of London police be out in force to keep order I wondered? I thought I’d give them plenty of time, let Joe Rukin get his inflatable elephant set up and the party get into full swing, so I didn’t pop along  until 11.30. This is what I found. Nothing, no-one, nada, zip, not a sausage – nothing….

20180219_111320

The Rolls building’s to the right of the picture. Considering that Hs2 passes through NINE London constituencies holding a total of 1,079.897 souls that’s an impressive bit of apathy!  It also highlights the Harvil Rd protesters problem. Unlike when they flit between Hillingdon & Euston, when you’re up in court, you can’t be in two places at the same time!

Twyford Down they ain’t….

The anti Hs2 campaign, dying by degrees….

17 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by Paul Bigland in Hs2, Railways, Transport, UK

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Hs2, Protest, Railways, UK

Ever since the High Speed 2 Hybrid Bill was passed by MPs with a whopping majority the campaign to oppose building the new high speed line has been dying. Not that you’d know this by reading the national & local media as investigative journalism is a sick bunny nowadays. Churnalism has replaced it and the anti campaign knows its endless press releases will be soon regurgitated without analysis by a media short of staff but with far more space to fill. Of course, the anti campaign also has a few high profile media friends who’re happy to help (but more of them another time).

So, it’s time someone cast a critical & factual eye to do some of the work most of the 4th estate can’t be bothered to anymore.

When the project was first announced back in 2009 it was clear that (like any other major building project) it would face some opposition. As it was Govt funded transport project it was obvious the usual suspects opposed to such spending, like the Taxpayers Alliance & Institute of Economic Affairs would object. What was less clear was what real grassroots opposition would form.

What’s been interesting is, despite exaggerated claims from some quarters the opposition, whilst often shrill, has been far smaller than on other projects like the M25, Heathrow expansion or even HS1. In fact, its core is around two areas, the Chilterns and Warwickshire. Not unexpectedly, the real opposition is located solely along the route & the vast majority is from people who are either affected by the route, or who claim to be as they want compensation. In short (although politicians are loathe to really admit this as they think it plays badly) it’s the good old British NIMBY problem.

Now, you could argue that there’s nothing wrong with wanting to protect your own turf. I have some sympathy with that view & I certainly have sympathy for those genuinely affected by Hs2 who face upheaval & disruption. But what’s become clear over the past few years is that the organised anti hs2 campaign has stooped to new levels in dishonesty, deceit & underhand tactics.

The main anti Hs2 players

The anti Hs2 campaign claims there are three. In reality there’s two as one (AGAHST) is so ineffectual, under resourced & with little meaningful involvement it’s dead in the water. That leaves the High Speed 2 Action Alliance (Hs2aa) and StopHs2. Supposedly, there’s meant to be a ‘network’ of over 90 local action groups. Most of these are moribund or no longer exist. So these claims remind me of Hitler in his bunker, directing imaginary Panzer divisions on a map. Hs2aa used to publish a list of these supposed groups on its website but after I dissected it on Twitter & highlighted the fact most were at best moribund (& some downright false) it mysteriously disappeared. StopHs2 is based in Warks. It’s essentially bankrolled by a local businessman & has shrunk in recent years. It’s ‘Chair’, Penny Gaines has decamped to Dorset, where her only involvement seems to be ‘interpreting’ on Twitter what various Committees examining Hs2 say. The other mouthpiece is professional agitator Joe Rukin whose latest stunt was to dress up his 9 year old son in his Scout uniform & get him to read a script to the Petitioning Committee.
There’s an interesting view on that in the Scotsman newspaper:

http://www.scotsman.com/news/fiona-mccade-childish-tactics-at-hs2-committee-1-3661674

Rukin has proved to be a bit of an own goal for the anti campaign as he’s just as much a self-publicist as he is a campaigner against Hs2. He’s also shown up their lack of support in a very ill-judged attempt to stand for Parliament during the 2010 election. In a supposed anti stronghold to boot! The result? He polled 0.8% of the vote.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/person/13621/joe-rukin

I’ll look at each of the three groups in greater detail in a later blog.

The tactics

Privately, those opposed to Hs2 admit amongst themselves that they had little real chance of stopping the project as it has cross party support and the need for extra rail capacity is impossible for them to realistically challenge. Their plans were threefold, to try & persuade MPs to vote down the Hybrid Bill, stop it with legal actions, or (as a last resort) try & drag out the Hybrid Bill petitioning process so that costs would rise and politicians would either lose interest or change their minds.

Needless to say, none of this has gone to plan – at all…

After several years of debate & despite outrageous claims & tactics from antis the Hs2 Hybrid Bill passed its 2nd reading with a massive majority of 452 votes to 41 against. So much for trying to lie to MPs then…

Legal actions were equally unsuccessful. Various elements of the anti campaign banded together to bring 22 different actions, from Judicial Reviews to appeals to the Supreme court. They lost all but the most minor one, which didn’t stop Hs2 anyway, but sent the compensation scheme back to the drawing board! These legal actions have all but bankrupted Hs2aa, which is fading away now its headbanging tactics have failed. I wonder if this long list of failed court cases is a record?

Petitioning the Hybrid Bill Ctte has been a failure too. Although a record 1925 petitions were received the penny dropped a few months later when the members of the Committee were appointed & soon began to tackle the petitions with gusto. Ably abetted by Committee members such as Sir Peter Bottomley MP (who is a pleasure to watch, as he’s firm, fair & doesn’t stand any nonsense) the Committee Chair, Robert Syms MP, has made it clear his intention is to ensure the Hybrid Bill is clear to receive Royal Assent by December 2016. So, another anti failure then…

Public failings versus fantasies on social media

A main plank of the anti’s campaign has been the use of social media. This has been both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is it allowed them to pretend they were far more numerous than they really are. The downside is that social media can’t be controlled & their use of it has exposed them as a bewildered bunch many of whom are totally divorced from reality. It’s also allowed them to be tracked & shows that many of them who say they’re against Hs2 out of environmental reasons are in fact, just Nimbys personally affected by the route who’re hiding behind a green figleaf. It’s also shown some of them to be the most outrageous liars who’ll say anything if they think it will stop Hs2 (it hasn’t). If you want to see these fantasists in action, just follow the #hs2 hashtag on Twitter.

Away from Social media their public gatherings have shown how few of them there really are. They used to hold yearly demonstrations outside Parliament but each one was supported by a dwindling number of people. I first documented one 3 years ago. They tried to claim there was 500 people attending, although photographs make it obvious there’s less. In 2013 they (unwisely) drew attention to the fact I was there taking pictures, the whole crowd booed me at the organisers request and one very silly woman did this:

http://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/p898759480/h3ab789cc#h3ab789cc

Of course, the moral of the story is; never, ever flick the V’s at a photojournalist!
By the time the Hybrid Bill debate came around on 28th April 2014 their numbers had plummeted. Whilst 452 MPs voted yes, there were less than 90 anti demonstrators outside. A ratio of 4.5 to 1!

http://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/p898759480/h38d91d0d#h38d91d0d

For a local campaign that would be a lousy turnout. For a supposed national campaign it was an absolute disaster. Far more folks demonstrated against Hs1! How on earth they can keep a straight face when some of them say their campaign is both growing & ‘relentless’ I’ll never know, but self delusion has always featured heavily in their campaign. So, where are all these voters who are supposedly ready to bring down any party that supports Hs2 & will sweep UKIP to power? They exist only in their imaginations. A further admission of failure has been the cancellation of their other annual event. In summer the anti groups would organise a gathering at Stafford Showground where they’d swap campaign tactics & pretend they were getting somewhere. The numbers weren’t great, with only a few hundred in attendance and in 2014 the event was cancelled. Ones’ not been arranged for 2015 either.

The cavalry fail to arrive…

By 2011 it was clear the anti campaign was flagging. ‘Action’ groups like these were falling by the wayside:

http://wldstophs2.com/latest-updates/
http://againsths2.blogspot.co.uk/

The campaign’s organisers were praying that the announcement of phase 2 of the route would reinvigorate their campaign & lead to a plethora of new groups & activists joining it. Their hopes were misplaced. After the announcement & despite the length of the route only a handful of new groups were formed (all of them on the route) but significantly, none from major cities along it. This led to further demoralisation within the campaign & further exposed the fact it was overwhelmingly a ‘nimby’ issue. A classic example was when Sir David Higgins launched his ‘Hs2 plus’ report in Manchester in 2014. Only a handful of demonstrators were outside. Also significantly, not a single one was from Manchester, they were all from a Mid Cheshire group masquerading as residents of the city!

http://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/p898759480/h78c7e78#h78c7e78

Once again, reality failed to match up to the hype. Here’s a little gem of a report from the Manchester Evening News, who covered the event:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/hs2-battle-against-london-centric-waste-6254219

Honestly, you get 12 people outside, none from the population of 2.7m folks and you seriously try & compare the anti Hs2 campaign to the poll tax demonstrations? How deluded can you get? This is Sid & Doris Bonkers territory here…

What next for the anti Hs2 campaign?

Oblivion really. All their tactics have failed. They’re skint and their activist base is dying. Now reality has dawned most of the few remaining activist groups they have are concentrating on mitigation & trying to get the best for their communities. There’s still a few who cling on, like old Japanese soldiers who can’t accept the war is over, but what are they going to do apart from rant on Twitter? They’re too few in numbers & spread across too many constituencies to have any real political clout. Despite 5 years of campaigning they’ve failed to break the political consensus and all three parties likely to form a Govet in 2015 still back the project. Some still cling to the belief that UKIP will ride to their rescue, but there’s more chance of Lord Lucan being found riding Shergar than UKIP getting into power or wielding real influence. If I was UKIP I’d be rather pissed off at the anti Hs2 campaigners. They claimed to have more votes to offer then they really have, hence UKIPs failure to get a single Cllr elected in Warks (supposedly an anti Hs2 ‘stronghold’) and more recently, the fact the Lib Dems beat UKIP in a real anti hs2 stronghold (Aylesbury Vale) where the party won two seats! It’s doubtful that the anti Hs2 campaign would have managed to get this far if UKIP hadn’t latched on to it as a cynical ploy to steal votes. Let’s not forget that the party proposed to build not 1 but 3 high speed lines in its 2010 manifesto. The two groups suit each other really. Both tend to be elderly, afraid of the future & prone to telling porkies, so you can see there’s a natural fit. I’ll write more on UKIP & the anti Hs2 mob in another blog.

It’s looking like the anti Hs2 campaign will go down in history, but not for the reasons the antis would like. It’s one of the first campaigns waged on social media & it’s been an object lesson in how NOT to do it! They handicapped themselves from the start. There were too many amateurs telling too many lies & attracting too many extremists. The supposed ‘professionals’ got caught up in these lies & found them too hard to resist. This has set the tone for the whole sorry campaign.
History will not judge them well…

UPDATE (10th March 2015)

Oh dear! At today’s Hs2 Committee hearing, Denham Against Hs2 Chairman Frank Partridge  let the cat out of the bag about the number of Hs2 ‘Action’ groups. The likes of Hs2aa are still pretending there are over 90. Frank admitted to the Committee that the real number is ’40 to 50′ – around half the numbers claimed! More proof (if it were needed) that the campaign’s been exaggerating the size of its activist base.

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