Well, more of a Christmas card really! Today’s been spent prepping for the big day tomorrow which means Dawn and I have been busy with different chores and cooking. In the spirit of the festive season we even had a (very) brief flurry of snow here earlier, which lasted about as long as one of Boris Johnson’s promises!
Anyway, enough of politics, Covid or anything else.
What I would like to do is wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas, wherever you are – and the statistics I see from WordPress show me that you’re all around the world! I’m both grateful and humbled that so many of you either follow my (almost) daily rambles and ventures into a range of subjects. It’s been a funny old world this year to say the least and I suspect many of us are having the sort of Christmas we never expected, but I just want to wish each and every one of you the best festive season possible. So here’s the picture of the day, which I took on a rather magical little railway in Germany back in 2007…
I was full of good intentions today but only some of them came to fruition – and catching up on blogging wasn’t one of them! I had an appointment at our local doctors surgery this morning to have may annual flu jab. Despite these trying times the surgery have been very good about keeping in touch and responding to problems although (thankfully) I’ve not required their services. Now, because of Covid, the waiting room is dark and barricaded. You talk to the receptionist via the intercom outside and wait to be collected. The practice Nurse who gave me my jab was lovely but threw me with her first question;
Nurse: “you did get the text we sent you about the flu jab, didn’t you”?
Me: “No, why”?
Nurse: “It was to tell you this vaccine isn’t currently approved in the UK. Because of all the difficulties at the moment we’ve had to source it from the USA where it is approved, do you still want it?
Me: “No problem, but if I suddenly start talking with an American accent I’ll be straight back here”!
With all the madness over vaccines and the idiocy of the anti-vaxxers, plus the strain these poor Nurses are under right now I’m glad I was able to make her laugh. Oh, and it got me out of the house and away from the computer which was an added bonus. Plus, the walk back along the canal was lovely as it was a rare moment of peacefulness and serenity in what’s an increasingly crazy country, although I’m doing my best to ignore the shit-show in order to enjoy Christmas.
I’m winding down work – including slide-scanning – to focus on the forthcoming festivities (truncated as they are). I’m actually looking forward to it as so many decisions are outside of our control, so why worry? Dawn and I are going to have Christmas day in the little bubble we have with John and Norah, Dee’s parents. After that we’ll be heading home to spend some quality time together and enjoy some walking as well as catching up on some of those jobs there never seems to be time for (did someone mention a bathroom? Ed). Who knows, I might even be able to catch up on some blogging too!
In the meantime, here’s the picture of the day, which is another nostalgic look at some of the slides I’ve been scanning from a country we’re currently banned from travelling to – India. I took this shot at the old Bombay Victoria station (as it was then) on the 14th November 1991.
British rail enthusiasts might think the body-styling is familiar. They’d be absolutely right. The WCM1 Class of locomotives were built by English Electric at the Vulcan Foundry in Newton-Le-Willows in the early 1950s. Seven of them were manufactured to haul passenger and freight services from Bombay (Mumbai) and lasted in service until 2000. I was lucky enough to capture this one on film. Oh, notice an early Indian Railways double-deck coach in the sidings behind?
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Happy Winter Solstice folks! Today’s been the shortest day of the year so soon we can look forward to longer days – although that may take a while to kick in, especially here in the Pennines as the weather’s been thoroughly damp and dismal all day with visibility down to a few hundred metres at best, so there’s no chance of any planet gazing or observing the predicted meteor-shower tonight. I’d have been lucky to see the other side of the valley today, never mind any celestial bodies!
Instead I’ve hunkered down at home and got on with paperwork and scanning old slides. I’d hoped to get a blog written but in the end I eschewed the idea in order to get more pictures scanned that would form part of it. So, whilst the country falls apart due to Covid and our new found Pariah status do to the virus I’ve been bust taking a trip down memory to revisit a country that we’re currently barred from. India. Today’s tranche of old slides have covered a lot of the sub-continent – all the way from balmy Tamil Nadu in the South right up to Darjeeling (West Bengal) in the North, within spitting distance of the snow-capped Himalayas. The pictures were taken in 1998 and so much has changed since then, which Is why tomorrow I’ll be writing a blog about the Indian metre-gauge railway network which is fast disappearing.
There’s so many interesting and historical pictures that I’ve been struggling to decide which one to choose for the picture of the day. I’ve plumped for this one as a contrast to yesterday’s shot from Tamil Nadu. I took this shot on the 6th April 1998 at the ‘Toy train’ station in Darjeeling, West Bengal.
Here’s B Class locomotive no 806 shunting the station yard whilst marshalling the coaches it will haul as the 14.20 departure to Ghoom. 34 of these little 0-4-0 saddle tanks were built between 1889 and 1925 to a design by Sharp-Stewart & Co who constructed the first 12. A couple remain on the line for hauling tourist trains between Darjeeling and Ghoom, but the rest (including this one) have been preserved or scrapped. I’m glad I got to see them in the years when they were still the only locomotives working the railway as it really was like stepping back in time. If you want to see more of my old Indian railway shots, just follow this link. I have to admit, going through the pictures after all these years is really making me want to return to India and explore what’s left of the narrow and metre-gauge lines before many finally disappear forever.
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There’s been so much going on these past few days whilst we’ve been trying to prepare for a tiered Xmas I really haven’t had time to blog – despite a spleen that’s become so engorged on political stupidity that it really needs venting before it ruptures. Hopefully next week will allow time for some catharsis.
Fortunately, we took the view that Christmas was likely to be yet another shambles way back in November so we’d cancelled our plans to head down to Surrey and stay in West Yorkshire. That said, I can’t help feeling sorry for those people who believed in this farce of a Government and banked on being able to travel to have family gatherings in the five-day window before (yet again) Johnson did a U-turn. That window never made any sense as it seemed like an open invitation to spread Covid. I can’t help feeling that this Government has completely lost control of the pandemic now. Well, what little control it seemed to have anyway. Personally, I’m resigned to the fact we’ll have stricter lockdown conditions imposed in January after the festive fiasco where Covid is spread by people who’ve lost all faith in official advice and headed back to their families anyway. The fact this is going to screw many peoples businesses for the foreseeable seems to matter not. I’m fortunate in that I’m in a better position than many to weather the shitstorm on the horizon, but I do feel for those caught up in what’s coming. And, as if Covid wasn’t bad enough, on the 1st January the UK declares economic sanctions on itself with Brexit. After 4 years of lies about ‘taking back control’ and ‘they need us more than they we need them’ we’re now just 11 days away from the the shit hitting the fan without the faintest idea if there will be a deal or not – never mind what that deal will look like. Talk about a clownshow! How on earth did we end up like this?
So, Christmas is going to be an interesting one to say the least – and New Year even more so…Forget the pubs, Xmas parties and other social events, for many people it’s going to be an isolated or introspective Christmas with little to look forward to in the New Year – unless you’re on of those brainless Brexiters who’ll be letting off fireworks at midnight on December 31st to celebrate their new ‘freedom’.
Hmm, looking back at what I’ve just written it seems my spleens already leaked! OK, so here’s todays picture of the day as a bit of light relief. I’ve been busy scanning more foreign rail pictures and the latest batch were taken in Southern India back in January 1998. To say things have changed since then would be an understatement. I’m going to write a separate blog once I’ve got them all scanned as there’s a story to tell, but here’s the first one. I took this at Pondicherry, the former French enclave on the East coast of India on the 27th January 1998.
A metre gauge YDM4 class loco waits to leave the sleepy, single platform station with a train for Villapuram Junction on the main line to Madras (now known as Chennai). This scene has totally disappeared. The line’s now been converted to Broad Gauge and Pondy station has four modern platforms. It’s a reflection of how India has rebuilt much of its rail infrastructure over the past few decades.
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Which is a very quick one today as most of my time’s been spent preparing for Christmas as well as continuing to scan vast quantities of old slides. There’s a huge amount that I want to blog about, including the latest National Infrastructure Commission report into new railways in the Midland and North, but I keep running up against the fact there’s only 24 hours in a day.
So, here’s one of today’s slide scans which I took in Copenhagen, Denmark on the 26th August 1994. So much of this scene has changed now as the rail yard in the foreground and to the right (which were just outside the main station) have disappeared. They’ve been replaced by new building as this area of the city has been redeveloped. It’s an object lesson in how an everyday scene can quickly become history. The site’s now occupied by the Danish Energy Agency…
Oh, and notice one of my favourite landmarks in the background? Many of the slides I’ve been scanning at the moment are also of of what are now times past – which is really starting to make me feel like an old bugger – as they seem like the blink of an eye to me!
I hope to catch up with more blogging this weekend…
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Apologies that blogging’s becoming erratic at the moment. It’s the old ‘spinning plates’ syndrome and the closer we get to Christmas the more plates there are to spin! To say we’re living in ‘interesting times’ at the moment isn’t exactly helping either. I’m treading a fine line between trying to ignore the inevitable Brexitshambles whilst trying to prepare for it and really wanting a cathartic spleen-venting at the same time. Oh, and the weather’s been shit and I haven’t been getting my exercise in either, plus we seem to be living in a Covid hotspot right now – so I’ve not had a vintage week. I’d love to see 2020 ‘do one’ – but January’s hardly likely to be a fantastic month as the Brexitshambles shit will finally hit the fan. I have a feeling it’s going to be a brooding sort of month, whilst making plans…
On the positive side, the pair of us have had a productive weekend decluttering and Dee’s done a fantastic job of making the living room a festive space at the same time. We don’t often bother as we’re not normally here, but this year we’ve done what a lot of people have and made the effort to inject a bit of joy into the place. OK, I promise, there’s no inflatable Santa’s on the roof or the outside lighting that requires the entire output of a power station. In the words of the the famous Cupid Stunts (aka Kenny Everett)- “it was all done in the best possible taste”!
In the meantime I’ve got a busy week ahead. A couple of writing jobs have been confirmed and I’ve plenty to keep me occupied otherwise – although the office party season’s looking a bit thin!
Right, on to the pictures of the day. I’m still ploughing my way through old slides and recently I’ve deviated from the travel stuff from 1999 to go back in time to 1992 and some historic railway pictures. Here’s one I scanned this evening. I’ve always been fascinated by railway signalling which is a complex art in itself – especially when the Victorians designed some wonderfully Heath-Robinson semaphore systems like this. I took this picture in Kandy, Sri Lanka back in January 1992 – although when I was there just 3 years ago it still existed.
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To say that this hasn’t been the most exciting day of the month would be an understatement! The weather’s been uniformly crap all day, we’re still in tier 3 so there’s nowhere to go or people to see – so I’ve stayed warm and dry at home, scanning yet more old Indian rail slides. Only now it gets difficult. Many of the latest batch have very visible scratches on them. This is due to the conditions I was taking them in and not being experienced enough to understand how film cameras needed the film backplate kept clean – a lesson learned too late as these aren’t exactly pictures you could just nip out the next week to recreate. Thanks to the wonders of Photoshop these scratches can now be removed, but it takes time. Now I realise why I’d never put them on my website before, but they’re such a historical archive I’m glad I kept them as everything captured has vanished – and we’ll never see the like again.
My engagement with the past hasn’t been restricted to old pictures. During the trip they’re from I kept a daily diary (well, almost daily) which I haven’t read for decades but now it’s a useful resource to date some of the pictures. Re-reading it sure as hell takes me back to a very different time. Young, single and free…That said, looking back on my feelings, experiences and aspirations 30 years later is really interesting. If only I knew then…
But, to be fair, the day’s not been about unbridled nostalgia. It’s Friday so it was time for the ‘Big 6’ online quiz via Zoom which was lovely as there was actual interaction, jokes and banter despite the (social) distance. In some ways the quiz was just an excuse to interact with friends and the amount of times we all digressed was lovely – even if we did finally answer all the questions!
OK, enough of me rambling and trying to get my thoughts in a semblance of order, here’s the picture of the day which is from my latest slide scans. I took this shot in Jaipur steam locomotive depot on the 30th October 1991. It was shift change and a group of workers were washing at a hydrant inside the shed. Hardly private and not exactly the best environment, but that’s how it was in those days – and I consider myself extremely fortunate to have seen 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/
Sorry for the lack of a blog yesterday. That was because last night was spent at the online Community Rail Awards – which was a brilliant event! Yes, it was sad not to be able to see people in the flesh, but the platform used by Community Rail Network to deliver the event had a lot of features that allowed interactions beyond just watching the ceremony so it was the nearest best thing. If you missed it and want to see the fantastic work done by community rail volunteers you can find the awards here on YouTube. Enjoy!
Now the awards are over today’s been spent playing catch-up on the slide scanning front. Only now I’ve started scanning my old world railway slides in tandem with the travel stuff that I’ve been doing these past few weeks. Today I’ve added another 60 old slides that I took in India in 1991 when steam locomotives were in everyday service. Many of the pictures have never seen the light of day before as I never got around to scanning them in the past. It’s been a real trip down memory lane for me as – despite the fact they’re almost 30 years old – as soon as I saw them it seemed like yesterday, but my – how the world’s changed since then! So here’s the picture of the day, which I took just a few days after my 32nd birthday, in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India…
A metre-gauge Class YP 4-6-2 ‘Pacific’ No 2000 comes off a train and passes one of the many semaphore signal gantries that guarded the station at the time. This scene’s changed out of all recognition in the 21st century, so I consider myself fortunate to have seen it like this. I remember UK railways in the age of steam, but I was too young to get out and about to appreciate those days. Experiencing the end of Indian steam was the nearest I got and it gave me an inkling of what it must have been like. In those days India had a massive metre-gauge network that covered almost the entire country. Now in 2020 most of it has been converted to broad-gauge and electrified. You wouldn’t recognise Jaipur station now.
Over the next week I’ll be adding more – including steam shed depot visits at Delhi, Jaipur and Jodhpur. I’ll also be adding more travel pictures from Australia, so it’s not all about railways.
If you want to see more of the Indian railway scans, follow this link.
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances 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/
Just when I’m thinking the remaining anti HS2 protesters can’t make themselves any more ridiculous with their outlandish claims and piss-poor performances, they say “hold my beer” (shouldn’t that be ‘cheap cider’? Ed)…
The latest, almost Pythonesque, farce at Denham Country Park started in the early hours of Monday morning when the protesters erected a bamboo and rope tower in the river in order to stop contractors working for National Grid from running out a temporary bridge across it. Thinking themselves terribly cunning, they arranged for an old 1990s roads protest ‘star’ – Daniel Hooper, (better known as ‘Swampy’) – to perch in the structure as a way of attracting the media attention they desperately crave. Sadly for the protesters their plan wasn’t that ‘cunning’ at all. What they seemed to have overlooked is that ‘Swampy’ is famous for failing to stop anything. He failed at Twyford Down in the 90s and more recently at Jones’ Hill wood earlier this year. He maintained that record today!
Despite the protesters claims that they’d built the ‘beacon’ (as they pompously called it) in secrecy, the contractors and security staff just ‘happened’ to have a long reach elevated work platform on-hire on the opposite bank of the river. This morning contractors, security and police swooped and ‘Swampy’ was taken down and arrested by lunchtime – much to the obvious chagrin of the protesters who’d been boasting this stunt was going to ‘stop’ HS2! As usual, the event played out on social media. The protesters had shaken every bush and tree for miles to get bodies there and still only managed to attract a handful who posed no threat to the large numbers of security and police who were in attendance. The mix of middle-class Nimbys, crusty ‘eco-warriors’ and waifs and strays more interested in getting pissed on cheap cider was a sight to behold! Here’s a few screen-grabs from Twitter and Facebook to give you a flavour.
Early on HS2Rebellion posted this preposterous hostage to fortune…
So ‘impossible’ that Swampy had been taken down and nicked by 13:00 today and the bridge push continued without interruption! As for ‘secret’, well, HS2Rebellion do have a reputation amongst some other protesters for allegedly colluding with the police. Still, I’m sure it was pure co-incidence that the contractors had hired in a long-reach elevated platform and had it ready on the other side of the river!
Here’s where the protesters plans all started to go a bit ‘Pete Tong’ as the handy elevated platform swung into action!
It wasn’t long before two Officers descended from the cradle on ropes and soon had Swampy ejected from the ‘beacon’ and brought down into the waiting arms of their colleagues below. A few minutes later after removing Hooper’s possessions the ‘beacon’ was unceremoniously tipped on its side and removed, allowing the bridge push to continue this afternoon.
This one is particularly hilarious! This is almost Trumpian in its pretense that black is white and that this shambolic effort was actually a ‘victory’, but then ole ‘Boots’ is from the USA…
Regular readers may remember William from some of his previous hilarious utterances which earned him a place in my ‘crazy campaigner of the week’ feature. Quite how ‘Swampy’ fits into the description of “normal UK people” is another mystery.
If you want to grab some popcorn and watch the farce play out you can find it on the Denham ‘protection’ camp Facebook Page. I’d recommend doing it with the sound turned off/down as the commentaries range from the profane to the inane – along with lashings of propaganda. My ‘Bullshit bingo’ card filled up in a few minutes as all the buzz words were wheeled out in quick succession. “Ecocide”? Tick, “Illegal”? Check. “Assaulted”? Got it! “Polluting Aquifers”, Yep!
Meanwhile, just a few miles down the road, the final fleet of the 300 lorries bringing the two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) from Germany that would be digging the Chiltern tunnels had already arrived unopposed!
Somehow, I don’t think there’s going to be much carousing around the campfires in the remaining ‘protection’ camps tonight – unlike the worksite canteens where the HS2 contractors will be having a warm and looking forward to the overtime payments appearing in their pay-packets!
As more and more protesters give up and head off home or other causes (knowing this one’s lost) I wonder how much longer this farce will drag out? After all, there’s only going to be one outcome – despite what certain deluded Americans try and claim!
Meanwhile, 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/
The Joseph de Maistre quote that “Every nation gets the government it deserves” has never been more apt. Sadly, it’s not just Governments, but politicians in general. Have we ever had such a lacklustre bunch – of all political shades?
Here’s an example – and a confession.
I used to vote for this person when I lived in London. By instinct I’m a natural green voter. But, over the past few years I’ve had a lot of interaction with the party’s politicians potential candidates and members. Now, I wouldn’t touch the Green Party with a barge-pole, because their dogmatic indifference to the science and the real issues – as well as their ineptness and dishonesty – is infuriating.
Here’s yesterday’s example. This blustering tweet from Baroness Jenny Jones regarding the HS2 Phase 2a: High Speed Rail (West Midlands to Crewe) Bill which is about to complete its journey through the House of Lords.
“Fight”, Jones? A fight is something you have a chance of winning. There is no fight as the Hs2 bill is already a ‘done deal’ – this is pure bluster. Either Jones doesn’t know how Parliament works (quite possible) or she’s being dishonest and grandstanding (equally possible). Of course, it might even be both as Jones has repeatedly proved attention to detail or facts really isn’t her forte. But then she is a also a ‘Green’ who backed Brexit in this infamous shambolic justification.
What Jones isn’t being honest about is the Hybrid Bill process. This starts in the House of Commons then moves to the Lords. Here’s the full timeline of the Phase 2a bill.
Now, what Jones either doesn’t know or isn’t admitting is that some stages are more important than others. The most crucial of which is the 2nd reading of the bill in the House of Commons. If a bill gets a majority at this stage then the ‘principle’ of the bill is established. That means it’s gone beyond the point of no return. It cannot be stopped. Oh, amendments to the principle can be made at Committee stage, but the bill cannot fail.
Second reading – the general debate on all aspects of the Bill – took place on the 30th January 2018. The bill passed by 295 votes to 12, a massive majority of 283. The 12 opposing were the usual suspects, many of whom representing constituencies HS2 passes through.
Of course, some of the 12 have since left Parliament! Meanwhile, when the Bill passed 3rd reading in the Commons on the 15th July 2019 the Bill had 263 votes for and 17 votes against – another huge majority.
So, since January 2018 there’s been no ‘fight’ against the bill. To reinforce that fact when the bill had its 2nd reading in the Lords on the 9th September 2019 it passed without a vote as it was clear there was no need for a ‘division’. Why? Because there’s something else Jones isn’t telling people – HS2 enjoys even more support in the House of Lords than it does in the House of Commons! This isn’t a ‘fight’, it’s a walkover! The final stages of the bill are now a formality, it’s only a matter of time now before it receives Royal Assent, at which point it becomes law. This afternoon the bill is back in the Lords at what’s known as the ‘reports’ stage. This gives a further chance to closely scrutinise elements of the bill and consider (minor) changes – nothing more, as the Lords Ctte noted themselves on Page 6 of their report.
“It is not for this Committee to consider the general merits of the scheme. Parliament has already approved it by passing the 2017 Act and by giving a second reading in both Houses to the West Midlands–Crewe bill. We note these general issues by way of background”.
So Jones is blustering. Needless to say, quite a few people pointed this out to her on Twitter. Her response? A mixture of arrogance and (typical of Green party ‘leaders’) an absolute unwillingness to listen to opposing views. Jones clearly prefers the security of her own little echo-chamber.
Worse was to come. How’s this for an example of patronising contempt – and cringeworthy sexism!
“Big boy toys”? Seriously?
Sadly, this sort of stuff is par for the course from Jones who is one of the main architects of the Green Party’s mad policy to oppose HS2. Still, it’s a good example of why they can’t be taking seriously as a credible political party. There’s a whiff of good, old fashioned Stalinism about the way they won’t tolerate any dissent – either from ordinary voters or within their own ranks.
Why does this matter? Good question. The Green Party only have one MP and their chance of getting any more is pretty much zero. But…
Climate Change is the biggest issue facing us all. We need a credible, strong, Green Party to continue to push for positive change and work with others to achieve it.
An illustration of the problem. These are the Medway viaducts in Kent. the two massive and wide motorway bridges dwarf the graceful high-speed 1 railway viaduct in the background. Now, guess which form of transport the Green Party spend all their time and energy in opposing?
Sadly, that’s the last thing we’ve got. Instead we have a bunch of tone-deaf people at the head of a dogmatic party that’s incapable of meaningful engagement with ordinary voters. So where does that leave politically homeless people like me who can see the problem? I’m damned if I know.
UPDATE:
Anyone looking forward to some political pugilism as promised in Jones’ bluster will have been sadly disappointed by this afternoon’s debate. It was a walkover!
I won’t bore you with the political minutiae and ins and outs of the procedure that involved Lord Berkeley trying to put forward an amendment using Transport and Works Act Orders as a way of delaying the bill’s progress, but it failed. Badly. From the outset it was clear Berkeley had no support, so he didn’t even press for a ‘division’ (vote), instead he withdrew his amendment.
And that was the end of that! Jones did speak, but there was no ‘fight’ in her. In an anondyne speech (sans StopHs2 T-Shirt) the gist of which was “I like trains, me”, she expressed her concern that people weren’t being listened to and that there was a lot of expertise out there people weren’t paying attention to!
“I think people should be listened to – and I’ll block or mute the first person who dares argue with me”!
Her weapons-grade hypocrisy nearly caused a coffee/keyboard interface issue here in Bigland Towers. The same person who was boasting on Twitter how she blocks and mutes people who don’t agree with her lecturing on ‘listening’? You couldn’t make this stuff up!
One bright point of the debate was Lord Adonis who was as fluent and passionate as ever, gently poking fun at Lord Berkeley and making the case for HS2’s Eastern leg whilst sporting a rather impressive tie!
If you want to watch the events on Parliament TV, you can follow this link, which will take you to it. After Lord Berkeley’s amendment was withdrawn the debate continued to discuss HS2 and another amendment from Lord Adonis that would commit the Government to building the Eastern leg of HS2. Lord after Lord from all sides of the political spectrum spoke in favour of, including many Ex-Government Ministers like Lord Blunkett (Labour) and McLoughlin (Conservative). Anyone watching the debate would be left in no doubt of the strength of support for HS2 in the Lords!
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/
Paul Bigland 