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Tag Archives: Scores on the doors

Latest look at the failing anti Hs2 campaign.

23 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by Paul Bigland in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Scores on the doors

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Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Scores on the doors

It’s time to review the anti Hs2 campaign, both in the real world and on social media. Firstly, let’s have a look at the latest ‘scores on the doors’ when it comes to social media.

Scores. 23 sep 15

The usual caveat applies, not all followers are supporters, many are there just to keep an eye on them. Also, remember that some Twitter followers will be spam or fake accounts which add nothing.

There’s now 7 months of data which is building up an interesting picture. What it shows is that their social media campaign really is stuck despite it having run for years (since 2010 in fact). What’s especially interesting is to see the way their Facebook campaign is stagnant. Remember, Facebook has twice as many more users in the UK than Twitter, with over 31.2 million accounts.

It’s also worth remembering that there were 45,325,078 people registered to vote at the 2015 general election. Contrast this with the numbers the anti Hs2 campaign’s reaching…

Another way of putting these numbers into context is that Hs2aa are claiming around 500,000 people are ‘blighted’ by Hs2. So, where are they? Not campaigning against Hs2, that’s for sure!

There’s an irony in their latest Twitter statistics. The only people who have a respectable growth in followers (albeit from an appallingly low base) are the two least effective: Penny Gaines & Deanne Dukhan. Penny is the Chair of Stophs2 but has decamped to Dorset & no longer lives on the route. Deanne Dukhan is supposedly Campaign Director AGAHST (Action Groups Against HS2) but this organisation’s defunct. Even its website has disappeared.

Meanwhile, back in the real world…

-there’s bugger all happening. There have been no national meetings of the anti campaign since 2013 and there are none planned. Nor are there any rallies or demonstrations. The last event that was organised was in April 2014. This was a rally outside Parliament on April 28th – the day a stonking 452 MPs to 41 passed the Hs2 Hybrid Bill! How many antis turned up? Less than 100! Here they are…

DG177046. Anti Hs2 demo. Westminster. London. 28.4.14.

The local anti Hs2 ‘action’ network is equally moribund. I’ve already blogged about the Mid Cheshire group, who had to hide their AGM minutes as they showed that only 23 people attended. The situation is the same with lots of other groups (many of whom have folded).

To further add to the woes, cracks have appeared in their petitioning plans.

Now that it’s become clear that the antis ‘cunning plan’ to try and stop Hs2 in the petitioning process by drawing it out with thousands of petitions has failed. More and more petitioners are failing to turn up. I’ve been watching the Committee hearings this morning. 15 petitions were deemed to have been heard as the petitioners didn’t bother attending to present them. This is happening more and more. What was once a trickle…

I hope Joe Rukin is getting those job applications in!

The anti Hs2 mob show how NOT to run a social media campaign.

27 Thursday Aug 2015

Posted by Paul Bigland in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2aa, Scores on the doors, StopHs2

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Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2aa, Scores on the doors, StopHs2

I’ve just had a bit of time to crunch the numbers on the success – or otherwise – of the anti hs2 mobs social media campaign & it makes very grim reading for them. We’re into figures for half a year now and the scores on doors are;

Scores. PNG

The usual caveats apply. Not all followers are fans, many are there just to keep an eye on their rubbish.

What these figures show is their campaign’s stuck – and in some cases it’s gone into retreat. The lack of progress on Facebook (the medium with the largest audience) is especially telling. That said if you ever look at the Stophs2 Facebook page it’s easy to see why. It’s full of bewildered folks (mostly Chiltern Nimbys) saying they can’t understand why no-one in authority is listening to them. But then when you see their daft conspiracy theories & dyspeptic rants it’s really no surprise.

The 51M Facebook page is dead so it’s hardly surprising no-one’s bothering with it. Hs2aa’s isn’t much better. It rehashes old news, tweets & anything critical of Hs2 – no matter how ridiculous. This is an abortive effort to try & hide the fact nothing’s actually going on with Hs2aa. They’ve nothing to report so use others to pretend there’s actually something ‘happening’. Stophs2 are just as bad. None of the groups have any events, meetings or rallies planned which goes to show just how reliant they’ve become on social media to keep their campaign alive.

The picture’s not much better on Twitter. Like Facebook, they’re starting off from a very low base so when 300 followers in 6 months is a 7% plus increase, you kind of get the idea! I mean, 2-300 followers in 6 months from an electorate of some 46 million souls? That’s pathetic! Contrast this with the number of folks who signed up in less than a week to protest about Jeremy Clarkson getting sacked from ‘Top Gear.Or – the 175,000 who signed the petition to let Virgin Trains keep the West Coast franchise.

In a delicious irony the only person in double figures is the person with the least influence: Deanne DuKhan of AGAHST. Her organisation ceased to exist a long time ago (check out their website or Google them to see what I mean) and many of her new followers are not exactly ‘kosher’- or will ever have any impact on hs2!

Where does this leave them? Well, up Shit Creek really. They’ve run out of time (not to mention money, activists, political influence & media friends). They’ve no momentum left & when the Hs2 Hybrid Bill Committee resume hearing petitions in a couple of weeks those will begin to fall like ninepins.

No wonder Stophs2 ‘Campaign Manager’ Joe Rukin is neither organising campaigns (or anything else for that matter). He’s probably too busy filling out job applications!

Tumbleweeds: An update on the anti Hs2 campaign.

09 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by Paul Bigland in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2aa, Scores on the doors, StopHs2

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Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2aa, Scores on the doors, StopHs2

I thought it would be interesting to have a look at the anti Hs2 campaign now the dust has settled on the 2015 elections. Well, that’s if you ignore the way the Labour party seems intent on committing political suicide anyways…

Since the election the anti Hs2 mob have retreated into cyberspace as there’s bugger all going on for them in the real world. They’ve no events planned, gatherings organised or demonstrations in the offing. The ‘action’ group network is just as bad. Many of them have already thrown in the towel or exist in name only.

Of the three main groups (Hs2aa, Stophs2 and AGAHST) only two have survived. I won’t even count the 51M consortium of councils as they and their ‘alternative’ were rendered irrelevant as soon as the Hs2 Hybrid Bill was passed with such a stonking majority.

AGAHST gave up the ghost some time ago. They’re little more than a defunct website and their supposed Campaigns Director, Deanne DuKhan hasn’t been heard of for quite some time. Have a browse of their website to see what I mean.

Stophs2 are hanging on by the skin of their teeth although they’ve nothing to show for that fact. They’ve no events of any sort organised & their only presence is producing the occasional compendium of what they call ‘recent new items’. It’s essentially a cobbled together list of anything vaguely critical of Hs2 that’s appeared anywhere. Apart from that, Joe Rukin & Penny Gaines tweet occasionally but it’s clear they’re doing little more than going through the motions. Their website is also informative, but only because it shows how little is going on.

The third member of the triumvirate, Hs2aa, are just as moribund. Having pretty much exhausted the pointless legal action avenue & made no impact giving ‘evidence’ at the Hybrid Bill petitions, they’re largely irrelevant. Despite losing every legal action they’ve brought they still haven’t learned & have one final case which will be heard by the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee in December. Expect this to go the way of all the others…

The antis inability to organise anything in the real world has left them increasingly reliant on social media. Their problem is – they’re getting nowhere there either! Here’s today’s ‘scores on the doors’ to show just how shallow their social media penetration is;

scores

The usual caveats apply. ‘Followers’ aren’t always supporters. Many are only there to keep an eye on what they’re saying. What’s interesting is to see how little growth there is in their number of followers. Equally interesting is to see the ‘quality’ of many of their followers. Here’s a few of StopHs2’s most recent:

stophs2 followers

Quite how foreign twitter accounts (either real or fake) will help Stophs2 actually stop Hs2 is a mystery but that’s always been one of the weaknesses of their social media campaign, the headline numbers are pretty meaningless.

Here’s another good example. Peter Jones from Camden is one of the mainstays of the anti Hs2 Twitter campaign. He probably tweets more than most of them & optimistically tweets as @HS2DeadDuck. Admittedly, he’s a complete embarrassment to their campaign but they don’t seem to mind as they’re desperate. Here’s some of his most recent ‘followers’

DD followers

With an army like this, how can they possibly lose?

The anti Hs2 campaigners are starting from a tiny social media base, even on Facebook – which has the biggest  penetration amongst the UK population. When you consider the size of the UK electorate is over 46 million people, these numbers are appalling! Talk about failing to get your message across! Their Twitter campaign has descended into farce. Most sensible folk have deserted it, leaving it in the hands of a few nutters who tweet laughable nonsense. It seems to be more about a few odd egos rather than a serious attempt to stop Hs2. One only has to look at the (often abusive) tripe posted under the #hs2 hashtag to see how bad they’ve got. Here’s some examples from Peter Jones (again);

dead duck 4

duck shit. 23 july

The stophs2 Facebook page is well worth a visit – purely so that you can see how the few regulars who post on it are hopelessly confused & totally bewildered. They simply can’t understand why Hs2 hasn’t been stopped so they spend most of their time ranting about politicians of all parties & dreaming up daft ideas! Here’s a few examples;

FB1

FB2

To compound their woes the national media seems to have lost interest in them too. A few years ago you could guarantee certain newspapers would fall over themselves to publish knocking copy & stories antis had managed to persuade tame journalists like Andrew Gilligan to run. Now, they struggle.

So, what’s left for their campaign. Oblivion really…

Another event that will hasten the end of many of the ‘action’ groups (& probably StopHs2 also) will take place in September & October. This is when the Hs2 Hybrid Bil Committee are dealing with over a thousand carbon copy petitions. I’ve blogged about it before here.

All the evidence demonstrates that no-one’s bothered by them anymore. The general election result showed that they have no political clout & the one party that paid them any heed (UKIP) had a disastrous result. By the time of the next election in 2020 Hs2 will have been under construction for nearly 4 years, so who’s going to try & stop Hs2 then? Even UKIP probably aren’t THAT stupid..

 

The anti Hs2 mob & social media. June’s ‘scores on the doors’

21 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by Paul Bigland in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2aa, Scores on the doors, StopHs2

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Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, Hs2aa, Scores on the doors, StopHs2

Here’s the latest social media monitor of the anti hs2 campaigns ‘scores on the doors’. The picture remains unchanged – their campaign’s a disaster that’s failing to reach more than a handful of people. Their best result is Stophs2 managing a *cough* massive 215 extra Twitter followers in 4 months. What’s telling is that Facebook (which reaches the most people) has the lowest increase or is even going backwards. Whichever way you look at it, these numbers are tiny compared to the population of the country or the size of the electorate. Their woes are compounded by the fact the mainstream media are pretty much ignoring them since the election.

june scores

The usual caveats apply. Not everyone following is actually a supporter..

The continuing disappointment in trying to appear like a national campaign come hot on the heels of last month’s election disaster when Hs2aa suffered another humiliation with their superbly ill-thought out social media ‘thunderclap’. This turned out to be little more than a wet fart. You can read about it here.

The latest scores on the anti Hs2 mobs doors.

23 Thursday Apr 2015

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

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

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

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

Anti scores Capture

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

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

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