Travelling light

Back in the late '50s Cliff Richard had a 'hit single with a song called: "Travelling Light", the first words of the lyrics assuring us he had no bags or baggage to slow him down, that his feet were travelling so fast they didn't touch the ground. That is a message that our political elite continually preach to us; that they govern our country unencumbered and that they are working as fast as they can to make our country a better place.


As we all know that is a lie as they have ceded their ability to govern this country to the European Union. That all political parties do have 'bags and baggage' (their past record) that should, but doesn't 'slow them down'; that they give the impression they are working as quickly as they can to improve our country, so 'their feet don't touch the ground', is but a fallacy - yet it is one the electorate continually overlook come election time. Why? Because the MSM do not report all the facts, neither do our politicians tell us all the facts.


Recently I posted about Justine Greening's plans, on behalf of the Coalition, to improve our railways; to bring us the lowest fares possible; likewise I have posted on HS2. Of course, the fact the European Union is in the process of casting a new single European railway directive, to bring together the existing legislation, will have no bearing on what our 'government' wishes to do, will it? The press release by the EU on this subject can be read here. If one follows all the links on the TEN-T website in relation to rail it becomes obvious that the intention is to eventually impose a 'common' policy governing rolling stock, signalling, ticketing, fares, etc etc.


Do note that this decision was taken at a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council, without discussion, and one has to ask just what the hell has 'transport' got to do with the JHA Council? Was this snippet of news published in our MSM? Was it even mentioned in Parliament? Was this proposed directive mentioned in Greening's parliamentary statement?


Oh I forgot, our politicians 'govern' our country....................


Lying bastards!


Still, y'all vote for them, come the next election, won't you?

Will Greening be 'de-railed', Justine time?*

Justine Greening, Secretary of State for Transport made a statement today in the House of Commons detailing (actually hard details are there none, but I digress) how the Coalition intend improving our rail network, with the publication of their document: "Reforming our railways - Putting the customer first".


It has first to be pointed out that under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) Article 4 lists those matters in which the EU shares competence with Member States - item (g) Transport. Also note that transport encompasses all forms of transport, be that air, water, rail or road. Nowhere in the Foreward or Executive Summary is the elephant in the room (EU) mentioned, in other words it didn't even get to open its trunk.


Greening spoke about smart ticketing as if this was a Coalition policy, yet this was discussed by Lord Andrew Adonis in 2009 when he announced plans to boost development and take-up of smart ticketing across the UK. In a speech to the Transport Times conference Adonis highlighted integrated transport systems as one of the key challenges faced by his department. The Department for Transport (DfT) published a consultation document to look at possible incentives that could improve adoption of smart ticketing. Indeed, the Trans European Network - Transport (TEN-T) has already had studies carried out on the benefits of smart ticketing and one of the reports can be read here, included in which is the suggestion that:  "steps that could be taken at an EU level to enhance / accelerate the development, deployment and integration between smart ticketing schemes".


You will note that Greening uses the phrase "average regulated fares" and if you google that phrase the first item is the one you need to click on (Parliament UK Briefing Paper SN01904) which will open a pdf in Adobe Reader.


Greening also spent time discussing how it is the Coalition's intention to provide cheaper fares and here again she has omitted the elephant in the room. Floating round TEN-T is the idea that subsidies for transport should be phased out and all transport services provided on the basis of "user pays" and I posted on this subject back in November 2011, linking to two stories in the Mail. Neither did Greening mention this little meeting that her predecessor, Philip Hammond, attended in which it is stated that: "........In addition, the introduction of self-financing mechanisms (i.e. user-pays and polluter-pays principles) has to be considered in order to generate additional financial resources. Ministers agreed that new financing solutions must be found......".




* The law of averages would have one believe that another train crash such as this is just around the corner - and this woman was elevated to Secretary of State.........?

The European Union and railways

In January this year I posted yet another article about HS2 and noted that Justine Greening and Statutory Instrument 3066/2011 stated that our rail system is now known as "the rail system within the Community (now the EU)".

On the 8th February Siim Kallas, Vice-President and Commissioner for Transport, gave a speech entitled: "Europe's railways - on track to the future", one in which he made plain that the railway systems of member states will no longer be national railway systems, but will be the European railway system.

"This should be a real European railway to join up east and west, north and south – and not the collection of national railways we have today, struggling with technical differences in track gauges, electrification and signalling."

That Kallas is determined to standardise rolling stock, signalling, locomotive construction, brake design and technology, ticketing, cannot be in doubt. Neither can it be in doubt that as transport is an EU competence there will be some directives issued in the future.

No doubt in the years to come, as with Cameron and his wish for gender equality on company boards, changes to our railways will be presented as a UK government initiative while a little 'digging' will soon show that they are anything but.

Just saying.........

Journalists & politicians are either stupid, or liars - or both!

It is not surprising that journalism is now ranked somewhere below estate agents and politicians on the scale of questionable behaviour and practices, when considering the article by David Millward, Transport Editor, in the Daily Telegraph yesterday.

That the article by Robert Millward and the utterances of our Secretary of State for Transport lead one to believe that either neither of them understand the subject of which they write or speak or that both have intentionally set out to mislead and lie to the public, is amply illustrated by Richard North, EU Referendum, Of the two alternatives, if one was being kind, the first would no doubt be selected; however, if one was being truthful, the second would be the only choice.

That journalism has reached such a nadir that it is highly questionable it can sink any lower cannot be in doubt. That a conspiracy exists to deny people the truth is beyond question and that where the truth is concerned we are no better than those living in North Korea.

More HS2 Shenanighans

From PoliticsHome we learn that the Department for Transport have announced they have found an extra £500m which will be used to build a tunnel under the Chiltern Hills for the controversial HS2 train line. The extra funding means that a decision on HS2 will be delayed from this month to mid-January 2012, but is likely to assauge some of the opposition to the plans. The story is covered elsewhere here, here and here.

From the Guardian article we are informed that this extra £500m is to provide a further tunnel of 1.5 miles taken on the basis it would reduce aesthetic damage to the Chilterns, an area of outstanding natural beauty. From the Daily Telegraph we learn:

"The first six mile section to Old Oak Common Lane in northwest London is tunnelled before running over-ground to the M25, and then passing through another tunnel. This tunnel surfaces after Amersham for a mile, before entering a shorter tunnel, which ends at South Heath. The new cash will be used to join up the Amersham tunnel with the shorter tunnel."

And whose constitutuency is Chesham and Amersham? And who, besides David Lidington, has threatened to resign if HS2 crosses their constituency? Forgive me, but this decision 'stinks'! It reeks of public money being spent to save the government of the day very high profile resignation(s); and all the fall-out that that would entail.

We learn that Justine Greening is to delay any decision until January next year, although it is noted that she is due to appear before the Transport Select Committee on Wednesday 14th December at 17:05 hours. From the BBC suggestions have been made by the Campaign to Protect Rural England that the extra money has been found by possibly 'ungreening' (pun intended!) other sections of the line; and it is to be wondered whether Justine Greening will be forthcoming about such matters when she does appear before the Select Committee, assuming of course the question is asked, or whether she will make such details clear in her statement to the HoC.

In the recommendations of the last Transport Select Committee report it was noted that claims HS2 would deliver substantial carbon-reduction benefits did not stand up to scrutiny, although in the same paragraph the committee did note that HS2 will produce less carbon than an expanded motorway network or greater domestic aviation in the event of increased demand for inter-urban travel - so on the basis that all this 'carbon scam' is accepted, it presumably shows 'justification' for HS2. One other statement is worthy of mention and that is the Government needs to make clear how HS2 fits into its wider aviation strategy. Once again our politicians are being disingenious with the actualité because the government doesn't have a transport policy, aviation or otherwise; as the EU, by means of Article 4(g) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) can dictate any aspect of transport policy any time they so choose - and all our pretend government can do is, in effect, then implement any subsequent decision.

Whilst much is made by those against the scheme who have local concerns, it should also be noted that funding proposals have yet to be announced. Philip Hammond, when Transport Secretary, may well contend the project is affordable, yet at the end of the day we do not yet know how much liability there is for the taxpayer. In the letters column of today's Sunday Telegraph it is suggested that taxpayers will be liable for £10billion. (the Castles & Parish report referred to can be read here.) The 17 councils referred to are part of the 51m group, an alliance of councils opposed to HS2, so called because HS2 will costs every Parliamentary constituency £51m. Another matter worth ascertaining is, in discussing revenue that HS2 will produce, I do not see any inclusion to cater for the intention of the EU and their proposal that the 'user pays' concept.

It is also worth noting, if discussing disingeniousness, that in the Transport Committee report and the Castles & Parish paper, the 'EU element' of the Trans-European Network-Transport (TEN-T) appears most noticeable by its absence - but hey, the appearance of 'parliamentary sovereignty' understandably has to be 'maintained at all costs'. (again, pun intended)

As with just about any government 'project', what our political elite are doing with HS2 is spending money that is not theirs in the first place. Now, with 'Referism' and 'Direct Democracy' they would bloody well have to ask first!