London's Hub Airport
Chris Graham

home  |

press  |

politics  |

environment  |

art  |

bibliography  |

 
In the House of Commons on Thursday 2008 January 15th in a Statement on Transport Infrastrucure The Secretary of State for Transport (Mr. Geoffrey Hoon) annouced that the Government intends to go ahead with a third runway and a 6th terminal at Heathrow despite opposition even from within the cabinet and from backbench Labour MPs.

Faced with daily announcements of further job losses, as our imprudent economy melts away, it is not surprising that the Government has decided to proceed with a third runway and a sixth terminal at Heathrow. The whole purpose of the current Planning Bill is to abolish the vestige of democratic checks on large developments and as always believing in their own propaganda Government trusts that will give them the right and ability to brush aside opposition not only among the public at large but even within the House of Commons in a last ditch attempt at creating the illusion of some new jobs in the future.

The danger with this lies not in the damage that additional air-transport will do to our Planet because its moral bankruptcy is so blatant and opposition to it is so widespread that it is doomed to fail. The downside is that it diverts us from getting on with the task of developing a post debt based economy that can distribute income at the same time as improving our relationship with the Planet.

Far more needs to be done in the short term to recognise and deal with the affect that the current downturn is having on ordinary families and individuals but a better future for all of us will only come from recognising all the idle labour and plant as the just the valuable resources that we need for the building of a new economy. The Heathrow issue may be just an unwelcome diversion but it is one that we will have to go round as quickly as possible before we can get on track to dealing with our real needs.

Happily an all-party and no-party opposition is already established with many London MPs, London’s Mayor, the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green Parties having spoken out. Twelve local authorities in the affected area including Islington have signed up to the “2M against Heathrow expansion” campaign.

What we need to do is to quickly find ways of expressing just how widespread and strongly felt is public opposition. We should start getting all our contacts to sign the e-petition “Say NO to the third runway at Heathrow as a clear signal that the UK is serious about climate change” at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/HeathrowRunway3/ Then apply at http://www.greenpeace.org.uk to become a ‘beneficial owner’ of a plot in the middle of the runway site.

If Labour back benchers are made to realise that a third runway could do for New Labour what the Poll Tax did for Thatcher then perhaps they will be able to persuade their leaders to see sense.

In 2006 May Tony Hall and Peter Hall published their report "Heathrow a Retirement Plan" setting out that Heathrow was past its use-by date and the case for a replacement airport to be sited on artificial island to be sited in the Thames Estuary.

The Thames Estuary Airport Company Limited

Support for building a new Airport in the Thames notably comes from the current Mayor of London Boris Johnson

Support also come from The UK Independence Party Updated 2009 January 18th