Apart from the economy, the only other major domestic story is that of the continuing (and growing) saga of Heathrow and a subject I touched upon last year with the potential options.
It would seem that against the growing (and formerly suppressed evidence) the Government is to give the go-ahead for a further runway.
Heathrow has a very interesting history of deception and broken promises (see an excellent recent article by John Vidal in The Guardian).
Personally, as a business person, an advocate of social responsibilty, a human capitalist and the fact that I live under one of Heathrow's flightpaths I perhaps have a multi-faceted view of the scenario.
1. The business view.
Fact: this expansion of Heathrow can be carried out elsewhere whether its at Gatwick, Luton, Stanstead, Isle of Dogs (as proposed) or any where in a radius not in a built up residential area.
Thus the risk to jobs, as stated by Derek Simpson of the Unite Union, (should the 'UN' be replaced by SH in Unite?) is particularly bogus as these would be available wherever it was planned. The argument for businesses is similar as Heathrow is not the only option.
2. Social Responsibility
Any way in which you want to cut it, The Government, DfT, BAA, BA, Unite have questions to answer when you look at the suppressed/misrepresented evidence (there is more than enough controversial evidence against). It would appear that social responsiblity has some unique interpretations to suit particular arguments. Morality and ethics seem to be in short supply.
3. Human capital view
Noise, pollution and traffic volume. These three have devastating effects on humans and local communities (never mind the increasing risk of catastrophic disaster). And yet we continue to conveniently ignore the implications. We are not talking of a few hundred people here but hundreds of thousands - that's why there is such opposition to this expansion. What happened to human capital rights? I thought that we were living in a socially leaning environmnent - or is that only for a few 'glamorous' reasons for people to look good? These are British people.
4. Personal view
My family live under a flightpath. We chose to because of the location and amenities. We can just about put up with the noise with quadruple glazing from a few miles out. Flights apparently start to arrive at 05.30am but invariably earlier we are told because they can - so 04.30 we've increasingly noticed becomes the norm (spot the schedule creep?).
They tend to finish at around midnight where peace descends for a few hours. This will go of course with the new runway and the frequency of flights will also increase. God knows what it must be like for those living closer and without quadruple glazing.
Because of this last evidence I can understand the objections.
The sleight of hand used by the Government, BAA, BA etc on more than one occasion increases the lack of trust and the strength of feeling. And it could get ugly.....very ugly.....
I have observed a few commentators who simply, without checking the facts or thinking for more than a few microseconds, say why don't people just move? Its such a fatuous argument that I am not even going to respond to it.
Funny that this same argument for airport business is completely overlooked.
Of course - if we had been clever as a Nation the Olympics could have provided us with both a new airport and a reconstruction (on the Heathrow site) but I guess it's a lot to ask nowadays in our country to think so joined-up.
One final comment. Being aware of the impact of flying on the environment I have flown fairly infrequently over the past few years. This week I flew for the first time in a while.
Living a few miles from Heathrow, where did I fly from? Yep - NOT Heathrow. I avoid it like the plague as I can't stand the hassle of getting to it or stand the overcrowded terminals.
I flew from Luton.......
Postscript:
As usual with blog entries another coincidence with news breaking this morning that a piece of land needed for runway construction has been bought by a Greenpeace coalition see BBC news story 'Protestors buy up Heathrow land'.
NJH
