Heathrow runway is the government's choice
The Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, has announced that a third runway at Heathrow is the government's preferred option for airport expansion in the South East.
Despite all the assurances from former PM David Cameron and the current PM Theresa May that they would oppose a third runway, we have the decision that was widely predicted due to the intensive lobbying by Heathrow.
With zero imagination, our government has slavishly followed the Airports Commission recommendation and said it wants to tag another huge swathe of concrete onto the existing two-runway airport.
Action to break up BAA to create more competition between airports and provide a better deal for passengers has been undone by allowing this foreign-owned airport to push ahead and rule the roost. HAL's owners sold off every other airport to ensure it had the money to promote its plans for domination throughout the country.
Manchester Airport and Gatwick Airport believe they will allowed to build extra runways in future, even with a third runway at Heathrow, but climate change targets will almost certainly prevent this happening. Other airports will be forced to accept the total dominance of Heathrow. Gavin Shuker, Labour and Cooperative MP for Luton South has said that the need to consider climate change is the reason why the government could only approve one runway for the UK.
So Theresa May and her Cabinet have gone for the option that is the most expensive, the highest cost to the taxpayer, has the fiercest opposition and is the most environmentally damaging and would force thousands of people from their homes.
They demonstrate that this government is not listening to ordinary people. It is a government that puts the needs of the wealthy few over the lives of the majority. Quality of life is being sacrificed to satisfy the greed of foreign investors who have offered UK regions the crumbs from their table. They have exploited the worries of workers in areas fearing unemployment by offering the promise of short-term jobs - at some point in the future. Like many other previous promises, they will almost certainly be broken when the project's ever-growing cost forces the airport to make "efficiencies".
Here is some early reaction to the news:
“If we were in China and the Chinese government forcibly moved a whole village and demolished it you would get people in this country standing up and saying “You can’t do that!”, but that is what this government would do to us.”
“This is the wrong decision for London...the air quality in London at the moment is a killer.”
“Gatwick is on stand-by ready to proceed if Heathrow is not ready with the goods.”
“This could take more than a decade.”
“ I shall stay here to the end and will fight until the last man and the last round of ammunition, if you like. ”