Peter Mandelson: Yachtgate 2.0

By Richard on 02/03/2009
Tags:

mandelson

I've been following the convoluted story of Heathrow's third runway for several years now, and thought I'd got my head around the layers of corruption. But this weekend's Daily Mail has blown all my expectations out of the water, blending several layers of intrigue and dodgy dealings into an already overblown saga.

Turns out twice-disgraced meddler Peter Mandelson was arranging meetings between BAA's spin doctor Roland Rudd and Government Ministers - including Transport Minister Lord Adonis - at least five times in ten days in the run up to the Heathrow decision.

Those meetings:

  • October 17 last year: Lord Mandelson holds meeting with Roland Rudd, whose PR firm Finsbury represents airport operator BAA.
  • December 4: Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon postpones decision on building third runway at Heathrow until January.
  • December 8: Rudd, representing Business for New Europe, and Business Minister Shriti Vadera attend the Global Europe Business Summit.
  • December 10: Rudd attends breakfast meeting with Lord Mandelson.
  • December 12: Representative of Finsbury meets Transport Minister Lord Adonis.
  • December 16: Representative of Finsbury meets Lord Adonis again.
  • December 17: Rudd attends a second breakfast meeting with Lord Mandelson.

Now I'm sure that at no point did Mandelson, Rudd or Adonis discuss anything to do with Heathrow's third runway. After all, it's not like BAA offered out of the blue to pay £230 million towards Crossrail - effectively rescuing the project from disaster - just two weeks after Mandleson and Rudd first met...

Ryanair launch new self-publicity drive: a pound for a poo

By Richard on 27/02/2009
Tags:

WW1

I'll get the puns out the way early: Michael O'Leary talks a lot of crap. Ha ha! This time he's floated the idea of charging passengers one pound to use the loo. Cue outrage, headlines, and more publicity for the airline. So let's ignore his latest outburst and laugh at his pre-tax profits for quarter four 2008.

Ryanair lost £92 million, because they gambled on the price of fuel and lost, fairly spectactularly. Airlines try to smoothe out fluctuating oil prices by hedging: setting a price for fuel for the next few months instead of buying at whatever the daily price is. While oil prices were rising Ryanair locked in their fuel at $124 a barrel; it then crashed to $33 / barrel.

To make things worse O'Leary refused to hedge in the months before the price hikes, so he was paying up to $147 a barrel while other airlines had locked in significantly lower prices and whacked on fuel surcharges. Hence last year's losses and O'Leary's desperate need to remind people Ryanair exists by making outrageous comments that get everyone writing pointless blogs criticising their policies.

Stansted expansion challenged in High Court

By Richard on 26/02/2009
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SSE at the High Court

Further problems for BAA at Stansted; just as it tries to cope with falling profits and passengers. A coalition of airlines, including Ryanair ("idiot bloggers") and easyJet, have written to Ministers seeking a one-year postponement of the second runway inquiry. Now Stop Stansted Expansion has launched a High Court challenge to last summer's decision to increase flights. If they're successful BAA will be right back where it started, but several million pounds worse off.

The thrust of their argument is absurdly simple: the inspector was wrong to ignore the climate change, economic and noise impacts of the airport. During the Air Transport White Paper consultation the Government justified airport expansion because individual plans would get scrutinised at public inquiries. This meant that the Government could ignore the impacts of expansion, but also that the inspector should have taken account of those impacts when he reached his decision. He didn't; ergo the High Court challenge.

The High Court hearing ends today, with a decision expected a few weeks after. It's pretty clear to me that they have a great case, but then judges have a funny tendency of disagreeing with me. Either way there will be huge ramifications for airport campaigners and airport operators: if SSE are successful then inspectors wouldn't be able to defer CO2 discussions to the Government any more. Fingers crossed the judge sees sense, not pound signs.

Is BAA about to give up on Stansted expansion?

By Richard on 23/02/2009
Tags:

Stansted

Strange things are afoot in Essex. Last week BAA announced that the proposed second runway at Stansted wouldn't be operational until 2017 because of falling demand; this week it's thrown up its hands and agreed not to challenge Stansted's forced sale.

This is a big news. At pre-inquiry meetings BAA's lawyers refused to put the public inquiry on hold until the sale had taken place. They were adamant that the new owners would want a second runway. But there's no evidence that this is the case: passenger numbers are in freefall, and BAA would charge a premium for obtaining planning permission. This is fine in an economic boom, but we're in recession; buyers are after a fire sale, not bells and whistles.

It's not just buyers hit by the credit crunch: Ferrovial is struggling to pay its debts and Basque sepratists ETA have launched a bombing campaign to stop it building a new high-speed rail line. Ferrovial and BAA need to raise money quickly, and if no one will pay extra for permission to expand, why push ahead with a costly and protracted public inquiry? It's too early to predict, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear that BAA had issued a sheepish retraction and quietly sidelined its grandiose expansion plans.

Police promise 'summer of rage'

By Richard on 23/02/2009
Tags:

riot porn

Extremists are rumoured to be planning a 'summer of rage'. The organiser of a shadowy group known as the Metropolitan police's riot division (motto: Beating up protestors since 1816) has threatened that this summer will be full of chaotic scenes as heavily armoured riot cops wade into demos and make sure they "kick off a bit so the media gets some tasty photographs".

Dismissing claims that it's often the police who like to wade into protests and cause a ruck, Superintendent David Hartshorn said "that sounds like exactly the sort of thing these bloody peacenicks would say" before threatening to spray CS gas at anoyone who suggested otherwise.

Anyone not put off by the steady escalation of police threats (see the now infamous NETCU 'eco-activists = terrorists' article in the Observer last year) should make sure they come to the Camp for Climate Action for a Financial Fools Day action on April 1st. Bring pop-up tents, music, water and soothing aromatherapy oils in case any of these extremist coppers show up demanding a riot.

Cold-hearted cops arrest grandfather for writing in the snow

By Richard on 18/02/2009
Tags:

snow plane

A retired oil refinery worker turned airport campaigner thought he'd take advantage of the recent snowfall to send a seasonal message to passengers departing Aberdeen airport. The local constabulary had other ideas and promptly arrested the 65-year-old and his 25-year-old accomplice for writing "Plane Stupid - you fly, they die" in diluted red ink on a snowy hilltop one-and-a-half miles from the airport.

Geoff Lamb was held for 20 hours before being released at 11am the next morning after an unimpressed procurator fiscal took one look at the case notes before throwing them in the bin. Geoff then had the pleasure of paying £150 to get his car out of the pound where the plod had kindly parked it.

Phoned up by the local newspaper, an embarrassed copper mumbled something about nicking people for "spraying an anti-aviation slogan on a snow-covered embankment". You can insert your own joke about yellow snow and piss taking here, if you like.