Dave: It’s the Vulcan – or everything else

It is quite clear that the messages from Plane Stupid and the growing climate movement are starting to permeate the Westminster village.

Just two years ago, who ever talked about aviation and global warming? Now - it’s not only at the frontline of the environmental debate; it’s even at the forefront of parliamentary politics.

As I anticipated in my column in The Independent last weekend, Zac Goldsmith and John Gummer’s team have joined the majority calling for airport expansion plans to be scrapped. Having looked at all the evidence, even these Conservatives have decided that aviation growth cannot be squared with combating climate change.

Tory Chair of the Quality of Life Commission, John Gummer, said:

“We think there is no need for a new runway at Stansted or at Gatwick… We want to have a moratorium on the discussions as far as Heathrow is concerned.”

He added that he wanted to end “the unfair and illogical bias that taxes cars and trains more than flights."

Now the question facing Cameron is this: Do you want to save ‘The Vulcan’ - or literally everything else? Whilst Thatcher’s former henchman, John Redwood, is foaming at the mouth…

• Six out of ten people think that increasing the capacity for flights at airports is a bad idea (ICM 2007)
• When thinking about climate change, 57% of people support a policy aimed at slowing down the growth in air travel (Ipsos MORI 2006)
• More people (44%) support the idea of air travel reflecting the cost of its impact on the environment that opposed (31%) (Defra/BMRB 2007)

If David Cameron really is serious about tackling global warming, he certainly doesn’t need to worry about a popular mandate.