Industry starts clutching at straws

While global economic turmoil continues to undermine air transport, die-hards within the aviation industry are left clutching at straws. Rather than accepting that bankrupt airlines, union disquiet and falling passenger figures are a sign of the times, our old friends at BAA and Flying Matters are getting desperate - and desperate times call for desperate (and underhand) measures.

Firstly we have the news that BAA have been rumbled trying to hijack an online debate by posing as members of the public. The Woodland Trust's blog post about expansion at Stansted had generated a heated response, but repeated postings in favour of the scheme just didn't ring true. The Trust decided to investigate and found that the posts all came from a computer registered to...BAA! Shame on you.

Meanwhile, Flying Matters chose to feature on their website an article from the Guardian about people trying to be green at home and then blowing all their carbon savings by flying off on holiday. Also interesting was the woolly defence of such behaviour by the Rt. Hon. Brian Wilson: "Theat [sic] they choose to reduce their carbon fottprint [sic] in areas other than giving up their holidays or their trips to see family and friends in far flung places shows a more sophisticated grasp of environmental trade offs than the researcher give [sic] their subjects credit for."

Sophisticated grasp or clutching at straws? And Wilson, learn to bloody spell. You're not a thirteen-year-old showing off on Bebo...