Richard's blog

Taken from Indymedia: Residents from flood stricken areas of Yorkshire and Humberside today blockaded the Government Office in Leeds to protest at its continued promotion of airport expansion. Inspired by last year’s camp for climate action at Heathrow, the protestors from Hull, South Yorkshire and the Calder Valley used pop-up tents to set up camp and blockade the main entrance.

The timing of the protest coincided with the final stages in the adoption of the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) – the area’s fifteen year development plan which is currently on the desk of government minister Baroness Andrews, awaiting final approval. The plan allows for a threefold expansion of passenger flights from Yorkshire and Humberside.

Oh dear. This weekend we ran a story about how Virgin had been 'freeped' - they'd posted a poll online to gather support for the third runway, only for 94% of people to vote against expansion.

Virgin promised that they would show the poll to the DfT, but news has reached us today that the poll has disapeared - although links to it still exist on their website. Yesterday afternoon it stood at 96% opposed - with over 700 votes against the third runway. Surely El Branson can't have pulled the plug just because people didn't agree with him? Maybe he's sulking, after everyone dismissed his fancy biofuel project as greenwash?

Truly awesome: four Greenpeace climate campaigners have just climbed on top of a Manchester to London plane after it parked at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal One. They are now covering the tailfin with a huge protest banner that reads "CLIMATE EMERGENCY – NO 3rd RUNWAY".

The Greenpeace volunteers – two women and two men – waited until all the passengers had disembarked from the one hour flight before walking through double doors at Terminal One, crossing an area of tarmac and climbing stairs onto the fuselage of the British Airways flight.

Today’s Greenpeace action is truly an inspiration to the movement. The bastards have well and truly raised the bar now. If this keeps up, there's no way this runway will be built. Much love from Plane Stupid!

Anyone who's anyone at Virgin Atlantic has spent the day huddled around a camera, waffling on about how flying one aeroplane with 20% biofuels makes up for the emissions from their thousands of trans-Atlantic services. But behind the scenes, Virgin is just as carbon-addicted as the other airlines. Virgin's website proudly declares their support for the third runway, and asks faithful passengers whether they agree.

So far, so normal; but as Virgin found out, people really don't want this lump of tarmac. According to Virgin's poll, over 90% of people oppose Heathrow expansion. We know the runway's unpopular, but this isn't just an outpouring of opposition. Virgin got freeped.

Regional tourism board VisitScotland are, unsurprisingly, tasked with promoting tourism north of the border. It's not a difficult job, as Scotland has fantastic scenery, internationally renowned outdoor sports facilities and the whole Edinburgh festival thingie. It's also served pretty well by trains - although a high-speed rail link certainly wouldn't go amis.

So why has the QUANGO jumped into bed with easyJet? Eagle-eyed readers of the Times this week may have spotted joint adverts promoting cheap flights to Inverness. Now, flying to Inverness isn't exactly environmentally friendly, but it's not just about emissions. The UK has a £17 billion tourism deficit, mostly brought about by the ludicrous growth of cheap flights. Jumping into bed with an airline is just making the problem worse.

Spoilsports! German car manufacturers Porsche are threatening to take Ken to court to stop the £25 congestion charge. Boris 'will be reactionary for votes' Johnson has joined their fight, claiming that King Newt is being "jolly unfair" to rich people. Like the aviation industry, big car manufacturers have been coming under fire for some years now for accept their role in causing climate change, and investing energy to undermine efforts to use the market to force them to behave.

Until Porsche's latest salvo, the industry has focused on the impact the charge will have on 'hard working families' (the same families who they claim will unduly suffer from any increase in ticket prices). There is an element of truth in what they're saying. The £25 cut-off is based on cars which emit at least 225 grammes of CO2 per kilometre, and includes the Vauxhall Vectra Estate 2.8i V6, several models of the Vauxhall Zafira, Honda Accord 2.4, Volvo V70 2.5T Auto, Peugeot 407 2.7 litre V6, VW Passat 3.2 estate and even the Golf 3.2. If you bought one of these cars to fit your eight kids, two wives and a dog, then you're out of luck.

On Friday 15th of February, groups of activists connected to Klimax, Sweden’s direct action movement against the root causes of climate change, struck against the country’s domestic aviation industry.

At Malmö Airport, seven activists were apprehended trying to break into the runway, some of them dressed as polar bears. They were transferred to a detention centre in another city in southern Sweden and kept in solitary confinement for more than 60 hours. The seven activists were interrogated throughout the days, charged with 'intent to sabotage air traffic' and threatened with four years in prison if convicted.

As the consultation deadline approaches, councils across London stand united against expansion. Hounslow, Windsor and Maidenhead, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Wandsworth, Hillingdon and many others are all opposed to expansion. Of the councils near the airport, only Spelthorne supports expansion, although rumours of bribery are emerging, after BAA promised to supply mobility buses to the cash-strapped borough just before it pulled out of the 2M group.

Of course, Lord Soley, Acton resident and head of Future Heathrow, supports expansion. He paints a horrible picture of London's future without an aviation industry given carte blanche to expand at will. "Unless we get permission for this runway we are stuck. Passenger numbers are stuck, destinations are going down and we will have to close Heathrow." Sounds great Clive: on behalf of the two million people who can't get a good night's sleep because of planes overhead, where do I sign?

Want to show the Government you don't support expansion? Come to the Westminster rally on Monday the 25th of February. 7pm, Central Hall.