Richard's blog

Isn't free-market capitalism great? Just when BAA was enjoying a few months of rest, after an annus horribilus which saw protestors against Heathrow's expansion sitting on planes, squatting their car park and prancing about on Parliament, along comes the Competition Commission demanding the airport operator sell two London airports ASAP.

Normally I'd be rolling about laughing, except that I made sure to read the fine print. One of the reasons the Commission wants BAA to split up is... it didn't expand airports fast enough. Apparently BAA should have issued a legal challenge against the cap on Gatwick expanding, as well as been more aggressive at Stansted.

A couple of weeks ago I made a disparaging comment about the Department for Transport, claiming that their environmental policy only extended so far as protecting newts. Following this, Plane Stupid has been in close contact with an up-for-it band of amphibians, who have been making plans to take the fight to the DfT and its roads-and-runways plans.

This week they struck, setting up a Camp for Climate Action on the site of the proposed Carlisle Bypass (located, oddly enough, near Carlisle). Under cover of night (they're nocturnal) the Great Crested newts crawled on their bellies onto the site and have been making little newty homes. Reports that sections 6 notices have gone up are as yet unconfirmed.

The state moved fast to disrupt the protest, installing fencing to keep the newts out, and laying traps for those newts already in tunnels or splashing about in ponds. They've hired newt-baliffs Herpetosure to remove the newts, who will be "taken to a safe area" where they can protest in peace. Given that great crested newts are endangered because their habitats are being destroyed, wouldn't it be nice if they were just left alone and the road scheme stopped?

Nine protestors from the anti-aviation group ‘Plane Stupid’ have left the Kingsnorth Climate Camp to mount a protest against short-haul flights from the nearby Gatwick Airport. The nine climate activists had been planning to protest against the government’s plans to expand Kingsnorth coal fire power station. However continual police intimidation and violence forced them to leave the camp, choosing instead to protest against the popularity of short-haul flights, especially during the Edinburgh Festival, from Gatwick airport.

The nine activists arrived at the airport at 7.50am. They then split into three groups. The first group scaled the wall next to the escalator above the train station, occupying the roof structure and dropping a banner: ‘Short-haul flight? Let the train take the strain'. The second group mounted the mezzanine above the arrivals lounge, handcuffed themselves to a railing and dropped a banner: ‘Stop short-haul’. The third group, dressed as information points, with t-shirts asking, ‘Can I hinder?', leafleted the surprised crowd with information about the ecological cost of aviation and the irresponsibility of those who fly short-haul.

Lotti Rutter, one of those handcuffed to the railing, said:

"It’s terrifying – we’re approaching a climate catastrophe yet the Department for Transport do absolutely nothing to provide us with a low carbon transport policy – there are a total of 139 flights from London to Edinburgh as opposed to just 22 trains. We’re here today to protest against short-haul flights. We’re well aware that a lot of people will be choosing to go to the Edinburgh Festival and we’re here to ask them to make the right decision – to take the train. In a time of climate crisis anything else is more than irresponsible: it’s Plane Stupid."

Gatwick flies 26 times daily to Edinburgh. The same route is covered by a four hour train ride from London King’s Cross. However there are only 22 trains per day. The route from London to Edinburgh (by air) is also covered by Heathrow (66 flights), Stansted (31 flights), Luton (12 flights) and London City Airport (4 flights).

The activists are presently at Gatwick continuing their protest, after which those not arrested will return to the Climate Camp to continue their environmental action.

Taken a short-haul flight recently? What about a long-haul trip? If you have, you'll have paid Air Passenger Duty, which recently rose a little bit (roughly to where it was in the 2000 Budget, before then-Chancellor Gordon Brown decided to cut it to encourage more people to fly). According to the Daily Telegraph, the Government has "admitted" that the cost of APD paid by passengers outweighs the cost of the emitted carbon by £100 million.

This is the culmination of monetisation, a dangerous trend that sits at the heart of the emissions trading scheme, the Kyoto Protocol and pretty much every market-driven solution to rising CO2 emissions. Monetisation is the principle that things without economic value - such as an eco-system, ancient woodland or a Norman church - can be given a value. From that it follows that if business and Government damages or destroys this invaluable thing, they can merely pay its value for doing so - always less than the profit made from the damage or destruction.

As anyone who has ever had a road or runway built through their community, seen a beauty spot ruined by the roar of jet aircraft overhead or watched rising sea levels wipe out their home knows, there are some things you cannot put a price on. How can you put a value on the right to breathe clean air, to eat unpolluted food, to live without fear of global climate breakdown? Some things simply cannot be bought and sold, and we must recognise that those who would put a price on life do so to make it easier for them to take it from us.

Former scientific adviser Sir David King used to love the third runway. When taking the Government shilling he'd wax lyrical about the need to balance the economy and the environment, bleating about green planes and how hard the industry was working to green itself.

But now that his pension's been secured and with a healthy future on the lecture circuit before him, he's slammed the third runway as a "white elephant". The need to tackle climate change means "we will drive people toward land-based travel rather than air, and investments in new runways will turn out to be white elephants."

Now I'm all in favour of support from people who used to have the Government's ear - climate change is too important for to be partisan - but it infuriates me when former advisors and ministers wait until out of influence before taking sides. What's the point of opposing something when out of office if you supported it while in office - working hard to help the Government advance the very plans you're going to oppose in later life? Does seem a bit silly...

A campaigner from the climate action group, Plane Stupid, today super-glued himself to Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the State Dining Room of 10 Downing Street.

Dan Glass, a 24 year old MSc student based in Scotland, entered the PM’s official residence at 5pm this evening to receive the Sheila McKechnie award for his campaigning against airport expansion. He greeted Mr Brown and asked the Prime Minister why he and his ministers have refused to meet West London residents opposed to the construction of a third runway at Heathrow. He simultaneously put his super-glue covered hand onto Brown’s polyester suit. When Brown went to turn away he found he had been super-glued by his clothing to Plane Stupid, and had no option but to listen to Dan or undress.

Audio clip available here: Real Player or MP3.

Dan is now reading messages to the PM from people whose villages will be bulldozed if Brown agrees to BAA’s expansion plans. He’s also reading out testimony from communities across the world threatened by climate change while Downing Street aides attempt to extract the Labour leader from the green campaigner. Dan is hoping to stay glued to the PM long enough to begin quoting from confidential documents secured through the Freedom of Information Act, which reveal the government’s public consultation on Heathrow expansion was fixed. The papers reveal Ministers have engaged in an extraordinary level of collusion with airport operator, BAA, fiddling pollution figures and developing a joint strategy to beat opposition groups.

The government consultation received 80,000 responses from the public, almost all of which opposed the government’s plans, despite the fact that people were not even asked whether they wanted a third runway and no consideration of the climate impacts appeared in the consultation documents.

Dan took today’s extraordinary step because Brown and his Transport Secretary, Ruth Kelly, have refused to meet residents from Sipson – the west London village, which would be wiped off the map if new Labour gives into BAA’s demands for a third runway. Some of the messages Dan is reading out to the Prime Minister are quotes from newspaper interviews with Sipson residents.

Plane Stupid activist, Graham Thompson who is currently facing prosecution for scaling Parliament in February and branding the Palace of Westminster “BAA HQ,” today said:

"Gordon Brown’s only got two possible legacies, the first Prime Minister to really get climate change or the last one not to. Brown needs to realise we can beat climate change, but not by doubling the size of the world’s biggest international airport. That’s why we took our peaceful campaign from the roof of Parliament to 10 Downing Street. We’re the last generation who can stop climate change, and we’re not going to sit around waiting for politicians to catch up."

When BAA first sought permission to build Terminal 5, the company wrote to nearby residents promising never to seek further Heathrow expansion. Now they have colluded with the government to get a third runway and a sixth terminal by manipulating the consultation process which has been widely condemned as unfair, undemocratic and fundamentally dishonest.

Graham Thompson continued:

"Brown’s consultation was a fix, pure and simple. It was the single most anti-democratic thing this wretched government has done since the Iraq war, and that’s saying something. Dan thought that if super-gluing himself to the Prime Minister was the only way to cut through the power of giant corporations like BAA and ensure he hears what people from West London really think, then so be it."

Dan has informed Downing Street staff that the most effective way of removing a super-glued campaigner from a world leader is the application of soft, soapy warm water. He practised the procedure numerous times to ensure there was no chance of injury to himself, and ensured the glue had no contact with the PM’s skin, in line with Plane Stupid’s absolute and uncompromising commitment to peaceful protest.

Although the decision on Heathrow has been delayed until later this year (so that Ruth Kelly and her lackeys can pretend they're reading our submissions to the consultation) the mobilisation against the runway continues. Next weekend the Camp for Climate Action and local residents groups will meet to discuss where next - i.e. what they're prepared to do if (and when) the decision to expand goes against us.

The conference will build on the solidarity between greens and residents, which culminated in last year's occupation of BAA's car park and a week of action against aviation industry targets. There'll be speakers from a number of anti-expansion groups, and the aim of the day is to face up to the enevitable decision to expand.

So get yourself down to Harlington Baptist Church on Saturday the 26th of July, 12-5. Let's show the Government that whatever the decision, the struggle against airport expansion goes up regardless. For more info see the Camp for Climate Action website - and see you there!

God bless the Sunday Times. After exposing a whole host of nonsense from BAA (including how they tried to influence the Competition Commission's report), they've now discovered that BAA faked one of the central claims of the Government's case for expansion.

BAA were given the now-famous "strict, local environmental limits" by the Government, and told that expansion could not take place if either noise or pollution would breach these limits. When it became obvious that the runway would be way too noisy and polluting, they invented a new type of super-jumbo which was uber-quiet and non-polluting.

The plane was going to be so popular that by 2030 it would account for more flights out of Heathrow than any other 4-engined aircraft (including the Airbus A380 and other jumbos). But neither Airbus nor Boeing have any plans for such a plane; nor do engineers think it's even possible to build one. Even the Government was sceptical, but BAA told them there wasn't time to revise the data... so in it went.