From the time the Government published it aviation white paper three years ago Minister after Minister has stood up in the House of Commons to state categorically that the expansion of
Heathrow could only go ahead if strict European limits on air pollution were met. This must have been said at least 20 times by Government ministers in response to questions by local
MPs and environmentalists.
In order to get round the European limits the Government first tried to fix the assessment of the projected levels of emissions and air pollution estimated from a new runway and 6
th terminal. They did this by setting up a modelling process which they claim was fully tested by a peer review process. Unfortunately this has been discredited by the revelation by air quality experts that the modelling process may have been peer reviewed but the information fed into this process was not independently peer reviewed. In fact we now know that the information fed into the process came from BAA, the owners of
Heathrow airport. It is a classic case of rubbish in rubbish out.
Having failed to convincingly doctor the assessment process the Government and BAA alliance has now become desperate. So Minsters have now instructed
DEFRA to apply to the European Commission for "derogation" from the EU air pollution limits. This means the Government is admitting
Heathrow expansion will result in poisoning the air of large numbers of people in London and therefore it can't meet the EU air pollution safety standards.
Asking for derogation means asking the EU to exempt the Government from the EU pollution standards to allow
Heathrow expansion to go ahead. Their argument is that an exemption will give the aviation industry time to come up with some miraculous cure for the air pollution it creates.
This will be seen by many as the most cynical act of bad faith by the Government.
5 Comments:
We all know by now that the Government will bend over backwards for its friends in BAA and the airlines and are prepared to ride roughshod over the objections of residents.The question is how do we stop them?There must be scope for legal action to stop this latest dodge.
Then we must reciprocate and go to the EU under the human rights act - why should heathrow residents suffer a lower quality of air than the rest of the union?
As with the 10p tax debacle, this action indicates that the leadership of the Labour Party are woefully out of touch with the electorate, and more worryingly their traditional supporters. It's a case of putting the needs of big business before that of communities - even if we're all going to choke on the fumes as a consequence. I've voted Labour for 20 years but they've really lost touch, in spite of all the protestations that they're listening to voters. Perhaps they can't actually hear us above the noise of the planes?!
new labour is imploding .after dreadful council elections -where labour lost control of their own "strongholds" to the tories- and the fact labour lost the crew by-election yesterday with a 17.6% swing ,it looks like the Tories are set to win .they will keep the momentum going when boris steps down as MP of his constituency, cos the tories will win by an even bigger majoiry considering its a tory seat anyway .Boris plans to do this in the next 6 weeks ,on purpose ofcourse .he is cleverer than ppl think .
gordon brown has tried a relaunch after relaunch but he is constantly getting more unpopular and he is dragging the rest of the labour party down with him.he is the reason even old labour Ken Livingston lost to boris .(well that and the biased media and the fact that the congestion tax was an awful policy). the point i am making is ,labour will lose the next general election if gordon brown is leader .and it wil be a massive loss .if the general election was tomorrow ,i doubt labour would be able to win 150 seats.
now ,i dont know macdonell well .all i know is that he is part of the hard left socialist campaign group and just missed the number of MPs needed to challenge the leadership .But now, he has a FAR better chance of getting the backing needed .so why not give it a go ,jon ?
by the way - i plan to be an MP .my aim would be to increase the happiness of working class and middle Britain (especially the working class).What i want is what the people wants .(my only policy which people would not like is the fact that i am incredibly pro-life cos i am a very moral person - a devout Catholic).i am very inspired by the likes of tony benn and barack obama.
anyways i am rambling and it is far off .i am only 16 and i dont plan to go into politics straight away.all i am saying is ,when i do, i will be on your side .
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