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Heathrow 3rd runway
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John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme ministers had looked at "all the dimensions" of the project.
He said: "It is right that the government has looked at all the concerns around the environmental effect, but from the perspective of UK PLC we need to expand our capacity and this is the right thing to do."
Fairly selective about when they have to bear the best interests of 'UK PLC' in mind, aren't they?
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What was astonishing when this was reported on BBC Radio 4 this morning the main emphasis seemed to be a jokey conversation between John Humphrys and Lauraa Kuennsberg as to how Boris Johnson would aavoid the promise he had made to "lie down in front of the bulldozers"
The debate was entirely between Heathrow and Gatwick- the environmental argument wasn't put at all. And Johnson's lies and deviousness were seen as simply amusing.
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So after 10 years, the government's position is that Gordon Brown and Ken Livingstone were right all along?
I know that's not the main issue, but this sort of stuff is becoming a bit of a pattern. All that fuss in 2010 about Sheffield Forgemasters. And locally to me, they cancelled the A465 upgrade and are doing it now. I'm sure there's something similar near most of you.
In purely economic terms, how much growth was pissed away?
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I remember at the 2015 General Election night Boris Johnson giving it the full "I'd lie down alongside John McDonnell to stop this" treatment.
McDonnell's still implacably opposed, so this is going to be an interesting vote. But echoing Nef, yeah it's utterly depressing to see the environmental angle - which is, like, the most important fucking thing of all – being largely ignored.
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Actually McDonnell's been a bit cheeky. The tests were, it seemed, open at the general election. But in March this year he all but said the tests can't be made. Hence the whipping now.
Again, it's not exactly policy made by members, is it? On a huge issue too. Maybe members would support him, of course.
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Yeah, they probably would.
I think it could work. The economic benefits seem clear, and you could mitigate the overall climate impact from those. It's more convenient for most people than Gatwick, and dovetails with stuff already happening with HS2 and Crossrail, and you could add some other fairly cheap stuff to improve rail access.
But the local air quality could be the big stumbling block. I'd like a genuine test on this.
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