Bias Ms Greening? Surely not

It hasn't taken long for the press have turned on the new transport secretary Justine Greening whose Putney constituency borders that of Heathrow and is on the flightpath.

Bias cries the media.Surely Ms Greening,who has previously campaigned against a third runway will hardly be able to maintain the centre ground.

British Airways boss Willie Walsh was quoted in the Telegraph saying she was “compromised” over Heathrow expansion.

The government,unsurprisingly has refuted the claims.

"There are transport considerations in every constituency but these do not prevent ministers from carrying out their duties fairly and responsibly.says a transport department spokesman

Green v growth

Just some of the comment from this morning's newspapers following yesterday's confirmation of the new Heathrow runway

in the end, Britain's courageous, world-leading and scientifically rational response to climate change lived and died within the space of a few weeks. Born, with great hopes, in late 2008, when a new department was created and the Climate Change Act was passed, forcing aviation emissions to fall along with everything else, it was killed off yesterday when the transport secretary handed the aviation lobby what it wanted, a third runway at Heathrow

says the Guardian

In the same paper Martin Kettle writes that it will be a shrine to Labour's congenital frailty

No government in its right mind is ever going to stop people from flying. But the Heathrow decision was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to say something very big, very brave and very difficult about the fact that the permissive proliferation of aviation is not merely a symptom of what Desmond Morris has called the human infestation of the planet but also, at least as seriously, about the damage our lifestyles and consumption are doing both to ourselves as individuals and to the biosphere.

The Times thinks the decision a good one

The Government's proposal to build a third runway at Heathrow remains the most viable option for easing Britain's airport congestion

it says adding that

If building a high-speed rail link, as the Conservatives propose, would solve the problem, then we would champion it. But it is hard to see how better rail links alone would suffice.

In the Independent Steve Richards argues that

Better trains should be the overwhelming priority in a country with an unreliable railway system and adds that

The politics of the decision are toxic. The Government is placed on the wrong side of the important and fashionable environmental debate, allowing the Conservatives to look more forward looking as the next election moves into view. The environmentalists rage and are joined by a growing number of supposedly Labour-supporting celebrities. Business leaders are not universal in their support.

The paper's leading article agrees

the argument that the British economy will benefit from a third runway for Heathrow has always been – and remains – unconvincing. Bolstering the airport's status as a plane-changing "hub" would certainlybenefit Heathrow's owners, but it is hard to see how it would provide a significant boost to the national economy.

Heathrow decision-will it be Brown's Iraq moment?

Couldn't help but spot this at Labourhome.

Will it come true?

He's turned his back on his members, on his voters, on his PLP and finally on his cabinet. Sound familiar?
When normally loyal members of the cabinet say "Don't do it" you should listen to them, Gordon. You are handing over seats to the Tory party and we'll never forgive you for that.

Could Benn be on the way out

Three Line Whip believes that Hillary Benn may be on the way out.

His opposition to the planned third runway at Heathrow is the problem.

Andrew Porter says there is

"irritation" inside Number 10 at Benn's refusal, in a 45 minute interview with the Sunday Times, to even support in principle the Government policy on the third runway - regardless of his doubts about meeting climate change commitments

.

You are too late Boris

Meanwhile further to yesterday's posting about Boris's remarks about a New London airport,this morning's Times is reporting that a third runway at Heathrow is a done deal

The paper says that it has learnt

Ministers are pressing ahead with plans for a highly controversial third runway at Heathrow and intend to approve the expansion before Christmas. Although the Government is still sifting through tens of thousands of public submissions on the airport’s proposed expansion, it is understood that senior figures have already decided to sanction it

The report goes onto say that

The Department of Transport is still sifting through 70,000 responses from individuals, pressure groups and other interested parties in response to its consultation on the project, which was released last year

but it understands that the transport secretary Ruth Kelly

strongly supports the proposal and is likely to make the announcement in its favour as early as November.

Airport madness or a tactical ploy?

It seemed rather a strange intervention for Boris Johnson to make suggesting that a new airport may be required at the Thames Estuary.However there may have been a method in the madness.

Boris may have been instructed to divert atention away form the Tory party's squabbles over the plans for Heathrow.

It is the battle between the green diversions of David Cameron who would rather have a slimmed down version of the airport and the business lobby who are crying out for a new runway and want to turn Heathrow into the spendid gateway into Britain.

As Jim Pickard at the FT reports

The government has already considered the proposal for an airport off the Isle of Sheppey, but concluded that such a project would be hugely costly and problematic. Some estimates have put the cost as high as £40bn ($73bn), including associated transport links and facilities

Business' critical of Tory infrastructure policy

An interesting story in this morning's FT which reports that

Projects worth billions of pounds face revision or cancellation if the Conservatives win the next election, analysis by the FT suggests.
Business leaders have called on David Cameron to fill the “huge void” in some policy areas to mitigate the political uncertainty affecting companies in the run-up to the general election.

The projects that could be effected are for example the expansion of Heathrow and the fst tracking of nuclear power stations build as well as the obvious projects such as ID cards.

business warned that Mr Cameron’s recent rhetoric had created damaging uncertainty over the underlying principles a Conservative government would apply. The Tory leader’s decision to cast doubt on whether the proposed third runway at Heathrow could be economically justified is cited as a case in point.