
Down here in the Garden of England, to paraphrase Peter Finch in one of the all time movie greats, “Network”, we are as mad as hell and we are not going to take it anymore.
What is inducing such rage against the system? Gatwick, that’s what. This has it all. Big business, owned by faceless foreigners, makes bid to persuade the Establishment that they have found the line of least resistance in achieving the massive increase in airplane movements that the current political mindset demands. Step 1 issue, sotto voce, an incomprehensible Ipsos Mori Consultation (London Airspace Change. Local Area Consultation). Step 2, experiment by sending aircraft down one superhighway corridor over the heads of country bumpkins who haven’t the resources to fight back. Step 3….ah yes well they hadn’t counted on the likes of Steve Haysom and thousands of other individuals and local businesses upsetting the Gatwick applecart. Here are the highlights from his broadside to second Gatwick runway junkie, Paul Carter leader of Kent County Council. After years of platitudes, across the spectrum, from our dissembling Masters Haysom is as mad as hell and can you blame him? If you’d like to join him at a national level, then Howard Davies at airports.delivery@airports.gsi.gov.uk is waiting to hear from you, but no later than this Friday! The creation of the proposed airborne ‘Superhighway’ will cause massive harm to great swathes of the county and the creation of a second runway will blight one of the most beautiful parts of the country in an act of wanton vandalism. “That’s the price of progress” cry supporters of the scheme and the alleged £50 billion benefit to the economy would come in handy if you believe for a single second that such a benefit would accrue or that any of those currently engaged in the “my scheme’s bigger than your scheme” willy waving have the slightest idea what the upside might be. It does not take a lot of effort to identify examples of where the Great British Public have been contemptuously fobbed off with a heady mixture of propaganda, crass incompetence and often downright lies – weapons of mass destruction? er, no; tiny trickle of Eastern Europeans, no. It can only be hoped that the recent rise of UKIP causes both the political elite as well as hordes of bureaucrats to remember for whom they exist to serve and start to treat their employers with a little more respect – “fancy a referendum on PR?” No, not really bothered, wouldn’t mind one one Europe though, ‘come on, you only had one on the Common Market in 1975’.These plans are not designed to fuel the UK as an economic powerhouse, the terminal buildings at Gatwick are not thronging with be-suited City gents, they are rammed with corpulent, tattooed Sharons and Darrens on their way to Shagaluf.
If you need further proof that money is the motivation behind Gatwick’s quest for a second runway, the fact that it ran a whole series of advertisements in the national press this week making its case should remove any lingering doubt. “We believe so passionately that Gatwick offers the best solution to the UK economy that we are spending a fortune advertising the fact” or “Choose us and we can ship thousands of extra stag parties to Prague and make an absolute mint” – you decide. Global Infrastructure Fund – the very-much-for-profit vehicle that owns Gatwick is domiciled in New York so there won’t be many tears shed over the destruction of Hever Castle as long as the fund hits its target of 15-20% gross returns. Key early investors were Credit Suisse, which heavily promotes the fund and General Electric. The fund purchased Gatwick in 2009 and is clearly looking to maximise its investment – these funds are notoriously difficult to unpick but rest assured that English Heritage and the CPRE are not invested. Oregon Investment Council however is and so are a number of sovereign wealth funds, endowment and corporate and public pensions funds from Maine, Oregon and Washington.
1 Retracting Kent County Council support for Gatwick expansion
2 Rejecting the plans for the ‘Superhighway’
3 Actively opposing Gatwick expansion and
4 Clarifying this position with the Airports Commission as a matter of urgency
The only thing that appears to have come in lower than the planes is the laughably entitled ‘consultation process’ that was sneaked in under the radar in January and I urge you to reject its conclusions as I believe that it was fraudulently conducted. Much is made of the environmental impact of Boris Island, and I am all for preserving whatever we can, but inconveniencing a few ducks seems a small price to pay when compared to the destruction you support of the county you are elected to safeguard. Image source
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