Gordon Brown digs his heels into Heathrow tarmac!

He's a stubborn old mule, that's for sure! On the court decision, Gordon Brown mumbles on about the third runway being "vital not just to our national economy, but enables millions of citizens to keep in touch with their friends and families". So they can't now? What runways can't they fly from currently? The mind boggles at the man's diminishing sense of reasoning.

If anything we have far too much seat capacity on planes. Unless the "millions of citizens" are going to be forced to fly once a week on a trip to somewhere, the third runway vision is only a grandiose scheme to give the construction industry a boost. Surely that industry would be better placed giving us high speed rail, or better roads, or better houses.

The older I get the more I think those in charge have "being a moron" as the top skill on their CVs.

Heathrow third runway opponents win court challenge

Campaigners have won a High Court battle over plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport. Councils, residents and green groups had said the government's approval of the runway was flawed by "conspicuously unfair" public consultations. All this has been couched in terms of the green agenda.

Lord Adonis said, "A new runway at Heathrow will help secure jobs and underpin economic growth as we come out of recession. It is also entirely compatible with our carbon reduction target, as demonstrated in the recent report by the Committee on Climate Change." He always sounds like a pained angel, completely at odds with the argument.

A third runway is neither needed or desired. This is some fictitious fact dreamt up by Gordon Brown as some panacea for our problems. It is also a desire by British Airways to have folk flock down to London in order to use Terminal 5. Anyone living near a regional airport can come and go as they please. Birmingham has flights to all parts of the globe. But many in the West Midlands have been duped into thinking that London is the gateway to Paradise, so they endure the travails of train travel and the sweaty tube.

Madness is all around us. Boris Johnson thinks it a great idea to dump Heathrow and build a brand new airport in the Thames Estuary (or beside it, to be more factual). Such nonsense I thought had passed with the last century.

Birmingham Airport needs £25 million to expand its runway in order to have flights to Los Angeles, Beijing and other far flung parts. It will create jobs for a genuine service. The Heathrow business will be an expensive elephant on the runway. I think anyone north of Watford should give this project a wide berth.

Hoon's Hollow Heathrow Win!

When it comes to giving elocution lessons to weasels, Geoff Hoon is the man. Highly regarded in all ways for his weasel words, he has just managed to get his Heathrow expansion vote through the House of Commons.

Just like he waffled on about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he is waffling on about opposition to a third runway as doing "serious damage" to Britain's economy. He accused the Tories of "political opportunism of the lowest kind". He should know all about that! He weaseled his way through the Iraq enquiries like a snake oil salesman.

The truth is that this third runway is NOT about loss of jobs but more the re-arrangement of jobs. It is about BAA and British Airways enjoying a superior status. It has been suggested that Birmingham's runway extension could be halted if this goes ahead. Why? Because we would all be expected to trundle down to London to fly off from there, paying the likes of BAA for the privilege!

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that Hoon is up to something. What exactly, I'm not sure. None of this makes any sense except that the government is in bed with the Heathrow expansionists. Why on earth would I want to fly from Heathrow to, say, Seattle, when I could with an extended Birmingham runway? Now that's where the jobs nonsense comes in. London airport workers OK, Birmingham airport workers - forget it!

As I've said before, the answers will not be forthcoming to any sane and rational questions put to ministers. Just look at the hapless Brown, who apparently was bringing on the crocodile tears as he pleaded for votes today. He was ridiculous in the Commons at PMQs. He doesn't answer a single question, but just repeats his gormless mantra that the Tories are "the do nothing party".

Well his do something has been disastrous for the country. The man is an utter disgrace. Time is running out and we need change now. Oh, how we need change.

Willie Walsh and his weasel words!

The chief executive of British Airways has kissed the blarney stone and is off at full pelt with supporting the "we must have a third runway" proposals. I saw him on BBC's Question Time from Leeds. He got a free ride, that's for sure. Only David Dimbleby picked up "unnecessary flights" which an audience member had asked about. Dimbleby wryly suggested that these were those on competitors' flights. Audience laughter. Willie goes along with this and smiles.

Now I have no desire to see British Airways do other than prosper. However, it must be as a successful business because it attracts custom not because it out to do down others or create advantages paid for by the taxpayer. In short, these proposals as outlined by Geoff Hoon have nothing to do with jobs or the well-being of our economy. What they are about is securing advantage for British Airways and BAA, the owners of Heathrow at the expense of others.

When Terminal 5 was given the go ahead, this duo said they would not press for a third runway. They've got Terminal 5 and they still want the runway. On the programme, a woman asked why Leeds/Bradford Airport was not being given the extra flights. "We want to expand business here too!" she said. Willie was sympathetic but basically unconcerned.

He now wants all UK flights to go via Heathrow. This is so that BA can get the custom and not Air France or KLM or Lufthansa. He uses the mantra of "lost jobs" but anyone wanting to come to London already can from anywhere in the world. So all this is about forcing people to use Heathrow over Schiphol or CDG.

Willie Walsh also claims Heathrow has 180 destinations and some that the others don't have. Well Manchester has 225 and some destinations that Heathrow doesn't have. He never once mentioned Manchester! I wonder why?

This is not about the economy. It is not about jobs as such. The spin and subterfuge are there to obtain a goal. Perhaps when the enquiries come, we can find out how many planes are flying into Heathrow half full or empty? That's another question that needs answering.

British Airways left the domestic market as far as aircraft were concerned. However, they still sell flights from regional airports through codeshare arrangements as do other airlines. We don't need an expanded Heathrow for this to continue.

The only reason for Heathrow to get a third runway would be if there were no flights going from anywhere else. As this is patently not the case, the proposals for this runway are dead in the water.

Willie and his pals need to answer three questions.

1. Is it impossible now for a person to fly to London in order to visit as a tourist or to do business? YES or NO.
2. How many planes fly half empty or below full capacity into and out of Heathrow currently?
3. Is it impossible for a person to fly from any one of the top 20 regional airports to the USA, Europe, Australasia or anywhere else without flying though Heathrow? YES or NO.

These are the questions that may take some time to get answers to. We need integrity in business, not the handiwork of spinmeisters!

Chambers of Commerce in Heathrow hotair

I've just seen a guy from the North-East Chambers of Commerce talking on BBC News. Ross Somebody. Apparently he thinks this Heathrow expansion is good news. When asked why, he said he hoped some of the new slots at Heathrow would be given over to flights to Newcastle. This much alarmed the interviewer, as his blatant reasoning was nothing much to do with anything other than a quick fix for transport via "a UK hub".

The Chambers of Commerce are fast becoming the trojan horse in all this. I am not against reasoned airport expansion, but not on the airy fairy lines most of these guys in the airport business go along. They have the mantra about "creating jobs" and that "our prosperity is at risk". The same parrots that suddenly stopped sqwarking at the time of the sub-prime fiasco and all the dodgy dealings of last year.

Newcastle Airport is not cut off from the rest of the world. There are flights to Dubai with Emirates with onward connections. And they have access to a hub in Amsterdam with KLM and CDG in Paris. Of course, this Ross guy knows that, but he doesn't want the present flights out of Newcastle publicised. He wants to dig up more land in Middlesex so he can have more flights from Heathrow. It's moronic and it's shameful.

If a businessperson wanted to fly to Newcastle from anywhere they can do it via Amsterdam or Paris. Why on earth would they be more impressed by going through Heathrow. For starters the shopping is better in Amsterdam. All British airports need to get a grip of what's on offer in the retail side of their businesses before they start dreaming of third runways.

However, listening to Ross one could be forgiven for thinking that the North-East was stranded and suffering business-wise. He conveniently did not mention that British Airways currently flies from Heathrow to Newcastle,so why would he want want to keep quiet on that one.

In all this waffle, we must be on the lookout for the disingenous and the downright deceitful. Oh, and isn't it funny that these Chamber types are so pro-European when it suits them but anti-European when they think it fits their agenda.

Is BAA flying on hot air?

According to The Independent, "there is not much doubt what the Government's decision about a third runway for Heathrow will be. This week, Geoff Hoon, the Transport Secretary, with the support of the Prime Minister, is likely to give the go-ahead to the expansion. Equally, however, there can be little doubt that the third runway will never be built".

That is much of the trouble with the governance in Britain. It's looking two ways at once in the vain hope of pleasing as many people as possible. With so many years of this nonsense, we have become a country very much ill at ease with itself. The recession is bound to cause more of the same. In a nutshell it is called "Short Termism". Quick fixes just to gain instant popularity. So long as something is happening, we are given to believe all is OK.

So the "slippery" BAA carries on. Sir John Egan, its former boss, said that Terminal Five would not add to pressure for a third runway. Last week, BAA admitted, "That's what he had to say to get permission for Terminal Five." There's a TV commercial running at the moment about "who do you trust?" and given the antics of the corporate world, most people don't trust business-speak anymore.

The Third Runway debate with be just like the Euro debate. Stick up the Five Tests, which in this case are all anti-pollution ones, and say that when they are met you can have it. So the runway will never be as the tests will never be met.

If only these nutcases could sit down in a room and actually think out a proper transport strategy for the whole country. But being what they are that is probably impossible. A whole new set of people, with clean sheets, are required. For unless we get an integrated transport policy, we will continue to have airports each doing their own thing, trains running around full and empty, cars clogging up some roads whilst others are almost vehicular free.

It's either a frustrated travelling public or a happy one.