So is it victory? Sensational weekend reports that the British Airports Authority has abandoned its bid for a third runway at Heathrow remain unconfirmed, and indeed denied by the company. But the indications are clear, as is the Tory promise to rescind the bid. The time-honoured pledge that Heathrow would not grow was reneged on by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Now it might be reasserted, and the threat of jet-scream lifted from hundreds of thousands of London residents.

Recession, which means poverty, is yielding ever more green linings. Kent's new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth has been halted. Iconic skyscrapers are withering on the drawing board. The extravagant Crossrail project is again in doubt. But nothing is greener than opposition to millions of tons of concrete being poured over Harmondsworth meadows so that more jumbo jets can roar over anywhere in London with a W in its postcode.

Heathrow has been a textbook case of rotten government ever since it became the main London airport in succession to Croydon after the war.

Read the full article in The Evening Standard.


The article continues: "Londoners should never believe a word from an air industry executive or a minister for planning. They lie."

Unfortunately we know that all too well. It's the story of Heathrow. Regardless of BAA's pronouncements this campaign must not stop until all politlcal parties are forced by public opinion into calling a halt to Heathrow expansion. Permanently.