heathrow

i have to say i have not really being paying that much attention to the heathrow story, partly because it was inevitable that the third runway was sanctioned.
the debate is couched in terms of economy versus environment. on this i have some sympathy with george w. bush, in that it should be possible to have both a growing economy that does so within sensible environmentally friendly measures. bush was going to leave it to the free market to do it, when really it needs the intervention of the state to ensure that companies do the relevant research into reusable and clean energy.
in reality that means that the state has to fund the research while the private companies walk away with the profits. what gordon brown and labour should do is sink a load of money into research and development into new sources of energy, but keep the results and patents to themselves and use them for the benefit of the world. the finance for it could easily be found, dump id cards and trident and already you have several billions to play with.
but it won't happen so why even think it.

what has really gotten on my tits over the whole heathrow situation are the number of celebrities who have taken to the cause. oh no more flights, no more flights they cry. growth of flights cannot continue, they must be cut back is part of their mantra. i suppose for people like emma thompson and alistair mcgowan it won't be a problem for them to pay for the fewer, and more expensive flights when they want to travel abroad or they can use that old stand by: "i have to go because of work darling".
meanwhile boris, who flew to beijing, has gone on about how he will fight "this devastating plan", yet only recently he was talking about building a new airport in the thames, so quite how a new airport in the thames leads to less pollution i am at a loss to know.

it really hurts me that i am seem to be on the same side as confeferation of british industries and the british chamber of commerce. but i get in such a fume when i hear people who have enjoyed trips abroad saying that other people should not fly, or the wealthy implying that flying should be made more expensive so it once again becomes the exclusive province of the rich rather than the slightly chaotic democratic process that it is now. you would have thought that the steam coming off of their hypocrisy would be equal to all the carbon emissions coming from a country like kenya.