Mary Reid

Reactions to the Heathrow decision

By | Tue 25th October 2016 - 3:00 pm

 

London Liberal Democrats organised a protest outside Downing Street today objecting to the expansion of Heathrow.

Tim Farron says the decision is a betrayal of the communities in West London:

The ‘No Ifs, No Buts’ pledge from the Conservatives has been thrown by the wayside in the rush to bulldoze homes and build a new runway.

Zac Goldsmith has failed Richmond Park on Heathrow and betrayed them on Brexit.

The turbulence in the Conservative Party is nothing compared to the anger felt by those they have betrayed by giving up their commitment to the environment and communities in West London.

Theresa May used to make this case, now she has ripped those words down from her website and scrubbed them from history.

Boris once said he would lay down in front of the bulldozer. Now he will find himself on the slow boat to China – anywhere to avoid having to stand up for his principles – or stand down from his seat at the cabinet table.

And the Scottish Liberal Democrats are very unhappy with it. Mike Rumbles MSP, the Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson said:

Liberal Democrats do not agree with this decision. We are not in favour of the unlimited expansion of aviation.

Any growth in capacity should be spread across the UK and not just focused in London.

The SNP have utterly failed to square their backing for Heathrow with their climate change commitments and ambition to reduce environmentally damaging short-haul flights.

* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.

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One Comment

  • David Raw 25th Oct '16 - 10:41pm

    So the cost of Heathrow’s third-runway proposal will be at least £18.6bn to the public purse. Reminds me of the Farage quote in April 2015 about “shed loads of money going across Hadrian’s Wall”………except this time………. it’s going south………..

    ………as is the near £ 50 billion for the High Speed Train train which if I live long enough will stop 204 miles south of Gretna.

    Funny how the economic liberal ‘market’ seems to go into hiding when a big job comes up.

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