The transcript from the Cranford edition of Any Questions is available for those who didn't hear it or have avoided any of the replay options. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/anyquestions_transcripts_20080208.shtml The lively section on Heathrow expansion is below: [The panel was intorduced as Anyway, on our panel: the schools minister Jim Knight; the Shadow Secretary for Innovation, Universities and Skills David Willetts; Susan Kramer who speaks for the Liberal Democrats on families and who's just got her in the nick of time from a traffic jam; Inayat Bunglawala, the assistant secretary general - assistant secretary general at the Muslim Council of Britain. ] DIMBLEBY Thank you. We'll go to our next question. SHELDON Richard Sheldon. A flight path in front of your house and now one behind, what would panel members do in this situation? DIMBLEBY [CLAPPING] You haven't even heard what the panellists would do. I presume that is your situation - Richard Sheldon? SHELDON It does apply to me, yes. DIMBLEBY I will come back to you when you've heard the panel speak. Inayat Bunglawala what would you do? BUNGLAWALA Well I mean we were being told that there's going to be a doubling of the global aircraft we're all using by the year 2026, so there is a capacity issue there. I mean how to address that. And our ministers here are telling us that if we don't build this extra runway then all that'll happen is those extra planes will go elsewhere, those jobs will go elsewhere and....[CHEERING]. So it's really a matter for us, I mean are we willing to take that loss or not? I mean there are other issues, I mean we're told that newer aircraft will use lower amounts of fuel and so - I mean I don't know, all sorts of excuses are given to us. In the end it's up to us, if we didn't fly more, which we are, all of us are flying more, the capacity's needed, we can't blame anyone except ourselves for what is happening. DIMBLEBY So what - what incidentally - here you are, you find yourself in this predicament, what would you do - move I suppose? BUNGLAWALA Yes, I have moved out of London but I've moved to Luton, where there is another airport. No I honestly think that it's a problem of our making, all of us around the globe are flying more, there's more capacity needed somewhere - you've got to make those compromises. Unfortunately it's those people around the airports who are being asked to make them and I feel sorry for them. DIMBLEBY Susan Kramer. KRAMER Oh march, protest, resist this to the last, I think we can win it. [CLAPPING] And I can see sitting here in the hall the MP for Hays and Harlington John McDonald, someone else, leading this campaign. But the economic argument is absolutely trash and nonsense, nobody is saying that you shouldn't have an airport in London but the additional expansion has nothing significant to offer London's economy - we have sufficient flights, so we could be transferring to high speed rail. And at a time when climate change [CLAPPING] climate change is so high on the agenda to think that one of the first moves by a Labour government talking constantly about Kyoto is to go and try and attempt to expand Heathrow and double the number of flights to me is just unconscionable. And the noise that people live with, the intrusion on people's daily lives. And when we had the end of the Cranford agreement, which people here will know, they enter runway alternation, which means flights all day, the impact on people's lives is just an insult to the quality of life in London. And in fact that's the bigger economic risk to London Inayat it's that people will leave this city because it becomes just simply unbearable. DIMBLEBY We are going to hear [CLAPPING] we are apparently going to hear very soon the outcome of what the government has called its consultation, do you accept that the government has indeed however consulted and listened? KRAMER The consultation is just the most extraordinary thing. I took it to the - we took it to the plain English campaign who reported back on it and called it - I can't remember the exact language - but in effect an insult to the human rights of people living in the communities here because the - most of the questions were a sort of catch 22, you can't actually answer them to say you don't want the thing. And many of them absolutely incomprehensible unless you have an advanced degree in physics. It is an appalling consultation and indeed I suspect many people in this area haven't actually received anything. And the worst part no minister, no senior member of the Department of Transport, will come to a single public meeting even though people are going to lose their homes and other people are going to live with this misery of constant noise. DIMBLEBY Minister. KNIGHT Well I'm absolutely delighted to be the first minister to come and address a public meeting on this issue in Hounslow. But I mean I think - you know the consultation does close at the end of this month and we'll see what the Department of Transport and what the government that I'm a part of has to say about it at that point. I think it is important to understand that 1 in 10 of the population, I'm advised, who live in the Borough of Hounslow work at Heathrow, that it's got a very important role economically. The other nine are important but the biggest single employer in the country. [AUDIENCE NOISE] Well I'll come on to the specifics of the question. I live in - I live in - I live in Dorset where I don't have runways either back or front of my house and I love it down there when you get the occasional helicopter flying over as part of the sea - air sea rescue service. And of course if I lived round here and I was facing this I would be very concerned about it, naturally I would ... DIMBLEBY What do you think ... KNIGHT ... but I think the economic argument has to be made and it has to be made around - sorry Jonathan - around the role of Heathrow. Do we want it to be another London airport on a part with Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, or do we want it to have a particular place as a European hub? The number of destinations in Heathrow has declined, it's declined from 217 in 1990 down to about 180 ... KRAMER But London's economy hasn't shrunk it's grown. KNIGHT It's been out competed by many other airports in Europe for the business market and it really just depends on whether or not we want a hub airport in this country or not. DIMBLEBY You can hear - you can hear the strong feelings in this audience, from a government which has claimed that it wants to be a listening government, an open government, a transparent government, how do you think the people of this area have been treated by a minister of transport or ministers from that department who haven't for one reason or another found the time to come here during that consultation? KNIGHT [CLAPPING] Well I haven't spoken to any of the transport ministers past or present... KRAMER Neither have the people here... KNIGHT .. about this issue, so I don't know whether they have ... DIMBLEBY Had you been - had you been - had you been transport minister, let us say, I mean you've come here this evening as schools minister, had you been transport minister would you have sought to come out here and have the discussion? KNIGHT I think when we're making difficult decisions, and undoubtedly this is a very difficult decision, it is important to make sure that you're hearing the voice of the people locally who are most affected by it. DIMBLEBY For one reason or another - for one reason or another the Secretary of State and minister, who - we are extremely pleased that you're here I hasten to add - were unable to come to this particular programme but I think Susan Kramer touched on it, the member of parliament for this area - John McDonald - asked one of the many - I mean we had a pile of questions as high as this room practically, will our government even put the future of our planet and our communities before the profits of the aviation companies - that's what John McDonald is asking you as a Labour MP. [CLAPPING] KNIGHT Well in respect of sustainable development, sustainable development needs to balance the three pillars of the environment, the economy and social matters. Too often the environment has been the loser in those three pillars of sustainable development. But that doesn't mean that the environment always has the veto, I think it's more important to listen local people in this context because we have an environment that is dominated by the airport here, we need to listen to what they've got to say about it, I think there are very strong economic reasons why you might want to expand Heathrow, if you do you need to mitigate the local environment as best you can for that. But we'll see what the outcome is at the end of the consultation. DIMBLEBY David Willetts, there's been - just to know where your party stands - there's been some ambiguity about the attitude towards the third runway at Heathrow, what is the party's position? WILLETTS There are a series of environmental issues that need to be addressed and I can sense the strong feeling here today and it's strong feeling across all of West London and it's worries about things like how - what the transport implications are, what the CO2 emissions are and whether we can't do more through our proposal, for example, for a flight tax to try to reduce the number of flights. But I'm afraid there is an economic need for more airport capacity somewhere - somewhere in the South East and no responsible party can simply say that we can put up the shutters and there's not going to be anymore runways anywhere in the South East if we want London to remain a serious global city with all the success that it brings us. And so although ... DIMBLEBY Does that mean Heathrow - does that mean Heathrow? WILLETTS ... although I recognise this will not be welcome by this audience we have to accept that for - there are large numbers of communities around this country who accept a road expansion that they don't want or a motorway that they don't want, things sometimes have to happen that people don't wish. And I recognise how unfortunate it is if there's anything we can do as we look at the environment impact that shows that this is or is not necessary so be it but we cannot allow, sadly, one community - however badly affected - to stop if there is a strong economic argument. DIMBLEBY I'm going to go to our questioner. They haven't - I mean they've said what they have to say very clearly some of them, all of them perhaps, what would you do, what are you going to do, you heard Susan Kramer's response, is there anything that you can do apart from get out in the end? SHELDON Well very few of us can move, very few, only one member of the panel has actually said that they would move or have moved and very few of us can actually move under these circumstances. [CLAPPING] DIMBLEBY Just very briefly on that David, you very clearly said what your view about it was, would you under the circumstances that Richard Sheldon has described, would you actually yourself get out if you possibly could? WILLETTS Well I realise all the pressures that everyone is under and look we ... DIMBLEBY I'm asking about what you would do. Imagine - it's not difficult to imagine yourself in that situation is it, what would you do as an individual with a family, you're living in the flight path, planes are going as described - one in front, one behind - would you get out? WILLETTS Jonathan, I divide my time between a house in Havant and a house in West London which would be affected by this proposal. I'm very conscious - we get the leaflets through the street of our place in London and people saying the planes are going to come over you, so I'm absolutely aware of all these pressures. There is indeed a personal angle to them. But I'm trying also to - and I recognise the environmental issues and I recognise the concerns about emissions and I recognise the concerns about transport but I am saying however - however uncomfortable - however uncomfortable we have to accept that there are economic arguments here for airports in the South East and no government - and I don't think it would be responsible for an opposition either - simply to say you can always go with the protest, you can't always go with the protest and it's part of what I'm afraid responsible government is about. DIMBLEBY There are strong views in this hall, there are also, I guess, strong views one way or another for those listening, if you would like to address them 08700 100 444 is Any Answers, e-mail address any.answers@bbc.co.uk after the Saturday broadcast. We'll go to our next please.

Entire Thread

Topic	Date Posted	Posted By
March, protest, resist this to the last !	13/02/08 21:19:00	Tim Henderson
Re:March, protest, resist this to the last !	13/02/08 21:51:00	Barbara Robinson
Re:Re:March, protest, resist this to the last !	13/02/08 23:06:00	Neil Anderson
Re:Re:Re:March, protest, resist this to the last !	14/02/08 09:49:00	Jonathan Bingham
Re:Re:Re:Re:March, protest, resist this to the last !	14/02/08 11:16:00	Richard Jennings
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:March, protest, resist this to the last !	14/02/08 13:13:00	Tom Pike
Re:Re:Re:Re:March, protest, resist this to the last !	14/02/08 14:41:00	Neil Anderson
Re:March, protest, resist this to the last !	13/02/08 22:01:00	Colin Murphy
Now here's a conundrum:	14/02/08 14:03:00	Colin Murphy
Re:Now here's a conundrum:	14/02/08 15:00:00	Jo Meaneaux
And another thing...	14/02/08 15:00:00	Account suspended
Re:And another thing...	14/02/08 15:41:00	Tom Pike

Forum Home