Gordon Brown has got some splainin' to do. He can send out comedy punching bag Geoff Hoon (the buffoon, so easy to lampoon) to face the slings and arrows over the third runway at Heathrow, but the buck stops with Brown, who can never again speak with any credibility about green issues. "Expanding Heathrow... will shatter Gordon Brown's international reputation on the
environment," says Andy Atkins, Executive Director of Friends of the Earth. And Greenpeace Executive director John Sauven says the decision "will shred the last vestiges of Brown's environmental credibility".
Brown didn't pay the least bit of attention to any 'No Third Runway' protests. He took no notice of the ladies from Climate Rush (left), who held their Suffragette-style peaceful picnic protest 'Dinner at Domestic Departures' last week. He didn't clock the colourful paper aeroplanes from Do The Green Thing's Stay Grounded campaign (below). He didn't bow to pressure from protests by Plane Stupid or Campaign Against Climate Change. He didn't listen to the Conservatives or the Lib Dems or even take the advice of his own cabinet: Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, International Development
Secretary Douglas Alexander, Climate Change
Secretary Ed Miliband or Foreign Secretary David Miliband (watch this space when the dust clears after the next election).
So will Brown sit up and take notice now that Greenpeace is involved? Instead of another protest, its Airplot initiative is taking a different tack, hoping to block the planning permission process, partly by causing so much legal paperwork, hassle and headache that the government will pack up its bulldozers and go (death by a thousand paper cuts).
Greenpeace UK has bought a plot of land right in the
middle of the new runway (or the village of Sipson, as it's currently known, which all villagers will be forced to
abandon). Greenpeace plans to resist all attempts of a compulsory purchase of the land, with help from Emma Thompson,
Alistair McGowan and Zac Goldsmith.
They've divided the plot into smaller plots and are now adding 'beneficial owners'' to complicate the planning process even more. Sign up and join people who care such as MPs, George
Monbiot and climate scientist Dr Simon Lewis (as well as my husband and me).
The Hoon-bashing continues: Geoff has even been banned from his favourite festival, the very
green Latitude. Fair enough, but remember Hoon is just
the messenger. We all know who really made this decision, and you can let the PM hear your opinions loud and clear on
Thursday 19th February (5.30-7pm) when the Campaign Against Climate Change brings the anti-runway message straight to Gordon's doorstep in Downing Street.