The facts
Chancellor John Healey told reporters at the International Monetary Fund meeting in Bangkok that building a third runway at Heathrow Airport has “always been a case for growth.” He said airport expansion has been “a big part of jobs and growth” in recent decades. His comments followed Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s refusal to say whether he backs the expansion, describing it as “a matter for London and Londoners.” Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye warned that not building the runway would be a “huge missed opportunity.” The project, estimated at £33 billion, could raise annual flights from 480,000 to 720,000 and would involve demolishing homes, diverting rivers and tunnelling a section of the M25. The Transport Department is reviewing consultation responses before any further decisions.
Our take
For decades the political class has been gently stroking Heathrow’s third runway like a pervert with a fetish for concrete and delay. Now Chancellor John Healey has flown all the way to fucking Bangkok to tell the IMF what a brilliant idea it is, because apparently the only place you can find the courage to back a massively unpopular project is several thousand miles from the people whose houses you plan to bulldoze. What a brave little soldier. This is the same project that’s been kicking around since the fucking dinosaurs, a £33 billion monument to bureaucratic indecision and corporate hand‑wanking. Its original opening date of 2035 has now been pushed to 2039, by which time we’ll all be underwater or on fire anyway. Yet Healey reckons it’s “always been a case for growth.” No shit, Sherlock. So is cancer, you prick. Meanwhile Prime Minister Andy Burnham is over here doing his best impression of a soggy biscuit, refusing to say whether he supports it and calling it “a matter for London and Londoners.” What a spectacularly gutless cop‑out. The CEO of Heathrow is begging for a “yes” by the end of the year, and the Transport Department is reviewing consultation responses – political code for we’re waiting to see which way the wind blows before we piss off the fewest voters. This project would involve ripping up the M25 and flattening homes to maybe, possibly, one day allow a few more overpriced flights to take off. The only growth it guarantees is in the bank accounts of consultants and the waistlines of politicians who’ve feasted on this bullshit for a generation. They’re all arguing over who gets to hold the shovel for a hole we’ve been staring into for twenty years. It’s a circus of cowards, grifters, and dickheads, all pretending this is about the national interest instead of their own pathetic legacies and the desperate need to look like they’re doing something – anything – other than their actual jobs. Healey’s predecessor called it “badly needed.” The airport’s CEO calls its rejection a “huge missed opportunity.” They’re all full of shit. The only thing that’s badly needed is a government with the balls to either build the fucking thing or kill it for good, instead of this endless, expensive, planet‑frying foreplay. But that would require leadership, not the careerist cowardice currently on display. So grab your popcorn and watch these clowns debate growth while the world burns. Cunts.
