Heathrow and The Parliamentary Mace. School Footpaths & Affordable Housing.

16/01/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Another Runway
“We have to have another runway at Heathrow,” We are told, over and over again, by those who support the expansion (including the Government and a whole lot of people on all sides of the political spectrum). They then go on to forebode in doom-filled phrases the ’serious economic consequences’ of ‘not providing a hub that meets business demand’. I’ve got a couple of things to say about that. First, we do not have to have another runway. We have to have air to breathe. We have to have food to survive. But outside of the bare essentials of life required by biological organisms like us, we do not have to do anything else. So let’s give the ‘have’ a rest for a while. We may want to. We do not have to.

Now I’ve got that out of the way let’s look at this a bit more clearly. This is a divisive issue. People on both sides of the argument have got fair points and the consequences of doing the wrong thing at this point could be very serious. Some people want a new or expanded airport in the North to encourage prosperity somewhere other than London. Others swear that Heathrow is a ‘preferred’ option for international business, citing concerns that we’ll lose trade to other countries with better airports, and worry about our future prosperity. Boris Johnson wants a new airport in the Thames Estuary. The people who live around Heathrow don’t want their homes and communities crushed by the wheels of industry and commerce. These are all perfectly valid arguments. On a serious matter like this we have to listen to one another, debate and discuss all the options and come up with the best one.

What we need is a place where all parties involved, indeed all areas of the country, send a preferred representative to speak on their behalf. Then, all those representatives could discuss the matter, representing all the views involved clearly and honestly. At the end of the debate they could then have a free vote and make a decision which would at least have the authority and weight of democracy behind it. What could we call such a place and such a group of people? Parliament has a nice ring to it. Isn’t it time the government stopped crushing our historic democracy and let our MPs do their jobs in the traditional way? If we wanted dictatorship there are a whole bunch of wars we needn’t have fought and a whole lot of brave young men who didn’t need to sacrifice themselves in the prime of their lives.

The Parliamentary Mace
Yesterday a Labour MP, John McDonnell, picked up the Parliamentary Mace and placed it in front of the Labour Front bench. The mace is a silver gilt ornamental club of about five feet in length, dating from the reign of Charles II. It symbolises the royal authority by which Parliament meets and also the authority of the Speaker. On each day that the House is sitting the mace is carried to the chamber at the head of the Speaker’s procession by the Serjeant at Arms. It is placed on the table of the House, except when the House is in committee, when it rests on two brackets underneath the table. Interfering with the mace constitutes gross disorderly conduct and is a contempt of the House.

It was a courageous thing to do. One which will probably blight his political career with his party. Whether or not you agree with him over the Heathrow debate, everybody surely has to admire his integrity. He is in parliament to represent his constituents. He could have blithely accepted the ‘party line’ and sat on his hands, but he did not. He did the job he was elected to do, despite the potential personal consequences. I have a lot of admiration for that.

School Footpath - Tydd St. Giles.
I attended the Tydd St. Giles Parish Council meeting this week. As usual it was a well-conducted and interesting meeting. In particular I was struck by one item on the agenda, the fact that a request for funds for important maintenance work on the footpath outside Kinderley Primary School was rejected by Joint Highways. This sort of thing winds me up and I’ll tell you why. I acknowledge that money isn’t available for everything that might need doing everywhere. Times are hard, the council has a budget which has to be carefully managed. People put in their proposals and only some can be chosen each year. But what worries me is that one of the things used to choose which work can be done is the record of reported accidents and fatalities. It may seem logical that an area of Highway that has had three accidents probably needs work more urgently than one which has none. But this is a school! The consequences of waiting to do work on the dilapidated footpath outside the school until it has a record of accidents or fatalities is that when the work is finally done it may be because a small child has been a victim of some potentially-serious mishap. That is not an acceptable way to make a decision. We should be doing work to protect people from injury as necessary, not as a knee-jerk response to blood already spilt! I am taking this one up on behalf of the people of Tydd St. I’ll ask some questions and let you know how I get along. Wish me luck!

Newton Parish Council
A Parish Council meeeting in the village of Newton this week was a hotbed of debate about the possiblity of funding from Fenland District Council to assist in the building of new housing. In general, the councillors were in favour of the plans and agreed to move forwards with it for further consultation. Some concerns were voiced about how the new housing might be used. The preference was for it to be offered first to existing residents. The Councillors wanted to avoid the new houses being used as a convenient deposit for people who had been moved on from other areas due to problems. The two District Council Housing Officers who had come along to discuss the plans confirmed that this was indeed the route they wished to take too and that residents would be given first refusal on the properties. So it all sounds good for Newton! Great news.

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