Global warming or airplanes?

A fascinating comment at Biased BBC

The Old Bloke

September 23, 2015 at 10:10 pm

A bit busy at the moment, moving house. But as we all know the BBC and pretty well all of the U.K. Media and Met office, went orgasmic when on July 1st 2015, a record temperature was set (for July…hottest eva) at Heathrow airport, London. I have pinned a photo of the site to show everyone just why there was this so called record temperature. You will see in the photo a pix of a BA747 on a runway heading west. Directly above the 747 is the Met Office recording site, (that little cluster of a building and artefacts which borders the grass and just to the right of a defunct taxiway) and a stones throw from the airport perimeter road. To the right of the 747 you will see a curved taxiway off the runway, where a jet exhaust gas plume points directly at the recording station. On the day in question, an easterly wind was blowing (from London) so aircraft arriving would be pointing in the opposite direction to the shown 747. Open up the throttles to clear the runway as quickly as possible and hey bingo, a record temperature in the U.K. for July. All down to Climate Change of course.
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?cp=51.479112%7E-0.450563&lvl=17&style=o&dir=0&trfc=0


Here's that image for you

I wonder what the warmists at the BBC would say to this?

What was happening at Heathrow during the recent snow?

Travel Mole reports some interesting news:

'Airlines offered Heathrow operator BAA help in clearing snow and ice from the runways but were turned down for health and safety reasons, it emerged today.

...

... according to the Daily Telegraph, it seems Lufthansa and another unnamed airline said they asked to help because BAA was not clearing snow fast enough but were told that it contravened health and safety rules.

...

The paper reports a Lufthansa spokesman as saying: "The whole process took too long and should have been started earlier. There was not enough manpower available, we were surprised how long it took to get things operational.

"We were not allowed to clean stands for health and safety reasons. BAA gets a lot of money to operate the airport and they refused to do that."

Another airline said BAA was being “jobsworth” about clearing the snow, refusing to allow frustrated airlines to help.'

What a surprise 'Health and Safety' was one of the factors, I would never have guessed.

Peter Mandelson - more allegations of sleaze

The Mail reports the shocking, almost unbelievable news that one of the most respected members of this Labour government has been accused of behaving in a manner that is not entirely straight, I can hardly believe anyone could make such accusations:

"Peter Mandelson is at the centre of a 'favours for friends' row over the controversial proposals to expand Heathrow.

Details emerged of the extraordinary access the Business Secretary's close acquaintance Roland Rudd - who represents airport operator BAA - had to the top tiers of Government.

Mr Rudd, the City's most powerful PR, or his company Finsbury Ltd met with ministers at least five times in ten days in the run-up to Labour's unpopular decision to go ahead with plans for a third runway, and once a few months earlier.

It provoked angry allegations that Lord Mandelson used his political influence to help his friend persuade ministers to push through the £9billion project.

Mr Rudd, who is rumoured to be worth £50million, has had a long friendship with Lord Mandelson, who is godfather to his son. "

Go and read the whole story and then feel reassured by the line that:

"Tom Kelly, formerly the official spokesman for Tony Blair when he was prime minister, is now BAA's communications director, while Joe Irvin, former head of corporate affairs at BAA, is now a key adviser to Gordon Brown."

I am sure there is an innocent explanation for the above coincidences and I am sure that Peter Mandelson will be providing full chapter and verse in the near future. A bastion of probity like Peter Mandelson will want to clear his name as quickly as he is able...



PostScript: Why can I not find any reference to this story on the BBC website?

Labour MPs in West London have just added another nail to their political coffins (Stephen Pound update)

Further to my piece yesterday about the Heathrow third runway debate and my . I have discovered at The Public Whip that Stephen Pound was very bravely "absent" for this vote. Was he ill, was he unavoidably away from the House on that day? It would seem not as he managed to vote, on the same day, with the Labour Government on the Deferred Division — section 5 of the european communities (amendment) act 1993.

I presume that when campaigning in Ealing North at the next General Election he will just say that he abstained on the vote regarding the Third Runway. I trust that that will not be enough to satisfy his electors and that another lickspittle Labour MP will lose his seat.


Of the other West of London MPs:
Alan Keen MP, Feltham & Heston - LAB - For third runway
Ann Keen MP, Brentford & Isleworth - LAB - For third runway
Fiona Mactaggart, MP for Slough - LAB - For third runway
Vincent Cable MP, Twickenham - LD - Against third runway
Susan Kramer MP, Richmond Park - LD - Against third runway
Greg Hands MP, Hammersmith & Fulham - CON - Against third runway

I trust that local electors will note how their Labour MP voted on this issue and vote them out of office in 2009/10. Maybe the next Parliament will have no Labour MPs for West London and the west of London; here's hoping.

Heathrow third runway update

Today one can add emotional blackmail to the list of odd Gordon Brown traits:

"Labour MPs claim a "tearful and dewy eyed" Prime Minister called the Labour waverers into his Commons office one by one and pleaded with them to back the Government. "If we lose this vote it will de-stabilise the Government and de-stabilise the markets," said the embattled Prime Minister, according to one MP who voted with the Tories despite the emotional appeal."

Labour MPs in West London have just added another nail to their political coffins

The Labour Government have managed to push their plans for a third runway at Heathrow through a vote called by the Conservatives on an opposition day. Gordon Brown of course didn't want to allow a vote on this matter; he doesn't really like democracy as we know from the way his team ensured there would be no vote when he succeeded Tony Blair as Prime Minister, his cowardly backing down from an Autumn election in 2007 and of course his refusal to allow the British people a vote on the Lisbon Treaty.

Anyway by a majority of 19 the third runway squeaked through the House of Commons, around 25 Labour MPs rebelled including Ealing Southall's Virendra Sharma who represents a constituency that will particularly hard hit by the extra noise and building work. Other West of London Labour MPs that I believed rebelled include Ealing Acton and Shepherd's Bush's Andrew Slaughter and Reading West's Martin Salter. I wonder how Ealing North's Stephen Pound voted, he is a real Labour government toady so Did he vote for his constituents' interests or his Government's? I will check in Hansard in the morning.


So how many Labour MPs in West London and beyond will keep their seats when the electorate see the choice, on this one issue, as being between a Labour party devoted to imposing the third runway on London and a Conservative party committed to cancelling the project. Bye bye Labour MPs, hello happy West London constituents rid of their Labour lickspittles.

Heathrow Third Runway

The Conservatives are to pour more pressure onto the creaking Labour government by using next week's "opposition day" to debate and call a vote on the government's approval of a third runway for Heathrow airport. With the number of Labour MPs know to be against this expansion this could be very interesting. The Labour MP, John McDonnell for one thinks the decision to go ahead with the third runway is "a disgrace to the democracy of this country", he is right but then so much of what Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's government has done has been "a disgrace to the democracy of this country".

"It's a disgrace to the democracy of this country."

So said John McDonnell MP as he removed the mace from it's stand in the Hosue of Commons whilst Geoff Hoon was making his statement that the Government had approved the building of a third runway at Heathrow airport. John McDonnell said later that

"This is about asserting the right of MPs to decide the policies of this country and not having them bulldozed through without a vote in the House of Commons" and that the decision not to hold a vote on the runway was a "national disgrace".

A disgrace to democracy? Yes, that sums up Gordon Brown's government of all the failures...

Third Heathrow airport runway consultation "fixed" - shock horror

I am not staggered to learn that The Sunday Times are today reporting that "THE airports operator BAA colluded with government officials to “fix” the evidence in favour of a new third runway at Heathrow... Documents seen by The Sunday Times reveal that BAA executives prevented the use of data in the consultation document which showed that the expansion would cause unlawful levels of pollution and extra noise. Instead, they gave civil servants amended data that showed the anticipated 230,000 extra flights a year at Heathrow would have a minimal impact on noise and pollution levels. A leaked report shows the government’s own watchdog, the Environment Agency, has now criticised the Department for Transport (DfT) consultation document into the third runway as flawed and incomplete."


I have never understood the obsession with expanding Heathrow Airport. Heathrow flights either land or take-off over London, thus exposing millions of people to noise and risk. Why not expand Stanstead Airport or even better build the much mooted Thames Estuary Airport? This option would provide an International Airport with planes stacking over the unpopulated North Sea rather than London, Hertfordshire and Berkshire. As the proposal says "All aircraft operational noise contours (to 57 LAeq contours) fall within the estuary water area. MARINAIR eliminates the noise pollution problem inherent in all other new runway options being considered by Government. No people and no dwellings will be adversely affected. Airport operations will be visible at a distance of five kilometres from the cliffs at Minster. Pollution caused by air traffic will be better absorbed and dispersed by tidal waters. It cannot be emphasised enough that MARINAIR, of all the development options, virtually eliminates the noise penalty, which is such a scourge for vast areas around existing airports and under their flight paths."

Anyone would think there were vested interests at work in keeping the expansion at Heathrow.