JANET STREET-PORTER: With their broken Heathrow promises, two-faced Theresa and duplicitous Boris have tossed their green principles in the trash

By Janet Street-Porter For Mailonline

Published: 18:12 EDT, 26 June 2018 | Updated: 03:17 EDT, 27 June 2018

I’d like to see a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ rule imposed on politicians who make promises to get elected and then- when they get a taste for power- conveniently forget those heartfelt convictions of a few years ago. This week’s prime offenders are Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Prime Minister Theresa May, both of whose constituents live directly under the flight paths into London’s Heathrow airport.

Both promised voters they would do everything they could to oppose the expansion of Heathrow airport. Boris even proposed a hair-brained alternative scheme to be built on a man-made island in the Thames estuary and was keen to be photographed (as usual) scouting the area in a boat.

British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson (L), shakes hands with Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister, Hekmat Khalil Karzai, during a meeting in Kabul

British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson (L), shakes hands with Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister, Hekmat Khalil Karzai, during a meeting in Kabul

This week, when MP’s voted for a third runway, a decision which will wreck the lives of hundreds of thousands of residents in the South East of the UK, Boris was nowhere to be found. He turned up on ‘urgent business’ in Afghanistan, clearly not bothered about the environmental impact of such an unnecessary trip, the prime purpose of which was to get him off the hook. Theresa May forgot her earlier pledge and voted for the airport’s expansion- she has obviously mapped out her retirement plan and it won’t involve interaction with the voters of Maidenhead. At least Greg Hands, the MP for Kensington and Chelsea, kept his word and stood down from his job to vote against airport expansion.

Nothing makes me more angry than two faced duplicity- leave aside the broken promises, what about our very elastic ‘green’ policies? We are asked to stop using plastic bags, to recycle everything from the dog’s uneaten dinner to every shred of paper, cramming it into a series of multi-coloured plastic smelly bins which sit outside our homes turning every street in the UK into an unattractive eyesore. Once we had front gardens, now we have bin parking lots.

We willingly volunteer to pick up litter and clean up beaches on the weekend, as council cutbacks mean there’s no alternative. We are ordered not to burn the wrong kind of wood or the wrong kind of solid fuel, to take showers not baths, to wash everything in lukewarm water and to take all our old clothes to charity shops. Even more irritating, we are ordered to switch off the lights at every opportunity and dine off leftovers by the nanny state. All so the government can meet their environmental targets, the goals they signed up to in yet another conference held in a five star hotel in Paris or Rome.

Janet Street Porter: 'Theresa May and Boris Johnson have tossed their principles in the trash' over the Heathrow Airport expansion

Janet Street Porter: 'Theresa May and Boris Johnson have tossed their principles in the trash' over the Heathrow Airport expansion

We have to put up with solar panels in fields where cattle once grazed, to meet the same targets. The views from most of our beaches have been decimated with fields of wind farms blighting the horizon. All this ugliness is justified in the name of saving the planet. Now, an airport which sits right next to two motorways (one of which is to be moved underground at a cost of billions) is to be expanded by 50%- 800 homes will be bulldozed and flights over London will increase by over 260,000 flights a year.

The cost of all this is to be born by the company which owns the airport- which means that travellers will pay more for their flights, as Heathrow already charges airlines some of the highest fees in the world. What justification can there be to inflict the resulting noise and fuel pollution? The vast income from acres of more duty free shopping?

The unions are pleased- they claim there will be thousands of jobs- probably at minimum wage - for toilet cleaners, fast food chefs (I use that word loosely), security staff and baggage handlers. Most ordinary folk going on holiday do not use Heathrow, they cannot afford full price major airlines, so they travel from Stansted or Gatwick or Luton or Manchester on budget carriers.

Theresa May has been accused of betraying what she told her constituents and voting to back the Heathrow Airport expansion

Theresa May has been accused of betraying what she told her constituents and voting to back the Heathrow Airport expansion

If the government truly believes in high-speed rail, and investing in the north of England, why expand an airport in the South? Heathrow is mainly used by business travellers going from one connection to another, it’s a gigantic transit lounge. Is that the kind of industry creative Britain can be proud of?

The government’s green policies are totally inconsistent- nowadays, every major business flaunts their eco-philosophy like a badge of honour. This week I bought tickets online for a play at the Old Vic Theatre in London, and was ordered by their website not to print them - presumably to save trees. When I arrived and bought a drink, it was served in a plastic beaker. Food retailers Morrisons have announced they are scrapping plastic bags and switching to paper ones for fruit and vegetables- sadly, their eco-flourish was quickly savaged by environmentalists, who said that unless paper bags were re-used 3 or 4 times, they were responsible for more CO2 emissions than plastic.

Construction of the £14billion project is still years off and will be subject to detailed planning and likely court challenges

Construction of the £14billion project is still years off and will be subject to detailed planning and likely court challenges

Theresa May sees herself as a green warrior- claiming she wants to eliminate plastic waste in the UK by 2042. What a shame the Prime Minister has voted to expand somewhere that consumes vast amounts of fuel, sells fast food by the ton, creates unspeakable noise and flogs unwanted over-packaged gifts by the lorry load- that place is called Heathrow airport. 

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JANET STREET-PORTER: Theresa and Boris toss principles in the bin

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