Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Where do you stand on the Heathrow climate protest camp.

Perhaps depending on which paper you read and they have divided across their political lines this morning.

The Telegraph claims inside information having

learned that protesters are smuggling smart clothes into the "climate camp" in an attempt to sidestep police and security staff and get into the terminals and office buildings.


Its leader claiming that they are off target

Air travel has proved a popular whipping boy for the climate change industry, yet its contribution to global warming is small. To counter-balance that, air travel has proved both a wonderful personal liberator and a crucial engine of economic growth. While BAA's responsibility for the shambles of Heathrow deserves criticism, holding it responsible for climate change is fatuous.
If the protesters want a punch bag, they should try the Government.


The Mail leaves us in no doubt either to the threat to Middle England

Policing the Heathrow protest camp could cost taxpayers more than £7 million.
At peak times, up to 1,800 officers from four forces will oversee the activists' rally.
In all, monitoring the week-long Camp for Climate Action is expected to require 15,000 officer shifts.
This is half as many again as the Notting Hill Carnival, London's most costly organised event at £5 million.


Both the Independent and the Guardian have reported widely on what they consider infringemnts on civil liberties as BAA have tried to prevent the protests and this morning the Indy concentrates on the police harrassment of the protest pointing out that

The Heathrow camp is organised along stringently democratic lines - somewhere between Gerrard Winstanley's Diggers and the Zapatistas. There may be wi-fi, a cinema and solar panels but the emphasis remains steadfastly on the impact of the airport next door. Campaigners, the same group behind a highly publicised protest at Drax power station in Yorkshire last summer, enjoyed the support of local people in their fight against growth at the airport.


I think that it will be good to keep an eye on this story

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