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It is important for the residents of West London to know where both their elected representatives and the political parties not elected at present stand on Heathrow. On this page we give an outline of the postion of the parties.

Decisions on Heathrow and Runway 3 will be taken by the national government and will be based on national government policy. We therefore state the position of the national parties.

The Labour party wants to expand Heathrow and build a third runway. This is made clear in the aviation 'White Paper'. It will go ahead with Runway 3 as long as it can get away with it without punishment from the EU for breaching air pollution standards, set to protect human health.

The Conservative Party says it opposes Runway 3 until aviation is included in an EU 'emissions trading scheme', designed to address the problem of global warming. It is planned that aviation will be included in the EU emissions trading scheme in 2008; but Runway 3 could not come on stream until 2015. It can therefore be concluded that the Conservative Party supports Runway 3.

The Liberal Democrat Party has stated that it opposes Runway 3. It has a policy of opposing new runways in the south east, but not in the rest of the country. There is no policy on national growth and containing national environmental impacts. It is in the south east that local opposition to new runways is strongest. So the LibDem policy varies according to location and appears entirely opportunistic. It is therefore not possible to trust them on Runway 3.

The Green Party opposes Runway 3 unequivocally. It has a set of national policies on aviation and climate change that are entirely consistent with its stance on Heathrow.

Local parties and policitians may have views that differ from their national party. However, the views of local politicians will be ignored unless there is a credible political threat. Labour, Conservative and LibDems all have a policy of allowing local MPs and councillors to promote views that are at odds with the national party where it is judged that it is politically advantagous to do so. So local Labour MPs and and councillors are allowed to oppose Heathrow expansion without censure from Head Office, even though the national party is strongly in favour.

This policy is insidious and anti-democratic. It is cynically designed to get votes for the party even though its policies may be opposed by the electorate. This is how it works: A local MP or councillor will oppose Runway 3 and thereby get or retain votes at local and national elections. That means that there is no political harm and no electoral threat to the party at national level. Therefore the national party can safely pursue its policy of promoting Runway 3.

The conclusion is stark. Whatever your local MP or councillor may think or say, a vote for them is vote for their national party's policy. If their party supports expansion of Heathrow and Runway 3, a vote for them is a vote for Runway 3.

May 05

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