Hear The Voice Of The North Bank (and other random thoughts)

That’s the north bank of the Thames, not the North Bank at Highbury, of course.

We’ve already seen what the (mostly Labour) southern side of the Thames Estuary thinks of Borisport.  The north side might be expected to be a bit more welcoming, since they’re mostly Tories over that side.  So are they?  Nope.

Rochford and Southend East Tory MP James Duddridge said he would fight the “ill-thought out scheme”.

Castle Point UKIP MP Bob Spink added: “In terms of airport safety it is not a runner, in terms of environmental and ecological impact it is not a runner. In terms of funding it makes no sense at all.

“Boris is a lovely man, but this is slightly bonkers.”

Now, I’m no psychiatrist, but *Bob Spink* calling you bonkers is a bit of a sign that you need a sit down and a rethink, guys.

Elsewhere, Alex has a long and interesting post referring us back to 1973 and the origin of all this rubbish, while as an adjunct to that I’m getting very interested in Conservative airport policy, which is a mess to put it mildly – Iain Dale wants a third runway at Heathrow, Charlie Elphicke wants a runway, but at Manston, Theresa Villiers wants no runways at all and Boris Johnson wants four where nobody can reach them.  All very odd.  Keep an eye on this crew, too – Conservatives For International Travel.  Ostensibly a

Conservative grass-roots campaign for the next Conservative government to support mass international travel for individuals, families and businesses.

it has more than a whiff of astroturf about it, or at least the related intention to seem bigger than you are through slick web design.  I’d come across one of their people, Babz Normile, during research on Borisport’s origins in the Marinair project, actually:

Babz Normile works in London and is a director of the new grassroots campaign Conservatives for International Travel, which will be holding a one-day conference in the New Year on the theme: “What would Brunel do?”

‘Avoid you lot like the plague’, almost certainly.  Go and read it.  Have a whisky handy.  Can I have an invitation to the conference, please?  It would be a riot.

So, let’s see – domain has an anonymous registrar (non-trading individual), website set up 29/8/2008, group wants lots of runways, doesn’t mind where, built as soon as possible, freedom to travel for everyone (except airport protestors), low taxes and the sacking of Theresa Villiers for selling out to enviro-commie-euro-loonies.  Ah, now I get it.  I smell the blood of a common isotope of neocons, not least because of a beautiful example of that key neocon attribute – group incompetence through personal ignorance.  For example, ‘C-FIT’, as they call themselves, is the aviation safety acronym for ‘Controlled Flight Into Terrain’, or flying into a mountain you didn’t see.  Nice one.  Crashed and burned on takeoff, I reckon, unless of course it’s all a giant joke, which is possible when you consider whom they had speaking at their conference fringe meeting in Broad Street O’Neills, Birmingham:

Mark Wallace

Mark Wallace, 24, is the Campaign Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the grassroots campaign for lower taxes and better government. As Campaign Director of the TPA, Mark deals with the lobbying and media for Britain’s most-reported political campaign, chalking up over 400 media appearances a month on every topic from MPs’ expenses to Green Taxes. He is a graduate of Durham University, an enthusiastic traveller and former Campaign Manager of the libertarian pressure group The Freedom Association.