With “further and faster growth” at the top of the new Labour government’s agenda, it should not come as any surprise that Chancellor Rachel Reeves is looking again at plans to build a third runway at Heathrow airport and/or a second runway at Gatwick and increased capacity at Luton airport.
Leading up to her announcement on the future of airports in the UK believed to be made next week, both opponents and supporters of the highly controversial plan to expand Heathrow are drawing up their battle plans.
Ideologically opposed to ‘growth’ and supposed to ‘follow the science’ – with some notorious exceptions – Sian Berry MP has been quick to condemn Labour’s proposed aviation expansionist plans whilst Deputy Leader Zac Polanski robustly challenged London Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan to stick to the Assembly’s historical opposition to a third runway.
Focussing on long established and convincing arguments against the expansion of Heathrow airport on planning and environmental grounds, the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) is supposed to also be grounded in the philosophical and economic concept of ‘degrowth’.
However, as already evidenced in the GPEW’s 2024 Election Manifesto, ‘degrowth’ seems to have been set aside in this second serious test to its environment and economic policies, the first one being its dramatic u-turn on HS2.
Hiding behind the abstract notion of “system change”, unsure about where ‘degrowth’ now fits into their own ecological narrative and how to challenge Labour’s ‘growth’ whilst failing to align themselves with workers – including GMB airport members – Greens are in danger of turning their back on the working class.
And yet, the vast majority of people in the UK who have nothing but their labour to sell on the capitalist market place are struggling to meet their basic needs. Young and older workers, the unemployed, the army of self-employed and the millions of unpaid carers’ primary concerns are jobs, job insecurity, inflation, the cost of living and heating costs, homelessness, destitution, crime, the fear of crime, and the devastatingly poor state of the NHS and all public services.
Labour’s prospect of delivering their ambitious growth plan and Starmer’s ability to stay the course until the next General Election are already looking increasingly doubtful. Meanwhile, filling the vacuum with diverting attention on to illegal migrants and looking for quick fixes and easy solutions, swathes of working class voters are drawn towards the Reform Party.
The question one may well ask is why Reform and not the Greens ?
Over the next few weeks, The Green Light 2025 team will attempt to explore some of the internal and external barriers to the building of a mass green movement and party which has sadly eluded UK climate/environmental activists for the past 20 years.
Your support and comments are welcome : TheGreenLightBLog@protonmail.com
The Green Light 