Plane Stupid activists accuse Ed Milliband of plane hypocracy

12th Febu­rary 2008
Plane Stu­pid Brighton Activists have inter­rupt­ed a pub­lic meet­ing dur­ing a speech by Ed Miliband MP, Sec­re­tary of State for Ener­gy and Cli­mate Change, unveil­ing a ban­ner high­light­ing the hyp­o­crit­i­cal actions of the gov­ern­ment in rela­tion to avi­a­tion and cli­mate change. The action expos­es the con­tra­dic­tion between the gov­ern­men­t’s stat­ed aim to cut 80% of CO2 emis­sions by 2050 and their plans to mas­sive­ly expand the avi­a­tion sec­tor in the UK. The ban­ner accus­es the gov­ern­ment of becom­ing a “Hypoc­ra­cy” — a democ­ra­cy gov­erned by hyp­ocrites.

The Plane Stu­pid activists dressed in t‑shirts read­ing ‘Ed’s Pop­u­lar Mobi­liza­tion Team’ refer­ring to Miliband’s call late last year for ‘Pop­u­lar Mobi­liza­tion’ on the issue of Cli­mate Change[2]. Fly­ers list­ing the 34 air­ports planned for expan­sion with­in the UK[1] were hand­ed out to the audi­ence, demon­strat­ing the appar­ent lack of gov­ern­ment resolve for tack­ling the envi­ron­men­tal issues that are cru­cial for safe-guard­ing our future. Demon­strat­ing their dis­ap­proval of the gov­ern­ments un-demo­c­ra­t­ic pan­der­ing to cor­po­rate inter­ests, the audi­ence made paper aero­planes, which took flight in the direc­tion of Ed Miliband.

“It is all very well for Ed Miliband to request the pub­lic to take action but it is time for the gov­ern­ment to pro­vide real lead­er­ship in tack­ling cli­mate change.” Said Lar­ry from Plane Stu­pid, “pass­ing the buck is not an option if we are to avoid the chaos and loss of life Cli­mate Change is pre­dict­ed to bring.” The activists feel that their actions demon­strate their will­ing­ness to take respon­si­bil­i­ty in mobil­is­ing around the issue of Cli­mate Change, and expect the gov­ern­ment to sim­i­lar­ly accom­pa­ny their rhetoric with strong action.

“The gov­ern­men­t’s far­ci­cal plans for air­port expan­sion are incom­pat­i­ble with meet­ing the required tar­gets for pre­vent­ing run­away cli­mate change. We are engag­ing with the demo­c­ra­t­ic process in every way we know how, but at the same time the gov­ern­ment has hyp­o­crit­i­cal­ly sup­port­ed con­tin­ued air­port expan­sion.” Said Clare, one of the activists Brighton Plane Stu­pid.

Last year Ed Miliband cham­pi­oned the Cli­mate Change Bill, yet in Jan­u­ary he under­mined this by sup­port­ing a Third Run­way at Heathrow. The actions of Plane Stu­pid at this meet­ing high­light the incom­pat­i­bil­i­ty of these two posi­tions, and chal­lenge not only Ed Miliband but the Labour gov­ern­ment in gen­er­al to be held account­able for their com­mit­ments. Their actions sim­i­lar­ly chal­lenge Nan­cy Platt, Labour Par­ty can­di­date, who will poten­tial­ly per­pet­u­ate this style of gov­ern­ment which is so full of promis­es, and yet so devoid of con­vic­tion. The demo­c­ra­t­ic struc­tures in place have been wor­ry­ing­ly bypassed not only dur­ing the gov­ern­men­t’s deci­sion on Heathrow, but also on Stanst­ed’s sec­ond run­way; where BAA has had more say than both local coun­cils and respect­ed sci­en­tif­ic orga­ni­za­tions, who oppose the planned expan­sions. There is a con­cern that these rigged con­sul­ta­tion pro­ce­dures may become com­mon­place, and this is what the activists do not want.

Brighton Plane Stu­pid activist Lucy stat­ed “Any­one with as much access to sci­ence as Ed Miliband knows that the avi­a­tion indus­try can­not con­tin­ue to expand. Miliband and a host of oth­er MP’s have failed us on Heathrow, prov­ing their words to be as reli­able as quick­sand, the glob­al envi­ron­men­tal sit­u­a­tion does not allow us enough time to see this track record of deceit and hypocrisy grow”.

Mr Mil­liband was inter­rupt­ed but not obstruct­ed from mak­ing his speech in sup­port of the Labour Par­ty can­di­date Nan­cy Platt at the Brighthelm Cen­tre in Brighton.

Ends

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[1] Tak­en from the Gov­ern­men­t’s White Paper ‘The Future of Air Trans­port’ Decen­m­ber 2003
http://www.dft.gov.uk/about/strategy/whitepapers/air/utureofairtransportwhite5694.pdf
Accessed Feb 1 2009

[2] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/3681149/Ed-Miliband-urges-popular-mobilisation-to-tackle-climate-change.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/08/ed-miliband-climate-politics-environment
Accessed Feb 1 2009