When the history comes to be written of Britain’s descent from a democracy to a krytocracy, the story of Heathrow’s third runway will mark an important point. Is there anyone who really believes that either today’s decision by the government to make Heathrow its preferred option, or the parliamentary vote in perhaps a year’s time, will really be the last word on the matter? It is already 67 years since extra runways to the north of the Bath Road were first proposed for London Airport. It might well be another 67 years before the legal challenges have concluded.
Never have quite so many interests been lined up to challenge in the courts a decision which, until fairly recent times, would have been accepted as a political decision. All that today’s decision does is to trigger the judicial review which has been promised by Greenpeace, the Boroughs of Hillingdon, Richmond, Wandsworth and Windsor and Maidenhead. To those you can add the many thousands who can be counted upon to support an inevitable crowdfunding appeal.
If you thought the spat between Boris Johnson and Michael Gove was about as nasty as Conservative infighting got, think again. Last week, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead voted to contribute £50,000 to the judicial review – which will be based on the claim that a third runway will breach legal limits on air pollution. Yes, that is a Conservative-controlled council which covers the Prime Minister’s own constituency – and for which she has campaigned for in local elections – fighting one of her own government’s policies in the courts.
Is this really what we wanted: judges making the important decisions, with politicians and ministers reduced to mere plaintiffs and complainants? They won’t even be doing their own debating – that will be contracted out to barristers.
MPs are responsible for eclipsing their own power and effecting a huge transfer of power from Parliament to the courts. It is they who nodded through all the legislation which allowed it to happen: everything from the Human Rights Act to the Climate Change Act and every other clause by which governments have chosen to tie their own hands behind their backs. MPs may crow about being held in low esteem, but the reality is that they have made themselves less and less relevant. It is activists, barristers and ultimately unelected judges who now hold the reins in Britain – as we shall soon see over Heathrow.
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