Spot the Difference

Letter received from Rt Hon Philip Hammond, Secretary of State for Transport

in July 2010

Letter received from Junior Transport Minister Theresa Villiers to Mark Reckless MP in November 2011

You may well read Medway Conservatives once again withdrawing into denial about the Estuary airport - claiming that the 'No plans' from Villiers mean its off the agenda. Interesting also the response comes from the Junior Minister. I think Justine may have been too busy having lunch with Boris Johnson to respond...

We have been here before with 'no plans' which strangely morphs into more detailed plans and proposals. One read of letter above from Philip Hammond MP to Tracey Crouch MP said exactly the same thing, whilst then plans became more developed and we got the Foster proposal.

In addition you will note the additional reference in Villier's letter to Mark on the Aviation 'policy framework'. This is code for u-turn. This is notable because it allows the government to renege on the 'no plans' pledge if indeed the aviation framework recommended it as an outcome.

This blog was clear; the airport had to be ruled out not just now but also from the aviation review. Our MPs have failed to come up with the goods. Simple fact; ignored and emasculated in Westminster.

The bluster in the letter columns in todays Medway Messenger highlight a self-evident truth. The Tories know this is coming down the line and are desperate to distance themselves, and whats more we know this because they have just played a silly card. Talking about an issues makes it an issue; the fact they want to talk about it despite not wanting to, means it is an issue they are hearing about probably in both Westminster and in the letterbox.

I can tell them now it will make no different. People wont vote for a party brand that wants to bulldoze over their homes - and any white paper will receive the most stiff of responses from Labour locally, because we have consistently, over three years, warned that to ignore this issue will make it more difficult in the end to challenge.

A letter from a Junior Minister may not be worth the paper its printed on in a few months, except as a potential political rope with which local MPs will need to apologise over, should this come to pass in the form of an Aviation paper.

We will see. Only time will tell.