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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jun/07/dont-worry-pretty-head-over-heathrow-third-runway-justine-greening-under-control
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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Don't worry your pretty head over Heathrow, Justine. It's under control | Don't worry your pretty head over Heathrow, Justine. It's under control |
| (25 days later) | |
| The session opened with a minute’s silence for the fallen. The past week has not been kind to Chris Grayling. Chaos on the trains and the Heathrow announcement have reduced the transport secretary to a primal assortment of nervous tics. The power of coherent thought has long since gone and there are fears his speech functions may follow. | The session opened with a minute’s silence for the fallen. The past week has not been kind to Chris Grayling. Chaos on the trains and the Heathrow announcement have reduced the transport secretary to a primal assortment of nervous tics. The power of coherent thought has long since gone and there are fears his speech functions may follow. |
| Not that you would necessarily notice the impairment, given the current state of Theresa May’s government. The prime minister now appears to want a time-limited backstop Brexit deal that isn’t limited by time, she has no idea of when she is going to be publishing her Brexit white paper or what will be in it and her indecision has reached such a level that neither she nor David Davis can agree on whether the Brexit secretary should resign. With all this going on, Grayling’s failings are little more than irritating white noise. | Not that you would necessarily notice the impairment, given the current state of Theresa May’s government. The prime minister now appears to want a time-limited backstop Brexit deal that isn’t limited by time, she has no idea of when she is going to be publishing her Brexit white paper or what will be in it and her indecision has reached such a level that neither she nor David Davis can agree on whether the Brexit secretary should resign. With all this going on, Grayling’s failings are little more than irritating white noise. |
| But there is still someone with a heart left inside Whitehall. So Grayling was shunted off to a European transport meeting in Luxembourg to take in the sunshine and be pushed around in his bath chair while various bods wittered on about railways that did manage to run on time, and Jesse Norman, one of the most junior ministers in his department, was left to field an urgent question on the Heathrow airport third runway. | But there is still someone with a heart left inside Whitehall. So Grayling was shunted off to a European transport meeting in Luxembourg to take in the sunshine and be pushed around in his bath chair while various bods wittered on about railways that did manage to run on time, and Jesse Norman, one of the most junior ministers in his department, was left to field an urgent question on the Heathrow airport third runway. |
| John McDonnell joins Tory rebels to oppose Heathrow third runway | |
| The question was brought by the Conservative MP Justine Greening, who is rapidly turning to be a major thorn in the government’s side since she was sacked as the education secretary. Greening’s Putney constituency is directly under the Heathrow flight path and she has made it her business to know a great deal more about the details of the case than anyone in the transport department. Though that is a low bar. | The question was brought by the Conservative MP Justine Greening, who is rapidly turning to be a major thorn in the government’s side since she was sacked as the education secretary. Greening’s Putney constituency is directly under the Heathrow flight path and she has made it her business to know a great deal more about the details of the case than anyone in the transport department. Though that is a low bar. |
| At PMQs the previous day, Greening had been fobbed off with an answer on government liabilities she clearly believed to be incorrect, had raised the matter as a point of order and was now getting a third bite of the cherry. Unsurprisingly, Norman didn’t appear entirely on top of his briefs and stuck rigidly to his prepared script that everything was absolutely hunky dory. | At PMQs the previous day, Greening had been fobbed off with an answer on government liabilities she clearly believed to be incorrect, had raised the matter as a point of order and was now getting a third bite of the cherry. Unsurprisingly, Norman didn’t appear entirely on top of his briefs and stuck rigidly to his prepared script that everything was absolutely hunky dory. |
| Greening was underwhelmed, observing that he had been reading out clause 2.1.5 when the one that was at issue was 2.1.6. This committed the government to picking up Heathrow’s tab if for some reason the airport expansion didn’t go ahead. Or even if it did. There’s still the possibility that the third runway gets built but never used because the planes fail to meet noise and pollution levels. This is almost certainly Grayling’s preferred option. | Greening was underwhelmed, observing that he had been reading out clause 2.1.5 when the one that was at issue was 2.1.6. This committed the government to picking up Heathrow’s tab if for some reason the airport expansion didn’t go ahead. Or even if it did. There’s still the possibility that the third runway gets built but never used because the planes fail to meet noise and pollution levels. This is almost certainly Grayling’s preferred option. |
| “Oh that clause,” said Norman. He hadn’t realised she meant that clause. Greening shouldn’t worry her pretty little head about that clause. The department had just spent millions of pounds on the best legal advice to confirm that clause was entirely irrelevant. It didn’t seem to have occurred to anyone in the department of transport that there might have been a very good reason why Heathrow had been so insistent that clause had been included in the agreement and that their lawyers might be rather more on the ball than the government’s. It wouldn’t be the first time. | “Oh that clause,” said Norman. He hadn’t realised she meant that clause. Greening shouldn’t worry her pretty little head about that clause. The department had just spent millions of pounds on the best legal advice to confirm that clause was entirely irrelevant. It didn’t seem to have occurred to anyone in the department of transport that there might have been a very good reason why Heathrow had been so insistent that clause had been included in the agreement and that their lawyers might be rather more on the ball than the government’s. It wouldn’t be the first time. |
| With the shadow transport secretary, Andy McDonald, forced to sit this one out due to Grayling’s absence, Labour’s response was left to a shadow junior transport minister. “This is a devastating revelation,” Karl Turner boomed. “A bombshell.” It really wasn’t. The idea that Grayling’s department would have been able to negotiate anything without cocking it up, that would have been a bombshell revelation. But just another everyday oversight was nothing to get worked up about. | With the shadow transport secretary, Andy McDonald, forced to sit this one out due to Grayling’s absence, Labour’s response was left to a shadow junior transport minister. “This is a devastating revelation,” Karl Turner boomed. “A bombshell.” It really wasn’t. The idea that Grayling’s department would have been able to negotiate anything without cocking it up, that would have been a bombshell revelation. But just another everyday oversight was nothing to get worked up about. |
| Certainly no one else in the House of Commons appeared to care less if the government had lumbered itself with potential liabilities or not. They just wanted the runway built. Some because they wouldn’t rest easy until the first bit of Tarmac was laid: only then could they be sure the runway wouldn’t be anywhere near their own constituencies. Others because they couldn’t wait for all the promised direct connecting flights from Heathrow to land on a grass airfield somewhere near their home towns. Sweeteners for the not so sweet. | Certainly no one else in the House of Commons appeared to care less if the government had lumbered itself with potential liabilities or not. They just wanted the runway built. Some because they wouldn’t rest easy until the first bit of Tarmac was laid: only then could they be sure the runway wouldn’t be anywhere near their own constituencies. Others because they couldn’t wait for all the promised direct connecting flights from Heathrow to land on a grass airfield somewhere near their home towns. Sweeteners for the not so sweet. |
| Norman began to relax. This was a lot easier than he had imagined. Just bluff it out, make pledges you’ve no idea if you can keep and hope for the best. He couldn’t see why Grayling got himself into such a state about it. To infinity and beyond. | Norman began to relax. This was a lot easier than he had imagined. Just bluff it out, make pledges you’ve no idea if you can keep and hope for the best. He couldn’t see why Grayling got himself into such a state about it. To infinity and beyond. |
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