By Isle of Wight Observer
Somewhere in west London, a substation explodes. Two miles away at Heathrow, the entire airport closes causing utter chaos.
Why did Britain’s biggest airport not have a well-rehearsed back-up plan? Surely, they should’ve predicted a major power outage, even sabotage. They know that Just Stop Oil protesters loathe Heathrow, and would have loved to have been responsible for the chaos. But it didn’t take them to get incoming aircraft from every part of the world diverted – others returned from whence they came.
Thanks to decades of NIMBYism, and the usual interminable planning problems, Britain seriously lacks runway capacity.
There’s only one at Gatwick – it couldn’t take more than a handful of diverted flights – so most landed in Europe. Naturally it took several days to get all the poor souls affected back to where they were supposed to be.
We now know that, as the unfolding crisis developed, Heathrow’s £3-million-a-year boss went off to bed. Why didn’t he stay up to liaise with the National Grid, who now claim the airport closure was completely unnecessary. Heathrow, our flagship airport, can’t handle decisions or disruption, fog, snow or IT issues – even strong winds cause problems. Even so, that third runway may never happen. The latest failure is another reminder of how our country’s infrastructure was gifted to big business with very few strings attached.
Those private equity shysters prefer paying dividends to investing. To keep them happy, regulation is weak to non-existent. Our railways and water industries have failed spectacularly, and the National Grid teeters on the brink. They even worry about us putting our kettles on during commercial breaks. Can you imagine the big bang that would ensue if we all plugged in new electric cars?
Keir Starmer loves playing world statesman, but was incapable of keeping the fourth-biggest airport in the world open. British governments rarely know what’s happening, and never make straightforward investment decisions. The promised ‘dash to net zero’ is laughable.
Heathrow generates billions for the UK economy and, thanks to a virtual monopoly, makes hundreds of millions in profit. Hmm, shareholders taking as much as possible out of the company while investing the bare minimum; does that ring any bells a bit closer to home?
British Airways, Heathrow’s largest airline user, claim the airport owners’ heavily overcharge for using it, and their annual fee increases go far beyond what might be considered reasonable. It’s worth noting that it’s the airlines who bear the full cost when things go wrong – not the airport.
Islanders know only too well that Wightlink and Red Funnel operate in much the same way. Distant overseas investors demand the maximum return with little regard for service users. And when things go wrong, as they so often do, they’re not the ones missing funerals, hospital appointments and interviews.
Allowing everything to be run like this brought our country to its knees. There are simple ways of dealing with power shortages at critical pieces of national infrastructure. The most basic being to supply it from multiple substations. All it took was a little planning
and knowledge.
Islanders are poorly served by ageing ferries, many near the end of their useful lives. Still, no politician has been serious about intervening; will they ever?
Appointing a former union leader to lead another quango seems more of the same to me, although I hope I’m proved wrong, and where’s that promised fixed-link study?
Since privatisation, Heathrow’s owners have been Spanish, Australian, Canadian and, apparently, now French, backed by Qataris. It makes you think, eh? It wasn’t all bad news last Friday, local residents – including my Twickenham-based son – enjoyed a wonderful day of peace and quiet.