A flash mob came to the DfT at 11.00am and threw paper planes in a demonstration against the building of a third runway at Heathrow. The clear message on their t-shirts: STOP AIRPORT EXPANSION
Pictures (C) 2008, Peter Marshall. All rights reserved.
Pictures (C) 2008, Peter Marshall. All rights reserved.
Waiting for the moment outside the DfT
The whistle goes at 11.01.52
Paper planes fly around the DfT
An eco-fairy and the clear message STOP AIRPORT EXPANSION
I arrived on the corner of Marsham St and Horseferry Road at 10.55am and wondered if I had come to the right place, as there were just two policeman and a man with a camera visible. I walked down to check the other entrances of the Department for Transport building and found little more evidence that anything was about to happen.
By the time I got back to the corner there was a small crowd present, many in bright red t-shirts with the message 'STOP AIRPORT EXPANSION', although with perhaps 60 people present it was a little smaller than I'd hoped.
The event was billed to proceed in two stages, with t-shirts being revealed at 11.03 and paper planes being thrown at 11.05, but it didn't quite work like that. Most people had arrived in their red t-shirts and the time-keeping was down to a rather vague clock. When a guy blew his whistle at 11.01.52 everyone started throwing their planes. Fortunately I'd been watching him and not my watch so I got a picture.
It proved rather difficult to photograph a disorganised throwing of paper planes, though there are a few in mid-air in some of my pictures, and others hit me.
It was another demonstration that made clear the opposition to the expansion of air transport and Heathrow in particular, reminding Ruth Kelly (who was nowhere to be seen) that although she can hide, she and the government can't escape the consequences of her actions.
Heathrow expansion would be a major disaster, a blow to the country's not entirely justified green reputation, as well as a significant nail in the planet's coffin. Air travel is just one of the nettles any government has to grasp and deal with if we are to avoid ecological catastrophe. It is time the nation stopped thinking of Heathrow as an airport and started to plan the transition of the entire site into a major 'eco-burb' for London.
By the time I got back to the corner there was a small crowd present, many in bright red t-shirts with the message 'STOP AIRPORT EXPANSION', although with perhaps 60 people present it was a little smaller than I'd hoped.
The event was billed to proceed in two stages, with t-shirts being revealed at 11.03 and paper planes being thrown at 11.05, but it didn't quite work like that. Most people had arrived in their red t-shirts and the time-keeping was down to a rather vague clock. When a guy blew his whistle at 11.01.52 everyone started throwing their planes. Fortunately I'd been watching him and not my watch so I got a picture.
It proved rather difficult to photograph a disorganised throwing of paper planes, though there are a few in mid-air in some of my pictures, and others hit me.
It was another demonstration that made clear the opposition to the expansion of air transport and Heathrow in particular, reminding Ruth Kelly (who was nowhere to be seen) that although she can hide, she and the government can't escape the consequences of her actions.
Heathrow expansion would be a major disaster, a blow to the country's not entirely justified green reputation, as well as a significant nail in the planet's coffin. Air travel is just one of the nettles any government has to grasp and deal with if we are to avoid ecological catastrophe. It is time the nation stopped thinking of Heathrow as an airport and started to plan the transition of the entire site into a major 'eco-burb' for London.
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