Yesterday a court ruled against the plan to add a third runway at Heathrow Airport. This has fuelled concerns of ‘judicial activism’ amongst sections of the right of British politics. The question is, do these accusations hold weight. Whilst the view is reasonable to be concerned about a system whereby major infrastructure decisions are so vulnerable to lawfare. However, in this case, it isn’t right to accuse the judge of over-reaching. In this case, the court simply did what the court is supposed to do which is to uphold the law.
In addition to this, the increase in the use of courts for political purposes is as a result of our elected MPs deciding to off-load work to quangos. Also, governments of all stripes have started to develop a taste for ‘legally binding targets’ or putting certain pledges ‘in-law’, an example of this was the Conservative decision to pledge in law yearly increases for the NHS in this parliament. Whilst ‘legally-binding’ really does sound fantastic it simply means ‘enforceable by the courts’. Thus, a pledge cooked up to make a Prime Minister sound committed (or, heaven forfend, give them a ‘legacy’) can end up casting a very long shadow indeed.
Whilst there are advantages to a third runway, such as an increase in passenger capacity which would keep Heathrow as the number one airport hub in Europe. Global Britain post-Brexit could have benefited from this hugely. This rule will have probably do the Prime Minister a favour. There will be no more awkward questions about when he’s finally going to get around to lying down in front of those bulldozers to stop the third runway. Instead, he can simply row back from Parliament’s decision to approve the expansion and get in behind his minister Grant Shapps and simply say this is “a private-sector project”.
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Current Affairs Correspondent | My name is Oliver Down I am 22, and a staunch brexiteer. I am a Bristolian lad who studied politics in Leicester. I believe in free speech and accurate journalism and I won’t be afraid to give you “the other side” of the story!
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