Eagle's strike Boris Island

Maria Eagle MP

It has been some 71 years and seven months Tuesday (13th March) since Eagleday saw airfields attacked across Kent and the South east for the first time yet last week the proposed Grain/Boris Island airport was struck again by an Eagle in the form of Maria Eagle. The Labour Shadow minister of transport came to Grain to meet local Councillors (pictured with the Labour Councillors in the Medway Messenger 9th March p.10), environmentalists, residents of Grain village which may cease to exist if Grain airport gets the green light.

According to Alan McGuinness' report (Labour Transport Chief: Lets take Politics out of airport discussions);

She said Labour had a number of concerns including the liquefied natural gas plant there and the wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery, which sank in 1944 and is full of explosives.

Ms Eagle said: "This is a distraction and the impacts it would have out here to the east of London would be devastating for communities and for internationally important Sites of special interest. We're very dubious."

These are all well known and spoken of problems with the project raised by Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour groups time and time again and I am positive will be noted by any idiot in the planning and implementation stage and during Consultation. However I, like every one who is attached in way or another to any group fighting Boris Island will welcome any input from anyone in Parliament who can help overturn this proposal. As all of us are putting fighting the proposals ahead of political ambition or point scoring (or at least have convinced ourselves that is what we are doing even if doing the complete opposite.)

Ms Eagle went further and argued that, as the title of the article suggest, that this should be fought outside of the political arena - something I agree with and have tried to avoid, except in the form of attacking those who have already made it political. Indeed it has been a week since Medway Labour's online voice's somewhat rabid attacks on the campaign and refusal to answer questions laid out by me twice (here and then again here asking them to clarify their claims). I sincerely hope that Local Labour have had their knuckles well and truly wrapped and made to be more responsible and are now willing to hush their politically motivated noise and either join the rest of us and criticise constructively where it is needed, stop blowing Red smoke and using this as an stick with which to beat the Tories locally and Nationally.

Hopefully a line has been drawn under this sorry state of affairs and we can all now just get on with fighting the proposals like the adults we are.