• MPs plot to force runway vote
• Commentary: Support for direct action is growing
• Minister wants global mass protests on climate change
• Poll: Did Stansted activists make their point?
• Passengers slam BAA and Ryanair
• Young, keen and not afraid of arrest: the women who led green invasion
• Andrew Neather: You can’t build even bigger airports and still go green, Gordon

Reader views (59)

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David Cameron needs to tread carefully before telling us oiks that we don't deserve to fly our families to the sun for an annual holiday.

- Mkpaul, Milton Keynes

Stansted does not need a second runway,as long as Marinair,the Thames Estuary 4 runway airport is built

- H.J.Jones, London UK

To Sandy
some of these protesters have been up north - they stopped a coal train outside Drax. the point is that unlike many people who are adopting the usual selfish stance on this and every other comments site, they actually care about people outside of their small circle of family and friends. people in poorer countries are already dying from climate change - why? so selfish westerners can carry on having their short breaks? unfortunately these actions are likely to become more and more common until things start to change, and you should feel fortunate that some are willing to take on the law to allow for a future for us all

- Julie, London

More impressive action than Fathers For Justice! I suppose who's ever in charge of Stansted Security will be losing their jobs, as the vulnerability of the airport runway has been exposed. The action demonstrates the ease of damaging or interfering with aeroplanes.

- Frank28, Hants

Aviation has a disproportionately bad effect on global warming.

Mile for mile aviation puts out similar carbon dioxide to a lone driver in a car, this doesn't sound so bad but at high altitudes carbon dioxide has a much greater global warming effect.

Then also consider that it is just the richest microcosm of the world's population who fly regulary.

When Ryanair and co have succeeded in getting the entire European and global population flying regularly, it will be too late.

Venus's atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide - it's a bit closer to the sun but surface temperatures keep metal molten. That is probably all that will halt the expansion of aviation!!

- Cp, London UK

The point is crystal clear, aircraft are more efficient, and will improve more and more up to the point they will be minute...These mindless clowns need to read up the facts, they do this in China, they would get locked up with no questions asked. This goverment better get a grip quick and waken up and deal with these unwashed, spoiled, brainwashed criminals.

- Chris, Glasgow

well done the protesters totaly against airport expansion

- C May, bromley

Yes well done Imogen. I'm sure you walk everywhere you go.
It's not as if the consumer is burdened with tax when flying.
Do you even know where that "tax" goes when after the government get their hands on it?
No.
Maybe it is them you should be taking it up with.

- Kate, London

Well done guys.
Inconvenience is a small price to pay for combating climate change. The larger picture has to be looked at here. Protesters come from all walks of life, many of whom take time off work to be at protests. This is a battle against selfishness and greed, this is a battle for equity; the poor dealing with pollutants from the rich. Actions like these keep the issue in the media and show the strength of support at the grass roots level. How is the UK supposed to meet its CO2 emissions reductions of 80% by 2050 with increases in air travel, the proposed expansion of Heathrow and Kingsnorth power station. Time is running out, we have to get serious and if that means causing obstructions and getting arrested then so be it.

- Neal Stanley, Leeds Yorkshire

i think its good wot they have done this goverment dosent listen they should off gone much further and had mass riots its they way

- Stephen, london

If anybody missed it the European Parliament, The DoE and almost every scientific advisor who has looked at airport expansion agree with 'these unwashed protesters'. When supposedly democratic governments fail to listen to the voters this is what happens. Surely nobody really believes that shopping trips to Europe are more important than this?

- Mark, London

Idiots, the lot of them ! And Nick (Airstrip ONE) saying that "No one needs to fly abroad several times a year anyway." What a ridiculous statement. I suppose you will hate the fact that I fly once a week... Get a life !

- Joanna, london england

"...this type of direct action will inevitably become the norm-because this Government just won't listen to those who have the common-sense to try and stop uncontrolled aviation expansion by legal, democratic means."

What a silly comment. Democracy is about what the majority want - Taking "direct action" because a minority can't have things done the way THEY want it is called anarchy. These mindless "I know best" types of near professional protesters can't even think for themselves, apparently. All they are doing is copying the Thai protesters who have brought their country to a standstill. Smugly stupid prattling in the media doesn't make them look smart, just arrogant bullies hurting who they can because they can.

- Rogan, Irving

Their name sounds about right, stupid stupid stupid. Leaving planes circling around Stansted creating more pollution while making the general public angry is hardly the best way to endear oneself to their cause.

They have wasted taxpayers money and airlines money, I hope they get a large bill in the post. That will shut them up!

- Clint Heine, Shepherds Bush

Congratulations to the protestors. They may have inconvenienced a few flyers (one of whom was reported to have been going shopping in Germany for the day), but climate change will inconvenience us all a lot more. You may think you have the right to fly, but other people's right to food, clean water, and a safe place to live trumps that. We're not talking about a few polar bears any more; do you deniers not realise how climate change will affect global food supplies, for example?

- Imogen, Northampton, UK

This is the best thing ever. All democratic processes are failing, BAA has lied continually and the aviation industry continues in its race to the bottom just so it can make short term profits by serving those people who want to do a days shopping on the continent and can not be bothered understanding personal responsiblity. This is exactly what happens when democratic processes are exhausted and there are no other alternatives left.

- Kevin, Stroud

Nice to see that security is so tight at Stansted! What if it had been 50 terrorists who got through the fencing with such ease - what kind of a catastrophe could have been caused then?

- Jack, Middlesbrough, UK

Nick – climate change is a myth – do some web research on this. Then ask yourself why we’re being conned ?

- For Info, bristol

I am in Thailand and have been subject to the protests at Bangkok airport. Us Brits, on holiday in Thailand thought this could never happen in the UK because of the " police presence" which we see around the airports. I guess this is a sham, and we are left totally vulnerable to non democratic pressure groups or worse. Now if the protesters were litter louts, non recyclers, or motorists, they would have neen apprehended immediately!

- Howard Williams, Tonbridge Kent

I trust that BAA will sue Plane Stupid and each member individually for criminal damage and loss of revenue.

Then BA and all the other carriers can do the same. And when they have finished, individuals who have been affected by the action can launch their own claim.

Plane Stupid should be bankrupt by the end of the week.

- Adam, Harrow, UK

Any students or unemployed partaking in this should have their benefits/Grants cancelled immediately. It is a shame that the ignorant/unwashed are allowed to interupt ordinary peoples way of life.
Courts hould come down hard on these criminals.

- Paul, London

what has happened here is what quite often happens when people let passion cloud there judgement.

The cause they are trying to highlight, global warming and climate change, is very important. It is the method they have chosen that is the problem.

If you cause people to resent you for what ever reason they will never empathise with you and convert/believe to your cause.

- Liberal Thinker, UK

The protest is futile and only managed to inconvenience people who, by and large, needed to travel by air today. It will make no difference whatsoever to the cause. Meanwhile the all singing all dancing anonimous Olivia had some fun and too bad for those who were inconvenienced. It is not the first time that poor little rich kids decide to protest against this or that. Ideoligically, all well and good of course, however they may find it difficult to live up to those high principles. It would be very interesting to see how many of them have ever flown in their short life (presumably paid for by Mummy and Daddy) or what they will do when they finally get a job and are told by their boss to fly out somewhere to simply do their job... Incidentally, if you really want to protest against this or that, as is your right, then there are intelligent and productive ways to do this though clearly it may not be so much fun for little Olivia.

- Daniel, London

All praise to the demonstrators!

Climate change caused by human activity is now globally recognised (even by the Texans), so we'll need to scale down air travel in the next decades.

Most MP's understand this but won't act for fear of losing votes, so it's up to the public to make a fuss about it until they do something.

- Nick, London

Climate Change is 21st Century apartheid - while British people fly on holidays to Spain, Sudan dries up. It threatens millions of lives from Bangladesh to Hull - 150,000 already die from the impacts of Climate Change every year, according to the World Health Organisation.

As Lilys said "We're here because our parents' generation has failed us and its now down to young people to stop climate change by whatever peaceful means we have left. We're afraid of going to jail but nothing scares us as much as the threat of runaway climate change."

Aviation emissions are the fastest rising sector in the economy - and will make all other cuts irrelevant if expansion plans are approved. Yet government and corporations are pushing for ever more flights, ever larger airports.

It's nice that people are starting to use low-energy lightbulbs - but avoiding a 3 degree rise that would see millions die & millions more as refugees will require systemic change. We need a mass social movement to change this.

If we fail, in 25 years our children will ask why more of us didn't block runways.
And, those of you posting about smelly hippies and prison will deny that you did so.

- John, London, England

Do any of you know these girls who were going to Bremen for the day personally? How do you know that this wasn't their one and only trip abroad this year because they have cut down on flying? Quite quick to judge aren't you. I'm sure the people commenting on here have flown themselves at least once this year for one reason or another. Stop being so hypocritical.

And why is there no mention of the woman who will now miss her father's funeral because of these stupid protesters? There are better ways to make yourself heard without breaking the law and causing unnecessary grief and anxiety to thousands of people.

- Debi, London

Surely in the wake of this incident and the events that happened in India, we now need army-style security at all airports and railway stations? These people are lucky to be alive after the Mumbai atrocity. With proper security in place they should have all been shot dead.

- Luciano Payne, London

Good Work!

- Jo, London

instead of protesting about global warming, they should stop all these sylum seekers invading our country and go and memostrate outside no 10

- G.Stocker, ilford essex

These stupid people caused planes to be diverted resulting in more road journeys causing more polution. How that that help their cause.

Idiots give them a good hose down, that will move them on!!

- Jim Mcarthur, Liss, hampshire

I see the great unwashed of this country has nothing better to do than to get up at all hours of the night to bring chaos to the good harding working people of this county. While we all have a option on what happens in this world of ours we do not want the likes of the great unwashed who have never done a days work or will never do a days work in their lives to let the good hardworking people get on with theirs.
These people called themselves students well I hope the the colleges or uni's that they attend will have the good manners to expel them............

- Anon, London

OK, so the protesters want us to be accountable for our actions. Let's show them just what personal accountability means in action. The 50 or so protesters will at some point be named alongside any organised protest groups that they represent. Why not the thousands of people going about their lawful business this morning sue this rabble for all costs, time and damages resulting from the 'students' criminal actions.
No doubt the airlines have lost fortunes this morning and the police no doubt could present a bill for wages/overtime as they see fit. Remember, this was a criminal act.

Start with the spokeswoman who appeared on Radio 4 this morning. She seemed very pleased with herself.

- Ged, Lee, London

Well it makes a change from airports grinding to a halt because of air traffic controllers, baggage handlers et al.

- Bj, London

Now the protesters have seen how pathetic both the BAA and Essex police are at protecting one important airport it would be very simple indeed for co-ordinated action against Gatwick, Heathrow and Stanstead to close all of these London airports for significant periods of time. This is due to the pathetic way in which all civilian security forces (including the police) are able to deal with airfield/station/animal laboratory invaders etc. Here is a hint for them, employ senior ex army/marine officers let them select their own men and task them with protecting airports and other strategically important establishments. Keep the police out of it they are too politically correct and frightened of the political fall-out especially in the London/South East area. They are however very good at dealing with and arresting wimpish politicians !!!

- Dutchy Holland, glasgow

To the pea-brained commentators here who condemn the protest at Stansted, I say that most of us do not condone law-breaking, but that this type of direct action will inevitably become the norm-because this Government just won't listen to those who have the common-sense to try and stop uncontrolled aviation expansion by legal, democratic means.

- Jon Kent, Hertford. UK

I wonder how many of them drove to Stanstead!

- Andy, London

"IF there are any changes happening to the climate at present, it is not caused by mankind. ... There is plenty of strong, unbiased evidence against this warped theory which is being thrust upon us by certain sections of the media (and the government)."

Pray tell us of this evidence.

The overwhelming evidence is that climate change is happening, and overwhelmingly caused by human activity. In fact, we may be reaching a plateau in being able to predict a "definite" future, because of the inherent limitations of chaotic systems. In which case, we have to go on "likelyhood" and not "proof", apart from adding extra data as the years go by, which may be able to improve the prediction models to some degree.

- Jay, London

wait until Uni life is over and they have to start working life, they'll soon realise why we all want to fly away every now and then!!

- Nl, london

Again we see a small number of people who have no regard for the wishes and rights of others and will stop at nothing to impose their will on the majority; in this way they are like our own mini-taliban.
They are small minded and selfish individuals who clearly have no respect for other people and they should be marginalised and treated as such.
The courts should impose significant fines and order them to pay compensation to bring home to them the responsibility of their actions.

- Jules, London, UK

Please don't forget that Newham Council has agreed to let London City Airport have an additional 40,000 flights (up to 120,0000) a year in on of the most densely populated areas in London , with Royal Docks where the airport is situated having one of the highest asthma figures in the country.
The noise , pollution and community impact already is devastating without the need for additional flights.
The Taxpayer already pays £5.5 million to cover the airports costs with the airport contributing NOTHING. Newham is one of the poorest boroughs in the country

- Darren, East London

How did they manage to get in, in the first place. You would have thought with all the terrorist threats security would have been better. Presumably none of the protesters fly anywhere if they are so concerned about saving the planet. They need to go to the USA where a plane takes off from some airport or other every few seconds, then come back and tell the UK about their pathetic contribution to climate change.

- Sue, Orpington, Kent

Charge them, fine them imprison them!

Planes and runways are here to stay - and people like to travel, so get over it!

If some of those who were arrested on benefits, then reduce this and make them pay for the new fence and the wasted police time.

- Scott, London

After recent terrorist aciivities the thing that concerns me the most is that a bunch of bobble hatted wallies were able to breach the security so easily. Scary?

- Michael, London

I guess getting into Uni is so easy these days that these kids have nothing better to do than protest. If it were genuine I wouldn't mind, but how many of them will be partying it up in the Summer - whilst travelling on a plane!
Stop wasting your parents, Gvmt and our money and get proper jobs if all you can do is pointless protests!

- Smb, London, UK

If they are so concenred about the environment and the planet , why then are they not protesting outside Drax and FerryBridge power stations, that by far, are the biggest single source of pollution in the UK, considerably more than all the airports put together. Oh, that's right, they are both up North and you wouldn't get any publicity!

- Sandy, London

I think what the protesters did is brilliant. Airport expansion - and casual flying in general - needs to stop if any of us is to have a long term decent future on this earth.

- David Masters, Manchester, UK

To all those scolding the protesters: if we abolish the right to protest then we will resemble Stalin's Russia. These people are legitimately protesting against the rank hypocrisy of our worthless government. No one needs to fly abroad several times a year anyway.

- Neil, london uk, Airstrip ONE .

Yeah, those Tolpuddle protestors should have been electrocuted, and the suffragettes and Chartists. Peaceful protest is all that's left when big business ride roughshed over peoples' objections, and the cost of any airport delays is nothing compared to the cost in human terms of global warming. This has brought the true cost of flights to Berlin for less than the cost of a train from London to Norwich to attention. Free flights or flights for a fiver have a hidden cost that could kill millions of people in the future. I support the protest, although I'd be fuming if I was delayed.

- Dr Susan Porter, Bow

I cannot but suspect that these brainwashed people would have been thrown off the airport and charged within fifteen minutes by proper police such as Life on Mars Gene Hunt. 'Your nicked' does not take hours to do!
Five hours is presumably part of the trendy desire to avoid confrontation - so beloved by some of the Countries liberal left former senior police.

- Mark, Bournemouth England

Take their passports away for twenty years.
Let's see how they react when they can't join Mummy and Daddy in their summer homes in Tuscany.
Hope they get proper jobs soon.

To the people who suggested just let the planes take off anyway and see who flinches first - 'Student Grant' or 80 tonnes of aircraft. May I just remind you that those engines are expensive and may be damaged by ingesting pieces of said oxygen thieves.

- Rusty Shackleford, UK

Or just ignore them and see what appens when the first airbus rolls towards them.

- Francis, Farnborough, England

When are these people going to understand? IF there are any changes happening to the climate at present it is not caused by mankind. These people are supposed to be intelligent, so why don't they do some research on the subject beyond the usual channels on the internet? There is plenty of strong, unbiased evidence against this warped theory which is being thrust upon us by certain sections of the media (and the government). Silly trendy students, go home!!

- Simon, London, UK

What horrendous arrogance and stupidity Jane. Your unwashed mob are a bunch of principled educated university students and campaigners trying to protect you and those who think flying for a day trip shopping is a good idea from themselves and at the same time, the planet from unrestricted expansion, and my unvborn from NOX poioning - not bad for an unwashed mob - I pray you open your eyes to truth and reason and not self interested armchair booing - ask yourself - do you care about the future or other people.

- Christian Ball, London, UK

Jane London

Whilst the methods are questionable, at least some people are trying to stop an airport expansion justified by lies and deception to the people, and wholly supported by a Labour government in the back pocket of big business. What are you doing to stop it I wonder ? Nothing perhaps ?

- John Bloomfield, Twickenham

It is the protesters who are plane stupid. One piece of debris left behind after their entering the flight area can have a catastrophic outcome. FOD as it is known (foreign object damage or foreign object debris)caused the crash of a Concorde, Air France Flight 4590, at Charles de Gaulle International Airport near Paris on 25 July 2000.

- Jsb, York

I have great sympathy for the passengers, and those who oppose this runway, but none for the airport and its airlines. There is no way this 2nd runway should be going through. Not that a protest like this is likely to make a lot of difference I fear.

- Stephen, London

Girly day out, Christmas shopping in Bremen, Germany?
Is this article deliberately ironic, designed to put the "string 'em up comments' that'll be pouring in soon into proper perspective?

- Mike Russell, UK

What selfish idiots these travellers from Stanstead are - my day trip has been ruined but screw the planet - what utter insanity. The sooner peole realise our activities need to be curtailed as we are destroying our planet the better. This was stanstead - can't wait to see what the situation at Heathrow will be if that goes ahead.

- Christian Ball, London, UK

How do we protect ourselves from the this unwashed mob? easy,do as Farmers do to keep their animals in check,electrify the perimeter fence.

- Jane, London

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