Tesco politics

The British government have just scored a dramatic own goal by approving the construction of a third runway at Heathrow Airport. Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon is quoted in the Guardian today as saying that “the reason we have got this problem in relation to Heathrow is that more and more people want to travel more and more”. This is Tesco government: if people want something, then it must be provided for them, regardless of the consequences. But running a government is not the same as running a supermarket, even if the distinction is now all but lost on Gordon Brown’s cabinet. It is the job of elected leaders to provide, well, leadership. People may indeed “want to travel more and more” – I love travelling myself – but one of the tasks of government is to assess the wider implications of such individual wants and if necessary to discourage them. New Labour often seeks to influence individual behaviour through persuasion or regulation. Think of its approach to healthy eating, smoking, and, rather ironic this, the installation of low-energy light bulbs. Why is it, Mr Hoon, that the government sees fit to try to stop people eating fatty food, smoking cigarettes, or burning tungsten to light their homes, but not only refuses to discourage people from traveling by air, but goes out of its way to help them do so, as you put it, “more and more”?