This morning I attended a Environmental Scrutiny Committee meeting, where the public were invited to attend.  Some of the committee members appeared pleased that a number of the public were their, with some of public putting forward short presentations.  Bot when the Council’s economic advisers gave their presentation, my heart dropped.  They were advocating ‘business-as-usual’, even though this is the cause of our present financial crisis.  Also a councillor dismissed the importance of local food production, stating he wanted his electorate to stop smoking and drinking.  He obviously does not understand, this is due to the inequalities of the present system and their lack of empowerment. 

And in the workshop I attended, once again a councillor argued that the airport was low carbon, as the emissions did not affect Manchester but were felt elsewhere.  And it was best the expanded Manchester Airport, because if aviation went elsewhere it would not be a low carbon as that of Manchester Airport.  The attitude of some of the councillors are totally blinkered, they cannot see the real damage the airport is doing to Manchester and the surrounding area.  And things will get worse with the building of the by-pass, so motorist can get to the airport faster instead of using public transport.  These views were reinforced by Richard Leese, he even decided that one of the action points would not be Manchester’s but AGMA’s (Association of Greater Manchester Authorities). 

It would appear the council leadership have not taken any notice of the mass of information on the unsustainability of ‘business-as-usual’.  Someone from AGMA, when someone said the council needed to show leadership, said Richard Leese had showed leadership because he gave a speech!  This is not leadership, in fact Richard Leese, is very good at saying the council is not responsible for this, they cannot do this or that.  He does not show leadership, but is a bully boy who wants to get his own way no matter what others think. 

It is a pity this video from the European Environmental Agency was not available to show them.  Though, I doubt it would make much difference to the likes of Richard Leese