Emma Thompson has hit back at Geoff Hoon after he criticised celebrities campaigning to stop a proposed third runway at Heathrow while continuing to use air travel. The transport secretary defended the proposed airport expansion in The Guardian by saying that "more and more people want to travel more and more". He added: "Baa do not wake up in the morning and think 'We need a bigger airport' and airlines do not say 'We need to put on more flights' unless there is a demand for it. "So the point is about not just Emma Thompson, but lots of people. If someone living in La (more)...
- 1/18/2009
- by By Sarah Rollo
- Digital Spy
Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson has hit back at scathing remarks by a British politician, who criticised her protests against the expansion of London's Heathrow Airport.
Transport minister Geoff Hoon singled out the Sense and Sensibility star for her outspoken views against controversial plans for a third runway at the site.
The star claims the project should be scrapped on environmental grounds.
Hoon tells British newspaper The Guardian, "She (Thompson) has been in some very good films. Love Actually is very good, but I worry about people who I assume travel by air quite a lot and don't see the logic of their position, not least because the reason we have this problem in relation to Heathrow is that more and more people want to travel more and more.
"If someone living in L.A. says he does not think it was a good idea to expand Heathrow, well the last time I looked the only way to get from L.A. to Britain is Heathrow."
But Thompson hit back at the minister, claiming he'd missed the point of her argument.
She says, "Get a grip Geoff. This is not a campaign against flying - we're trying to stop the expansion of Heathrow in the face of climate change.
"It sounds like the transport secretary has completely missed the point. Again."
Earlier this week (begs11Jan09) protesters including Thompson, British comedian Alistair McGowan and planet-friendly group Greenpeace purchased a plot of land in the middle of the development site in a bid to halt the plans.
Transport minister Geoff Hoon singled out the Sense and Sensibility star for her outspoken views against controversial plans for a third runway at the site.
The star claims the project should be scrapped on environmental grounds.
Hoon tells British newspaper The Guardian, "She (Thompson) has been in some very good films. Love Actually is very good, but I worry about people who I assume travel by air quite a lot and don't see the logic of their position, not least because the reason we have this problem in relation to Heathrow is that more and more people want to travel more and more.
"If someone living in L.A. says he does not think it was a good idea to expand Heathrow, well the last time I looked the only way to get from L.A. to Britain is Heathrow."
But Thompson hit back at the minister, claiming he'd missed the point of her argument.
She says, "Get a grip Geoff. This is not a campaign against flying - we're trying to stop the expansion of Heathrow in the face of climate change.
"It sounds like the transport secretary has completely missed the point. Again."
Earlier this week (begs11Jan09) protesters including Thompson, British comedian Alistair McGowan and planet-friendly group Greenpeace purchased a plot of land in the middle of the development site in a bid to halt the plans.
- 1/17/2009
- WENN
LONDON -- Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell on Monday reappeared before the inquiry into the death of U.K. government weapons expert David Kelly to reveal his "anger and frustration" with the BBC over its allegations that he "sexed up" the government's case for war with Iraq. Campbell, who revealed last month that he will quit his post, told the inquiry that he felt he had been accused "of something very, very serious which you know you have not done, when your efforts to seek to resolve it properly are met with a mixture of disdain and indifference." The inquiry learned from Campbell's diaries written at the height of the row with the BBC that both he and embattled Defense Minister Geoff Hoon had agreed that it would "fuck" BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan if it turned out that Kelly was the source for Gilligan's story. Gilligan's original report for the "Today" radio program had suggested his source was a senior intelligence official, which Kelly was not.
- 9/23/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair, Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon and BBC chairman Gavyn Davies will be called to give evidence at the inquiry into the suicide of Defense ministry weapons specialist David Kelly, inquiry head Lord Hutton said at a preliminary hearing. They will join BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan, Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell and members of Kelly's family. Hutton insisted Friday that the inquiry was not an attempt to resolve the long-running dispute between the BBC and the government over news reports on Iraq's military capability but was instead an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Kelly's suicide. How Kelly's name became public in the weeks before his death is also a key area of investigation. Before the hearing commenced, Hutton led a minute's silence for Kelly, who was found dead July 18 in the woods near his Oxfordshire home. "I should emphasize this is an inquiry to be conducted by me," Hutton said in his televised opening. "This is not a trial conducted between interested parties who have conflicting cases to advance. I do not sit to decide between conflicting cases. I sit to investigate the circumstances surrounding Dr. Kelly's death."...
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