20/06/2009 by admin.

Not only, has Labour MP Ian Stewart managed to avoid the expenses scandal, but he has proved himself a bit of a hero to boot. He had to be  prevented by police from diving into the River Thames to try to rescue a man who jumped off Westminster Bridge outside the House of Commons.

The Eccles MP had kicked off his shoes and was preparing to go into the river as the man disappeared under the water was being carried downstream by the fast-flowing current.

But armed officers who were guarding MPs and their guests on the Commons Terrace outside the Strangers Bar which overlooks the Thames stepped in and ordered Mr Stewart not to enter the water.

A fire brigade rescue boat and a river police boat arrived within minutes and managed to snatch the man from the river, guided by onlookers from the terrace,  before taking him to hospital.

Mr Stewart, whose constituency will disappear at the next election, was entertaining visitors from Greater Manchester and Merseyside after a parliamentary reception for the North West Rail Campaign and Merseytravel which was hosted by Liverpool MP and Transport Select Committee Chairman Louise Elman and attended by new transport minister Chris Mole.

He said afterwards: “Nobody seemed to be doing anything so I thought I had better go in but  the police stopped me.”

Earlier in the day, he had rescued me when he spied me trying to get through a locked glass door in Portcullis House. I was in the process of being told by a policeman: “You can’t just wander around this place, sir”, when Ian opened the door from the inside and let me through.

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20/06/2009 by admin.

A VETERAN airport campaigner and a Manchester MP clashed at a meeting of the Commons Transport Select Committee over to cost of air travel.

Jeff Gazzard, who lives near Manchester Airport and is a long-time opponent of the second runway, claimed that it is now as cheap to fly to Prague as catch a taxi into Manchester and demanded that air fares should be put up to discourage people from flying.

He was called to give evidence to the Committee - which is preparing a report into the future of aviation – as a director of the Aviation Environment Federation…and faced Blackley MP Graham Stringer who once led Manchester City Council - the airport’s biggest shareholder.

Submitting, Manchester Airport’s passenger figures, Mr Gazzard said: “We have some concerns that regional airports are overstating their case for expansion.

“The airport’s forecasts when seeking to build a second runway were a target of almost 30 million passengers by 2005 – actual numbers were 22 million representing a staggering 27 per cent shortfall.

“Similarly, aircraft movements are way below forecast too. This means that the economic benefits claimed at the time construction permission for the second runway was sought and obtained will also be significantly lower than predicted.

“We would ask the committee to note this underperformance by the UK’s largest airport outside London and the South East.”

Mr Stringer told him: “You do not like aviation and you are targeting it even though it only contributes five per cent of the pollution.

“How do you say to my constituents earning £15,000 a year and can just about manage one holiday a year to the Costa Brava that they should pay more?”

Mr Gazzard, who had also clashed with Sheffield MP Angela Smith about raising fares for ordinary people by imposing air passenger duty, replied: “People who fly once a year to the Costa Brava need have anything to fear from between £3 and £30 of the price of air tickets.”

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