Nathan Coombs, MM co-founder, takes on the symbiotic relationship that has developed between Ryanair and its supposedly ‘radical’ critics
Another week passes, another Ryanair ‘scandal’ hits the news. With tiring regularity, the schemers of Ryanair’s marketing department manage to envelop themselves in yet another media storm by pointing a finger at their critics, which then blows back as egg in their face.
Last week it was Michael O’Leary’s musings about installing coin slots in their airline toilets, as well as his staffers railing against ‘idiot bloggers’. This week it is the rushed closure of a fake Ryanair Twitter site, obviously parodying O’Leary’s comments by accusing their customers of ‘smelling like urine’. Who knows what next week’s instalment will look like? Judging by the current trajectory, it could well be the company demanding chip and pin credit card payments for lifejackets in the case of an emergency …
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Co-founder Sarah Boyes reflects on Modern Movement’s position on mobility and progress
I have been posting recently on Derek Wall’s blog, Another Green World (comments also republished as a seperate post here). Derek Wall is a former speaker of the Green Party and an ecosocialist. Whilst it has become clear that Derek and I don’t exactly see eye to eye, we nevertheless have managed to cover some interesting ground during the discussion. Following his interest and calls for further clarification, I thought it might be worth noting some of the general arguments put forward by many of us at Modern Movement.
- Moblility Comes First: the opportunity to travel and move around the globe freely is liberating for everybody. Better transport infrastructure, cheaper fares and faster means of getting around help to ensure freedom of movement. They also constitute a public good; …
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MM co-founder Robin Walsh argues that hysterical claims that we have only 93 months to ‘save our climate’ are based on ignorance of human ingenuity, in spiked, on 4 March
Did you know that we have only 93 months to ‘save the world’?
According to the 100 Months Project, a collection of green groups and charities based in Britain and beyond, in around seven or eight years’ time we will reach the climate’s ‘tipping point’ after which there will be ‘no return’. Unless we severely slash our carbon-use now, and lower our horizons, the world will effectively end. The 100 Months website comes complete with a big red ticking clock counting down the seconds, minutes, hours, days and months to the point of ‘no return’. At the time of writing, there are 93 months, or 2,737 days or 65,688 hours, to save our planet.
It is a powerful illustration …
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MM co-founder Nathan Coombs puts the case for the expansion of Heathrow in the London Student, 2 March
Why would any right-thinking person support the third runway at Heathrow? On one side of the argument, there seems to be the resounding ‘no’ of the democratic will of the people – local residents, environmentalists and various left-wing groups including the Socialist Workers Party. On the other side, we find the grey suits of the BAA monopoly, the New Labour government and the CBI. But this is a superficial and false dichotomy, and one which should not distract us from the fundamental argument to be made.
In a comment piece in the Guardian Comment is Free (19th of February) I argued that we should support the new runway because the recent advent of cheap flights has been one of few tangible increases in the standard of living for most people …
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Modern Movement had it’s ‘real life’ launch last night with the Counter-Demo: Build Heathrow-3 on Parliament Square. We had a good crowd of about 50 people and featured in BBC London News on their 18.30 and 22.30 bulletins. We were also in today’s Evening Standard.
Photos of the demo can be seen here.
Nathan Coombs, MM co-founder argues that the expansion of cheap flights has been one of the few tangible increases in the standard of living for most people, in the Guardian, 19 February 2009.
Today marks the first public demonstration by Britain’s newly-formed campaigning group, Modern Movement. We will be outside parliament this evening to counter protests against the building of the third runway at Heathrow, and will be representing the majority of people in this country who are in favour of aviation and regularly vote with their feet by taking foreign holidays.
For us, this issue is critical. Mobility is at the centre of everyone’s lives and the expansion of cheap flights in recent decades is one of the few tangible increases in the standard of living of most people. Whereas our housing stock has not improved much in either quality or quantity, and our railways and roads are …
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A sympathetic piece by Andrew Orlowski is in today’s Register. MM co-founder Alex Hochuli is extensively quoted.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/19/modern_movement/
Alex Hochuli, co-founder of Modern Movement explains why MM are holding a pro-flight demo in London on Thursday, in spiked, 18 February 2009
On 15 January, the UK government finally gave the go-ahead to build a third runway and a sixth terminal at London Heathrow airport. The subsequent outcry from environmental campaigners and Nimby (‘Not In My Back Yard’) groups indicates that this has become far more than a mundane planning decision. It is for this reason that I founded Modern Movement with a group of friends to defend increased mobility and mass travel. We are organising a demonstration in London on Thursday to express our support for airport expansion and the extension of flying to all.
Over the past few years, environmentalists have increasingly problematised aviation, perhaps more so than any other human activity. Campaign groups have sought to portray flying as a major environmental and moral issue, …
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Modern Movement co-founder Patrick Hayes takes on the conspiracy theorising directed at MM
It’s fascinating what Google Alerts dredge up from the blogosphere. Seemingly within a day of Modern Movement announcing the counter-demonstration, I was bemused to see on the Green Left blog that the Campaign against Climate Change had sent an email making the following claim about us:
No doubt there’s aviation money behind the counter-demo (it also looks to have links with the whole sceptic backlash network..)
Firstly, it’s worth pointing out that, whilst we love flying, we don’t love airline companies. As anyone who has read our statement will see, we demand ‘transport fit for humans, not cattle’. Anyone who’s travelled on cheap flights (or been stranded at an airport) know that they don’t meet that description.
I also would like to assure supporters that, far from being flush with dosh from airline companies, …
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A demonstration organised by Modern Movement will take place on Thursday 19 February at 5.30 - 7.30pm on the East Footway, Parliament Square. Modern Movement is a grassroots backlash against the idea that we should fly less. The group are demanding guilt-free, cheap flights for all.
A Campaign against Climate Change protest against the third runway is taking place at the same time. They will in front of Downing Street.
The first organised group to get out on the streets to stand up for the freedom to fly against green austerity, Modern Movement has already won enthusiastic support on Facebook, with a first-time coalition of Build The Third Runway groups.
Charlie Winstanley, 19, a student from Lancashire attending the pro-flying demo said:
I have always wanted to travel and made plans for a trip-of-a-lifetime to South America this summer. But rather than this inspiring people at uni, I’m …
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