Heathrow is in my constituency and I have been at both the Terminal 4 and Terminal 5 planning inquiries. At these inquiries my community has been assured by the inquiry inspectors, BAA and government ministers that each development would be the last piece of expansion of the airport because of its ever-increasing noise and air pollution.
John McDonnell
Nationally, unrestrained Heathrow expansion has prevented the balanced development of regional airports and their economies and the planning of an integrated transport system maximising more environmentally friendly modes of transport such as rail linked more effectively to Europe.
The spread of information technology and the long-term decline in the cost of computing power have created opportunities that simply did not exist before. Airbnb, for example, could not have existed before the Internet.
To be effective in tackling poverty wages, a living wage has to be mandatory and basic trade union rights should be restored so workers can protect themselves from exploitative employers.
Parties don't lose overnight, there is a gradual erosion of their base and electoral machine, which leads to sometimes cataclysmic defeat.
The decision over Heathrow expansion exemplifies the style of policy-making that starts with capitulation to a powerful self-interested lobby, blatantly fixes a public consultation and then drives through a policy that destroys any vestiges of green credentials the government had left.
Since John Smith's death and the Blair/Brown takeover in 1994, party members have watched the way in which an elite leadership group has formed in the Labour party, cutting itself off from the party's traditions, values and norms of behaviour.
Political rivalry is one thing but personal smear campaigns scrape the barrel of political infighting.
I made the case for public ownership in 'Another World is Possible' - a manifesto for 21st-century socialism - as it is the most rational approach for managing resources in the long-term interest of the entire community.
Leaders play an important role, but it is the Labour party's supporters and potential supporters who should take the lead in discussing and determining the sense of purpose and direction of the party if we are to return to being a social movement aiming to transform our society.
To me, education is not a commodity. It is a public good, essential to any society with a claim to being civilised.
I call a spade a shovel, straightforward. If I disagree with someone, I tell them.
People realise that if Labour is to fulfil its founding goal of transforming our economic and political system into a more equal, free and truly democratic society, which provides security and life-changing opportunities to the British people, then there is no going back.
If corporations and rich people who made fortunes out of us during the boom are not paying their fair share then reform the tax system and close down the tax havens.
I sneaked into an Everton match once. I'm a Liverpool supporter, but Liverpool were away, Liverpool reserves weren't playing, there wasn't even a youth match, so I took my son into an Everton match. God help me. It wasn't me.
From nuclear waste to Northern Rock and Metronet, risk is never transferred to the private sector - the state will always be forced to step in where there is a clear public interest.
Governments usually end not with a bang but with a whimper, as the Conservatives learned in the 1990s. Support and authority erodes over time until there is a final collapse of support and pivotal electoral shift.
As the world changes, the way we work changes with it.
Conservatives claim they are 'one nation' Tories when they have actually been a government for the 1% who have undermined our economic interests through their greed.
We need an NHS with fewer managers, fewer contractors and more power (rather than choice) to patients - with the input of the real experts: healthcare professionals.
If the government is injecting public money, it should also take the right to oversee board appointments, executive pay, and future business operations.
We need to promote employment through investment in major public works schemes to meet the U.K.'s needs.
I am categorically opposed to any fees for education - and I have voted and campaigned against their introduction at every stage.
I have a political philosophy by which I judge political events. It's called socialism, which at its core is about achieving equality, justice and peace through democracy.
If people need homes then put councils and building workers to work to build them, buy up the empty ones and stop the repossessions.
In 1985, as a community activist and GLC councillor, I organised the first ever public meeting to explain the threat of a third runway at Heathrow airport for my local community.
The New Labour political elite has long conspired to secure a so-called 'smooth transition' for Blair's successor. This would amount to little more than the imposition of a leader on the party and our supporters without any real democratic participation.
Our supporters just want a Labour government. They want a Labour government that does what Labour governments are expected to do. They expect a Labour government to provide them, their families and their communities with the support and security they need, especially in difficult times.
I do not want to be associated with those that are willing to support undermining the basic human rights that socialists have fought and sacrificed themselves to secure and protect over generations.
A fairer system bases itself on actual outcomes - if you earn more you pay more, through progressive income tax.
If bitter party name-calling turns people off then smear politics just destroys all credibility in the aims of politicians, the role of political parties and the political process itself.
The Tories have made a complete mess of Brexit negotiations.
Very clearly, government investment can and should be used to support economic growth.
When you're in the depths of a recession, that isn't the time when people want to challenge the system, they're too busy trying to survive. It's when they're told we're coming out of a recession, growth is returning, and they're not seeing the benefits of it, or they're not seeing them quick enough.
There are some lines in the sand you just do not cross. Undermining basic civil liberties by locking people up for long periods without charge is one of them.
We stand in the centre ground of the Labour party and our traditions. The policies we are advocating go right back to the beginning.
We want to be absolutely clear to the people what we are about. No backroom deals whatsoever and we're not going to be held back by any other political parties.
Labour will only survive in government if we can restore the sense of mission upon which it was founded.
New Labour has systematically alienated section after section of our natural supporters - teachers, health workers, students, pensioners, public service workers, trade unionists and people committed to the environment, civil liberties and peace.
Well organised displays of spontaneous support is one of the New Labour machine's specialities.
Going to university is, and should be, so much more than a mechanical process of grinding out a degree qualification for a pre-determined career path.
Britain has moved on. It is a radically different country from that which shaped New Labour.
I saw the Blair-Mandelson regime as a coup, and I think it was a well-funded coup as well - resources obviously came from big private-sector backers. But all through that period the bulk of the rank and file party were what the party has always been, a socialist party.
The concept of loyalty to the leader is set firmly in the ethos of the Labour party.
Out of the suffering of the 1930s, Britain built a civilising society, based in large part on the important lesson that unemployment is rarely the fault of individual malingering but the structural consequence of governments allowing the free market to rule our lives.
It was inevitable and understandable that the election of Jeremy Corbyn would be a massive culture shock for some sections of the party, especially some members of the parliamentary Labour party.
When governments fail us, what else can people do except take to direct action? When corporate power can so dominate government policy-making that whole communities are placed at risk, where else can people turn?
How many times have we seen politicians in office become cut off from the outside world and become unaware that the world has moved on?
Producing more reams of detailed policies that have marginal and limited effects on our society is futile.
We believe that leaders should be following the masses. We only ran in leadership campaigns to get our ideas across, to use it as a platform.
