Brighton's huge Downland estate had been built up in the interwar years to provide strict control of urban development, conservation of pure water resources and public open spaces, in the absence of proper planning legislation.
Yet conservative and productivist management of the estate in the post-war half century had caused levels of destruction of the wild habitats which matched those in private ownership.
In the 8 years since they gained control of Brighton Council in 1987, the Labour Party had demonstrated the positive potential of social ownership with a series of recreational and conservation initiatives.
When the right wing of the party developed the proposal to sell off the Downland farms to their existing tenants, it was thus easy to demonstrate the anti-social and destructive management practices of these farmers, and the positive benefits of public management.
The KODP campaign was also successful in 'highlighting the negaAirport, dug deep in their tunnels has not only had sympathetic media coverage but tapped into a deep and growing vein of support for environmental campaigning amongst ordinary people.
In Manchester many who have not been in a position to join those activists in the tunnels have never the less protested in support of their aims.
The April fool's joke was that Swampy was to stand against the hated Graham Stringer in the General Election: had he done so he would have undoubtedly won a wide swathe of support. Not only is ex-Council leader Stringer one of the prime advocates of the second runway, but he has gained further contempt by his vicious attacks on the The Coalition against Runway 2 (CAR2) points out that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says we must reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the UK by over 90 per cent "to avoid potentially catastrophic consequences from climate change".
Aircraft emit 35-65 ner cent more carbon dioxide that even cars per passenger kilometre. Seven than 100 per cent. Manchester Airport are within the UK. A second runway with the projected extra passengers is estimated to increase local road traffic by more Stringer pledges that "£1 million a week will be spent between now and 2005 on tarmac and terminals". It is estimated that the eviction of Swampy and his friends from the A30 widening scheme at Fairmile in Devon cost £200 per minute. There was only one occupied tunnel there, and the evictions were over in a week.
The assault on the camps at Manchester has already taken far longer than that as the protesters have learnt from previous battles. The money spent both on the runway and the evictions could be much better spent on services like health care and education that people really need. Contact CAR2, Manchester Friends of the Earth office, One World Centre, 6 Mount St, Manchester M2 5NS tel : 0161-8348221 fax: 0161-834-8187.