First, among Labour’s 2010 voters, 37% say Ed Miliband is doing a good job as party leader, 62% think well of the SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon.
Second, since the referendum, 7% of those who voted no have gone to the SNP. On the nationalist side the vote appears more united, while on the pro-union side it is divided and fragmented: 44% would vote Labour, 36% Conservative, and 7% Lib Dem.
The implication here is that although the Tories’ call for Labour to rule out any form of deal (not just a formal coalition, which both Miliband and Sturgeon have excluded as an option) with the SNP may work for short-term electoral purposes, there is the risk that by disenfranchising Scottish MPs at Westminster Cameron’s wedge isn’t just being driven through Labour but into the longer term future of the Union.
Third, and crucially, only 15% of SNP voters say Miliband would be better for Scotland than David Cameron: you can see why the “vote SNP, get Tory” mantra isn’t sticking. An Ipsos Mori poll released earlier this year found the Labour leader to be less popular in Scotland than Cameron: just 27% said they were satisfied with the prime minister, but even less (21%) were happy with Miliband.
Democratic shift
What is happening in Scotland, just like what hit the Conservatives back in the mid-1990s, should not be cast aside as volatility between elections. The SNP’s optimistic tone on issues such as immigration is particularly popular with younger voters, and in remarkably stark contrast to the stance most parties south of the border have taken on these same matters.
The University of Edinburgh research found Scotland’s electorate to be a lot more engaged than voters in England and Wales across all age groups and all levels of educational attainment. When asked how certain they were about voting in May’s election, 76% of Scots chose point 10 on an 11-point scale compared to 63% in England and 64% in Wales. The differences are especially acute among younger voters: 65% of those aged 18-19, and 57% of 20-24-year-olds said they were certain to vote compared to 34% and 38% respectively in England.
The humorist David Sedaris has called the book “outstanding”. “Every page is alive and surprising, proof of his huge, unique talent.”
The prize, sponsored by the Folio Society, was created last year with the aim of celebrating the year’s best English-language fiction, regardless of form, genre and geography.
Its first winner was the American short story writer George Saunders for his collection Tenth of December. ITV director of television Peter Fincham said: “Seth MacFarlane’s shows have firmly established him as the comedy voice of choice for an entire generation.
“Seth is sharp, hugely irreverent and brilliantly funny, which is reflected in his fantastic shows. We are delighted to be welcoming him and his comic creations to ITV.”
Family Guy, about to begin its 15th season, was consistently one of BBC3’s most popular shows with around half a million viewers tuning in to the latest adventures of the Griffin family.
Its success was seized on by both supporters of the channel and also its critics, because it is an American imported show rather than a homegrown success. In Heathrow’s vision of the future, the airport will be a premium hub with the cleanest and quietest aircraft flocking to use it. Steeper landing approaches on the new runway will allow planes to fly higher for longer, disturbing fewer people in west London.
Gorman says Heathrow won’t need to ban noisier planes; they should be phased out within the next seven years – although a Heathrow noise action plan from 2011 promised they would be gone by 2015. But a measure of the airport’s new-found apparent intent to address the noise issue came in its vastly increased offer last month of up to £700m for measures to insulate local homes and public buildings.
Should the Airports Commission recommend expanding Heathrow, Arup expects to develop a more accessible public version of the lab It is keen for people to come in free of preconceptions, experience the lab for themselves and form their own judgments. But this is what the sound lab simulation suggested to me.
The Boeing 787 “Dreamliner”, for all the hype about its quieter engines, still makes a lot of noise – almost as much as the A320 in the simulation. The smaller A320’s whistling sound apparently grates on the ears of residents – but the 787’s reverberation is not insignificant either. Similarly, the giant A380 is far quieter than the hellish roar of a 747 flying overhead – but it is still a big plane, making noise.
Assuming Heathrow keeps all its pledges – and the Arup simulation is accurate – properly installed sound insulation, available to many under the compensation scheme, can vastly reduce the sound compared to standard double glazing, which might be assumed to cut out most noise.
Outdoors, when a plane is flying over, there’s little escape. However, the lab also showed that, if properly mitigated – indoors, with insulation, on a steeper approach – a 787 or A380 becomes barely audible when coming in to land on an alternate runway.
That suggests that any expansion plans must involve giving areas breaks from engine noise: more than anything else, the change of flight path will make a difference for those worst affected. The third runway (potentially) could alleviate it even more, if the pattern of respite can be sustained or guaranteed.
There are definite questions to be resolved and guarantees that many would seek: the real-life effectiveness of insulation and its geographical spread; the elimination of noisy planes; and exactly how to spread the pain once hundreds of thousands of extra flights a year from a new runway are factored in. And of course, some would definitely suffer more under the new flight path of that new runway.
But SoundLab appears to show that the noise problem is, if far from solved, something that can genuinely be moderated in future years.
Remarkably, John Stewart of Hacan – despite remaining firmly opposed to a third runway – seems to agree. “It’s a useful tool to show how quieter planes will impact on local communities. On noise grounds it makes the prospect of a third runway a little less of an issue: what this did show me is that the new generation of planes will be quite a lot quieter than the current planes in the sky.
“There is a residue of mistrust at Heathrow, but my belief is that they now understand and will deliver on whatever commitments they make regarding a third runway.
“The critical question is if they could prove a third runway would lead to more respite for communities than they get today. Then they may be on to a winner.”
The show recently had a controversial tie-up with the Simpsons.