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- St FM, St Helena, radio interview
P: We can now talk to Lord Ashcroft?
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MA: It’s wonderful to be returning. In fact I set foot in St Helena in 1948 as a two year old boy with my parents coming from England to Cape Town in 1948 and they tell me that I fell into Napoleon’s fishpond when I came ashore at the time so in fact I have actually set foot in St Helena.
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P: Yes and we said before, before we started the broadcast that you are about 15, 20 minutes away from Saint Helena at the moment?
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MA: I’m about 25,000 feet in the air descending, slowly descending at the moment so I should be over there in about 15 minutes time.
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P: That sounds wonderful.
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MA: And I hope that my little one man protest that I cannot land at St Helena, I believe that you should have an airport, you should be able to open St Helena up to the world and I hope that an incoming Conservative government in due course will strongly support an airport there.
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- P: That’s lovely to hear. But as we said before I hope to have, to make your time sir, to give us another call when you have seen a little bit of St Helena when you’re flying over the island, I am sure that everybody in St Helena would very much appreciate. We know that the radios are on everywhere at the moment listening to you Lord Ashcroft.
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MA: Well that’s absolutely wonderful and I’ll give you a call after I depart, about five or ten minutes after I depart and sign off as I’m on my way then to Brazil.
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P: That’s really nice to hear because then we can talk more about St Helena because when you were in St Helena that was a long time ago and of course you can see now and I think you will be flying so low so you can actually see the people out looking for your airplane Lord Ashcroft?
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MA: And I apologise in advance for the noise that we’ll be making.
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P: Yes we have put that over as well but you are welcome to the noise because I think your statement is really good for the island and an important message to the British government and as you say after the election it might be slightly different.
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MA: I am looking forward to it and I hope the governor is there, Andrew Gurr, who I’ve met in London, I think he’s a great governor for the Island and I will give you a call when we start to leave. Take care.
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- P: Thank you very much Lord Ashcroft and you will be back on the air in about half an hour’s time.
8 comments ↓
It was a lovely experience seeing Lord Ashcroft fly across St Helena.
i must say it was a good experience speakin to him as it was a 1st 4 me as i was workin with the radio station on this particular day
Nice to know the Tories priority should be a airport on St Helena (population just over 4,000), i assume that one will be immediately after their inherintance tax law saving millions for the top 2% of brits. ITS ALL ABOUT CLASS.
” I hope that an incoming Conservative government in due course will strongly support an airport there.”
I think it’s clear at this stage an incoming conservative government will do pretty much anything his Lordship tells them. They’re privileged to get a personal visit though. Normally he just sends Hague.
Lord Ashcroft can say whatever ‘’I hope that an incoming Conservative government in due course will strongly support an airport on St Helena’’ i personally don’t believe that is possible anytime soon Britain is the only country that is nt showing signs of recovering from the recession. So does this paint a future for St Helena’s Airport?
Its time for reality check I would not hang around on St Helena and wait on any more promises of an Airport, great publicity stunt i guess it was a nice day out in st Helena from 10 000 feet (edited out error that is potentially libellous).
Message in response to Steve really, I guess, if you think it’s all about class then please pay a visit to St Helena and see what it is you are talking about before casting judgement upon a British population that, according to Article 73 of the UN Charter, Britain is supposed to pro-actively support… It’s both good and heartening to know that this British island still has friends in both Houses of British Government, particularly those who are willing to make personal demonstrations on our behalf…
PS Funny how Gordon Brown can support a £12Bn additional runway at Heathrow Airport under the premise that “access” is the most important part of economic development, but can’t invest in a proven ecenomic “spend to save exercise” that will create 21st access to this island which will enable us to re-join the global economy and finally have a chance of fending for ourselves financially, rather than having to live on Government handouts…
Can’t quite figure this out. No votes in an airport for St Helena, and no funds to spare for an incoming Conservative Government. I was discussing this with a neighbour who is older, wiser and more conservative than I: he doesn’t think that the noble Lord is motivated by altruism.
It is interesting to note that late in 2009 the recommendations by the UK Government for the building of this Airport for St Helena (following on from the Tendering process that suggested the costs were ”considerably higher” than estimate) was deferred. What a pity that this programme/project has been delayed for yet – an apparent – unknown period. How can this be when on the back of the St Helena Airport project there is already good news awaiting the island in the development for tourism and industry?
For some time it has been more than obvious that the Government of the UK was desperately trying to avoid building this airport as it would cost the Tax Payers a huge amount to support same. The various comments about the build costs of up to €380 million and the obvious inference that the award was going to be accorded to an Italian company did not help. (It was obvious at the start that the so-called estimates given by the advisers W S Atkins and others were well under the truth.
Perhaps the move by Peter Kershaw and his partners should now be tested to the better. If they see this as a real venture than they should make the play before the Chinese look at it.
Perhaps the familiar ring with the project is that the reason for the airport in St Helena was to be a spur for including the island in the tourist book – a position which I have to say would be very much welcomed. It is doubtful whether the tourist industry alone could justify the position.
This development should not be viewed in isolation since there are other potential developments afoot which I understand are in discussion in the background which could improve matters.
The location and the area of the island and the sea around it as being a source of wealth that can be used in addition to other materials to promote a renewable fuels (or biofuels) industry. Although such an industry would support the production of the fuel needed to support air transport as well as the local transport (albeit one that is very small) as well as for export. How can this be? Well the truth is out there that in a series of quiet discussions away from the glare of publicity proposals are afoot to build a biofuels facility on the island which could produce all the fuel required for air transportation and shipping to the island as well as for export. It is rumoured that such a proposal completely funded from outside – not needing British Government support – would produce 140 million litres of the renewable fuel Ethanol and the further production of 60 million litres of the renewable fuel for air transport Butanol using Biomass grown from natural sources as well as from the oceans. Such a proposal would incur an investment of the best part of €200 million (plus a small contingency) and create anywhere between 140 and 200 jobs – permanent ones at that! It would take around 30 months to build from start to finish. Better still with the rewards as an exported material the biofuel Ethanol would be a welcomed additional source of fuel that could be exported – in the worst case scenario – to the Far East where demands are phenomenal.
The airport though would be a useful adjunct to this development for although such a project would – in theory stand-alone without it – the premise for its sustainability would be better served in that event. However having heard about this development it also appears that as a result of previous developments in the aircraft industry that it would be possible to service the island through the use of a much shorter runway using the latest aircraft being developed in Brazil and the USA. (In days past during the development of Flying Boats this position could have been viewed as an option. A similar option also was available with the The same is true of the ground effect aircraft developed in the old Soviet days that Boeing is now developing. Perhaps there is an option here to get to St Helena, but even if it is it would still need fuel.
From what I hear the issue is not necessarily the airport but the more important ones of improving the wealth of the Saints in St Helena. By making biofuels on the island we can do this and the proposal afott will do that.
Insist on it for the Saints.
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