The anatomy of an expert Commission: Howard Davies, rhetorical reframing and the performance of leadership

Steven Griggs; David Howarth

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Contesting Aviation Expansion

Depoliticisation, Technologies of Government and Post-Aviation Futures

Authors:

Steven Griggs

and

David Howarth

Keywords:: Airport expansion; Heathrow; Aviation noise; Carbon emissions; Depoliticisation; Leadership; Framing

Global Social Challenges:: Climate Change, Energy and Sustainability, Hunger, Food, Water and Shelter

Sustainable Development Goals:: Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 2: Zero Hunger, Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal 13: Climate Action, Goal 15: Life On Land

3: The anatomy of an expert Commission: Howard Davies, rhetorical reframing and the performance of leadership

Authors:

Steven Griggs

and

David Howarth

Publication Date:: 31 May 2023

Pages:: 73–102

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.51952/9781447344292.ch003

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This chapter investigates the work of the Airport Commission (2012–2015). It first discerns and characterises the bundle of mechanisms, strategies, arguments and rhetorical claims at play in its discourse. It explores how the Commission deployed legitimising appeals to independent expertise; transformed the economic boosterism of aviation into the strategic advantages of connectivity; marshalled the techniques of forecasting and prediction; and redefined information-giving and transparency as forms of engagement. In particular, it demonstrates how the Commission strategically framed aviation emissions and aircraft noise to negate opposition to expansion and how its ‘performance of authority’ was embodied in the ‘reasonable’ and ‘neutral’ position of its chair, Sir Howard Davies. Politically, the Commission successfully kept the aviation issue off the national political agenda in the run-up to the 2015 general election, while also satisfying the demands of the pro-expansion Heathrow lobby, which was a programme success for the Cameron government. However, in disclosing the complex dynamics of politicisation and re-politicisation at work during the Commission’s lifespan, we conclude that ultimately it did little more than instil a temporary ‘phoney war’ in aviation policy, with the publication of its Final Report in 2015 triggering another round of ‘trench warfare’ that re-politicised aviation policy.

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3: The anatomy of an expert Commission: Howard Davies, rhetorical reframing and the performance of leadership