Metaphor, Catachresis and Equivalence: The Rhetoric of Freedom to Fly in the Struggle over Aviation Policy in the United Kingdom

Abstract

This article investigates the dynamics of current aviation policy in Britain by examining the consultation process surrounding the New Labour government's 2003 strategic plan to expand airport capacity in the UK. It examines the way in which the Freedom to Fly coalition structured the terrain of public reasoning and debate so as to negate or at least contain those voices that challenged the Labour government's desire for expansion. The article draws upon recent developments in post-Marxist discourse theory to examine the rhetorical strategies and mechanisms by which organic intellectuals welded together a diverse range of pro-expansion interests, thus securing agreement that the demand for growth ought to be the overriding demand to be defended in the policy and public domains. In so doing, the article examines three rhetorical logics – those of rhetorical redescription, catachresis and equivalence – showing how these informed the new and successfuldiscourse of aviation expansion.