Recent events in Thanet have been largely dictated by the presence of UKIP both at Parliamentary and District council level. There are probably a few hundred votes across the district to be garnered by adopting a pro-airport stance- though the population has never actually been verifiebly asked if they want an airport or not. Ruth Bailey stood as "Manston Airport Independent Party" candidate in the general election and polled 191 votes. The population was asked some time ago if they wanted night flights and voted 2:1 against. This is the only airport-specific information we have. Both UKIP and Conservative took a pro-airport stance at the council elections but of course this is only one policy out of many. The fact that UKIP were elected says more about the political complexion of Thanet than attitudes to Manston airport.
It might be reasonable to assume that other parties would like to see this UKIP council fail. Now that the Conservatives are safely on the sidelines they can watch how UKIP deal with the poisoned chalice of the CPO.
If the council do not proceed they can be accused of failing to fulfill their election mandate.
If they do proceed and fail they can be accused of wasting time and the valuable regeneration opportunities being offered by the new owners of the site.
In the unlikely event the CPO succeeds, then we are left with the same failing mess of an airport we have had for the past 16 years and UKIP are once again to blame.
It will be interesting to see which form of execution they select