On a lot of your points here I agree. Government should absolutely be doing more to encourage more tourism and more people to the island. The island has a lot to offer a tourist and if it were marketed more effectively maybe we would see more demand for air services. Also more broader onward investment should be encouraged I am all for that to help the island prosper. The problem is not enough has been done around this to date and so it needs time to build to that position. Indeed to get the required inward investment you need to get key businessman and investors here in the first place. I would argue that is why the Mayor of Teesside is doing everything he can to keep a LHR route going into his region.
Your comment re Liverpool is an interesting one but I suspect may be clouded by the Patient Services contract which the government tender out. Maybe that is why the two coexist? But an outcome like Liverpool would be ideal for the London market so lets hope we can see something like that happening.