If only CAA had the same power as local authority planning committees.
You're a developer, you want to build a pile of houses and a shopping centre. Fine says the planning authority but we want a nice new leisure centre as well, a road upgrade for all the extra traffic, and why not have a little park too; if you want your planning consent, you will need to provide it. The important point is that the connection between the planners' demands and the "harm" caused by the development can (under the legislation) be tenuous or non-existent.
So Stansted wants a new runway. And Heathrow wants a new terminal and (eventually) a runway. If only the CAA could just say that, as part of their agreement to that, BAA has to provide radar services for everyone.
And if someone now tells me that CAA already have this power and don't use it then I am going to be upset.
On the class E debate, as most of my experience till recently has been in US airspace, I appreciate the benefits that class E gives in terms of more VFR airspace access, lower airways for IFR etc. However, I also appreciate the more relaxed visibility and cloud clearance requirements that the UK's version of class G gives me - I think we would all miss those more than we think if it all became class E.