Why would it be such a bad thing for traffic to move across the channel? Let Schiphol and Frankfurt deal with the noise and pollution; the last thing we in London need is yet more countryside disappearing beneath tonnes of concrete and tarmac. It's time to move the focus onto the quality of our airports, not the size.
Hell ye lets get rid of Heathrows 72000 direct jobs and over 100000 more jobs in it's ancillary industries.
28 International companies have there head quarters here in London, all require an international hub, 2007 stock exchange turnover was $9.14 Trillion, it's nearest European competitor was Frankfurt whose turnover was $3.64 Trillion. I haven't even gone into the freight figures. Whether you like it or not if we were to scale down Heathrow and chase the competition to Europe we would suffer economically.