If the money has to support the PSO and buy the Heathrow slots has to come from the North East, then is it the best use of the North East's development budget ?
It's an awful lot of money to have to explain why flights from Newcastle aren't good enough as a proxy, and given the train connections to King's Cross, why MME deserves the connectivity into Heathrow rather than the larger metropolis of Leeds.
Get behind the campaign for a 3rd runway at Heathrow, and the additional slots available mean MME will have a decent chance of regaining flights to Heathrow again.