Jabird:
Silver, as John Major used to say endlessly in PMQs (if you know what they are) - 'I refer you to the answer I gave moments ago' - or in this case a month or two ago.
The case for Silver-Boris Island is far from watertight, it is full of very large holes. This government is strapped for cash - so much so that it is even considering selling the family jewels! Can you imagine Obama selling the White House?
Please see the large article in Today's Sunday Times. There the case for doing SOMETHING was made as watertight as possible - listing all the important destinations in South Ameica and China that LHR cannot service because of capacity constraints (and noting that both CDG and AMS do service these destinations. They also had quotes indicating that Chinese tourism and trade is being diverted away from London, because of the poor state of LHR (queues, gridlock etc).
The clear message from the Sunday Times was that a new airport MUST be built, but the amount of money we wish to invest is open to discussion. However, I was not so happy with the suggestion that the Chinese should pay for it. All this 'inward investment' through the purchasing UK businesses may give us jam today, but it also makes us slaves of the Chinese for the future (and the future's future).
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