Torqy:
As has been discussed before, it seems that politicians in this country have a complete inability to put short term political considerations aside and focus - and agree - on long term strategic projects whether they be new nuclear power stations or airports. Consequently, every five years or so, policies and programmes are abandoned, delayed, changed. Other countries e.g. France seem to be able to put political differences aside when nationally important issues are at stake and agree on long term national priorities. Also, countries such as France would never countenance selling off the "family silver" to foreign companies which are frequently controlled by foreign governments. Successive UK governments have claimed that this is just the free market operating but foreigners must be utterly slack jawed in amazement that we would let flagship company after flagship company be sold to offshore buyers, not to mention critical parts of our infrastructure. Almost more important than the lost profits is the gradual seepage away of intellectual property and know-how and the dearth of inspirational national champions with which to attract new young blood into e.g. aircraft engineering.
Agreed, agreed, agreed. You are not a sock-puppet for Silverstrata, are you? ;-)
It is also worth mentioning that the three terms of New Labour in the naughties had nothing to do with the betterment of the UK - it was all about social engineering for a certain political ideology. So Blair and co did not give a stuff about what happened to the UK, as long as they could change our society and extinguish any thoughts of pride or patriotism.
So you are 100% correct, Torqy, and this is why we have ended up with no high speed rail network, no new nuclear power stations, precious little new housing (despite another 5 million people), no new roads, no new ports, no new industries - and no new airports.
Thus LHR has stagnated into the dire position it is in now, because of all of the reasons given above. This is why we need to make a break with past fudging and kicking the problem down the road a bit - and we need to build an entirely new piece of world-class infrastructure.
If we don't we are completely lost as a nation. We are half lost already, and if you think the economy is dire now, then just wait until all the international banks in London jump-ship to Amsterdam, because London has become so difficult to get to.
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