Quote: "You could also say that about Belgium and the Netherlands - in the latter, the population is around the Ranstaad."
Belgium and the Netherlands do not have the vast empty spaces that we have in the UK: the moors in Devon and Cornwall; Cambrian mountains and Snowdonia, the Pennines and the Yorkshire moors, the Cheviots, the Grampians, the Highlands and Islands, and much of Northern Ireland. My comment that huge swathes of the UK are empty is accurate.
Quote: "Yet despite this, Schiphol still has a tiny noise footprint compared to LHR. This is the problem with a 3rd runway - you can't just say jets are getting quieter, look up:"
Having lived under the flightpath in west Middlesex for many years (and old enough to remember the noisy jets of the 1960s), yes I can!