Jabird:
I'm afraid Silver is making the classic American mistake of confusing England with the UK. The addition of the huge, largely deserted, Scottish landmass has a rather significant impact on the figures.
And you are using the classic New Labour diversion tactic of countering a sound argument with irrelevant information. Just what do the Scottish Highlands have to do with the facts and requirements of siting a new London airport? I suppose you will also claim that Moscow is the least densely populated city in the whole world, by including Siberia in your calculations.
The crux of the matter is that the S.E. is woefully short of real estate, more so than any major country in Europe, and the siting of a large part of London out in the estuary can only help to ease the overcrowding that has been caused by New Labour.
Dairy:
That argument aside, the additional flights are needed now, rather than in ten or fifteen years time when either of the south-east options would come on stream.
Yes, but some of us were saying this 15 years ago. Had our concerns been acted upon, we would now have a world-class airport in the estuary. As it is, we have a floundering whale that cannot cope with the olympics, and it is making the UK a laughing-stock of the developed world. Nearly every major trading nation has a decent capital airport and some decent TGV lines that run from it, except for the UK.
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