Quote: "The nicest airports to use are small, friendly ones that few people use. Teesside, anyone?"
Would love to use Teesside again when heading to the Middlesbrough area but "that particular avenue of pleasure" (to quote Basil Fawlty) has been cut off. Regretably there are no longer flights to/from Heathrow.
To those banging on about crossrail, which part of commuter line do you not understand? It needs a faster fast link, not a commuter line with several stops!
Stansted's "problem" is not being in the wrong place (although in some respects it is), or about looking shabby, or about bad surface links, or anything else. It does what it does well, and that is shorthaul no frills pax flights and cargo flights.
To those of you wanting it to be like a hub, or become a hub, you are expecting too much. Forget it, there isn't sufficient connectivity and never will be.
If you want a hub, go to Heathrow, it is as simple as that!