Skippy:
Spoken like a man in a high income bracket sir. Tens of thousands of blue collar workers would lose their jobs with a LHR closure. I assume when all have to move like you did, there will be affordable schools and housing?
You are living in the past, Skip - long before the new low-standards era. After having to pay for all your training expenses, and getting laid of for half the year, many pilots earn less than the loaders. If these well-paid blue-collar workers cannot be bothered to move 50 miles, they don't deserve a job.
Fairdeal:
No one has the money for this, Churchillian salutes notwithstanding, it's also not a good use of public money.
No one has the time for costly legal challenges, public enquiries and years of litigation (expect top lawyers, of course).
It's true, Silver, you really don't have any answers!
Since we have just spent £300 billion on Merchant Bankers (cockney rhyming slang), to bail out the incompetent - I really do think we have the money. The BofE could Q.E. £50 billion tomorrow - and it would do a hell of a lot more good to spend that money on 21st century infrastructure, than bailing out the criminals who brought the City to its knees.
As to the 15 years of planning enquiries, to hell with that too. You just say to the people, "its done". "Get over it, the decision has been made." "The first sods of earth will be turned tomorrow." There - it took 30 seconds, not 15 years.
You seem to forget that the 15-year planning circus is simply a method for indecisive and incompetent politicians to evade the consequences of their decisions. Firstly, it kicks the decision into the long-grass. Secondly, they can blame the planning committee, and say it was nothing to do with the government.
It is about time that politicians took bold decision and did something for the nation, instead of trying to be nice to everyone and playing to the cameras. Decisions need to be made.** And whatever you think of the guy, Boris Johnson is one of the few politician who will put his career on the line and say: "just do it".
** Blair and Brown mumbled about nuclear power for 13 years, and did absolutely nothing. Nothing, except sell off our nuclear power station manufacturer - Westinghouse - and so now we are going to get a Chinese nuclear power station instead. Anyone here think that was a good decision? Hands up if you do. Apparently, they are going to rename Hinckley Point and call it Fukushima instead...
Blair and Brown prevaricated on this difficult decision to be popular and get reelected, not for the good of the nation. Only now, some 16 years later, has the decision at last been made. However, the result of this indecision is that there is now a 5- or 10-year gap where we will not have enough generation capacity, and the UK's lights WILL go out. No doubt about it, we will have shortages, especially in the winter. And people will die because of this. Thanks, Blair and Brown, you have deliberately stored up national chaos for the future, just so you can be nice to the electorate.
Silver