OK Fair enough, I'll be the "daft laddie" and ask the question that no one else will.
Why the hell does it need the government and various other politicians sticking their noses into this?
All the airports that are under consideration for expansion are privately owned. Therefore if Airport "X" wishes to expand and add another runway to its property portfolio, it should be up to Airport "X"'s owners to plan the expansion in a suitable manner, seeking commercial funding and obtaining the appropriate permissions through the appropriate commercial channels.
As of the date that the airports were sold off, there is no longer any "National Interest" in them, so the politician s should back off & go back to their day jobs before they end up committing the next six generations to unaffordable interest payments on another Enron-Economics PFI deal that we don't need.........
Bottom Line:-
If Heathrow wants another Runway then Heathrow needs to plan it, pay for it & build it.
If Gatwick wants another Runway then Gatwick needs to plan it, pay for it & build it.
If Stansted wants another Runway then Stansted needs to plan it, pay for it & build it.
If Luton wants another Runway then Luton needs to plan it, pay for it & build it.
If Southend wants another Runway then Southend needs to plan it, pay for it & build it.
If another company wants to create a completely brand new airport in the somewhere else in the Thames valley, then someone needs to finance and create said company, before it to has to plan it, pay for it & build it.
Unless of course we pay the current owners a £1 each and re-nationalise all the major airports, other than that it's solely a business decision, not a political one and it should stay a business decision.