I agree with Airlift21 totally...
I still cannot get my head around why so much public money is being spent researching an idea for an airport which is quite frankly ridiculous and being promoted by a guy who has no idea what he is doing.
A Thames estuary airport would be a disaster on so many levels; astronomical cost, job impacts due to closing of Heathrow, business impact (200 of top 300 UK companies within 20 miles of LHR), environmental impact, the time to complete it etc.. there are endless reasons why it is such a bad idea and it just makes no sense at all.
Heathrow and Gatwick both need a new runway, LHR ideally 2 new runways. They both would be, in the main, privately funded (some additional transport infrastructure would be required at LHR which may be government funded) and completed much much quicker than any estuary airport idea; alongside of course protecting thousands of jobs.
Also... a minor point, but Boris says 190,000 homes would be created if Heathrow would be closed down. Now I know Heathrow is big, having connected there several times but 190,000!? That seems far too optimistic for a site even as big as Heathrow surely?