Yes very good Bagso
Just as a point of interest Osbourne should be Osborne and Elhman should be Ellman in case you would feel the need to contact them.
Ellman has always struck me as very low key and not a patch on one of her predecessors, Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe) who didn't suffer fools gladly and gave some very senior figures a good rogering at hearings. Excellent fun if you were not in her firing line. And also supportive of Manchester if she thought you had a good point which was often the case.
Brady has always been lukewarm (and that's being generous) about the airport; maybe because quite a few of his constituents have been very vocal against airport expansion in the past. It's a shame as he is very influential within the Tory party as Chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee.
Stringer is an interesting one. For years he pushed Manchester Airport within Westminster including on the Transport Committee, asking questions about bilaterals etc. Now as you say he doesn't seem to take much interest. I could speculate that this may have something to do with the fact that Manchester now has a big chunk of it's airport in private hands instead of being wholly owned by the good citizens of Greater Manchester as it was in the past when he was Manchester Council leader and Chairman of the Airport Board. May be way off beam; I have no knowledge to say that is the case
I can't help thinking that a past CEO of MAN, the late Sir Gil Thompson, would certainly have had MPs and government ministers on his radar, and canvassed them with some success I suspect.
He certainly did and this certainly went on up to around 10 years ago; people attended Transport Committee meetings, were discussing things with MPs and banging on the door of Marsham St (DfT) every week. I have no idea what happens now.
And finally some indication of the knowledge of our current minister of planes Robert Goodwill. Note the bit in bold where he demonstrates just how much he knows about Manchester. Badly briefed at best by his Sir Humphrey who was by his side. The whole thing makes interesting reading even though it is not really relevant to Manchester
[Committee name]
Chair: But does it matter to the Department that there are links to a hub in the UK rather than links from the regions to a hub outside the UK?
Mr Goodwill: Where there is demand for a service, that demand will be met by the operators. As I say, we have seen some regional airports operate using Schiphol as their hub. If you go to Durham Tees Valley, for example, they have a Schiphol flight. People make journeys using Schiphol as their hub in the same way that people using Leeds Bradford can go to Schiphol, Brussels, Paris or Heathrow. That creates a vibrant market, and it has meant that people get good value in terms of air travel in the UK. We have seen prices come down year on year. We have seen more destinations being served. We have a very vibrant and enterprising aviation sector. That is down to the free market, not down to regulations, so it is important where we have enterprising airlines and airports that they respond to demand and put on those new routes. I mentioned the Newcastle to Dubai route, which has been put on without a subsidy, and I think there is a Manchester to Newark New Jersey service. These have been put on by airlines seeking to benefit from the increased wish of people to fly, and the improvements that we have seen in the UK economy. Politicians should not interfere in that market, which is already providing better value, more destinations and much better services at our airports. All the airports I go to around the country are always keen to show me their new facilities, their new catering facilities—