Skipness - the lawyers will keep this in play for YEARS especially as the environmentalists can and will drag the European Courts into it - and they take at least two years to come to a decision
By next summer there will be approx 3 years before the next general election campaign kicks off at which point some politicians/parties will undoubedly campaign on a "no more runways" platform
In 2016/17 the politicos will be up to their necks in the EU referendum and the fallout from whatever the decision is
the biggest customer at LHR doesn't want to pay for it and there is no way you could sell this to the Treasury or the tax-payer
As compton points out this is just another re-run of every other attempt to expand LHR over the last 40 years - none have succeeded and these days the opponents are better organised, better funded and have more legal rights than they ever had in Roskill days
It's a dead dog