I haven't written about Heathrow for a while, I think this was my last post on the subject. My view is still that the Conservative policy of blocking expansion would be very bad news for British businesses and taxpayers, as Heathrow is Britain's hub airport and preventing it competing with other hubs in other countries will mean airlines fly to fewer destinations, and less frequently, from London. We'll all have to put up with less choice and longer, more expensive flights. That will make Britain a less attractive place to work and invest in and hurt the economy.
The political argument for blocking Heathrow expansion was that it was a way of gaining support from people in the West London marginals (ironically, I think that includes me). But I've always been a bit sceptical of that argument. After all, one of the things about flying is that you only need to build infrastructure, and cause disruption from noisy planes, at the start and end of the route. Even if you think the Conservative plan to substitute new high speed rail links for the airport is credible - and I don't think it is, it will cause disruption along the entire length of the route. There has to be a pretty serious risk that you create as many political battles with locals who dislike the new project as you avoid by blocking Heathrow expansion. That seems to be confirmed by the Guardian story this morning:
