Away with Heathrow. Let's have Thatcherow
By Paul Goodman
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Boris Johnson has acutely smuggled his passion for a new airport onto the rolling Thatcher coverage bandwagon. The London Mayor has called for any new airport to be named after her, while the Daily Mail's editorial is unwilling to wait on events: "why wait to build a new one, which could take for ever? How about renaming Heathrow?" it asks.
Since I have a memory like an elephant for these details, I can exclusively reveal that the Mail's idea isn't new. Fanatic-eyed Thatcher admirer members of the Federation of Conservative Conservatives floated the idea in 1980 (or was it 1981? I forget). Mind you, they were at least as exercised about getting Heath out of the airport's name as putting Thatcher in to it.
So far, the main runners and riders in the Honour Thatcher stakes are the erection of a statue or the re-naming of an airport. Airports can't be kidnapped, decapitated, vandalised (up to a point) or blown up - not without a lot of time and trouble, anyway. Nor can they be clambered on by the left-wing sons of millionaire rock stars. Thatcherow let it be.
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