The challenge of Heathrow

My party has just announced it is opposed to the third runway at Heathrow.

This will be good news for those whose homes were to be knocked down, and those in the flight path.

Central London is being offered fast trains to Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester ( tomorrow morning's Scotsman and Herald will be full of special pleading for the national debt to be vast increased to extend to Scotland no doubt Ha - they're so predictable ! Here you go one day latter "Tories accused of high-speed rail snub" The Herald - forgetting the billions wasted on the Westcost upgrade North of Manchester - for which there is no justification ! ).

And Boris wants to stick a new airport in the Thames.

But they should be careful...

Between the M4 corridor and Gatwick are a large number of employers who service the world engineering industries and other consultancies. They are located here as finance has driven costs to unbearable levels in London and the airports of Heathrow and Gatwick are close by. These industries mint money for the UK economy as they are nearly all export driven.

Kill Heathrow and you kill them.

The Conservatives must be very careful about how they treat Heathrow. I doubt a future high speed rail line for MPs to get back to their consituencies at night is going to solve the problem. There is no equivalent of the TGV station at Paris CDG. Heathrow itself is a vast industry with aviation support services and engineering attached.

This needs more careful thought through! Remeber not everyone lives in the centre of London.