Boris Watch

In the end it wasn’t a surprise that David Cameron was the man to put the final nail in the coffin of the Thames Estuary Airport idea.  Apart from the increasingly angry tone coming out of Conservative Kent, the stark contradiction to Theresa Villiers soft greenwash and the general fear of Boris at CCHQ these days the fact is that the airport scheme has served its purpose, which was to get Boris elected.  Boris himself has been lukewarm at best since the report came out, it’s not in his transport strategy and, as we’ve seen, the supposed ‘airport’ panel is nothing of the sort.  The response to Dave from PR’s intervention is predictably low-key:

Mr Johnson’s office said it was sure the airport would not be out of the question.

Er, I thought Mr. Cameron just said it was, Boris.

Given that sort of Black Knight attitude coming from the Boris Bunker, Cameron slapping it down hasn’t really got a downside – he scores one over his high-profile rival, placates Kent and keeps Tory transport policy, such as it is, firmly on terra firma.  The more firma, the less terra, you might say.

No, the question isn’t about Cameron, it’s Boris.  He’s now got a Draft London Plan shortly to go into effect that clearly states that increasing south-eastern airport capacity is a GLA aim.  I refer you to section 6.24 on page 152:

A number of factors contribute to London’s position as a world city. One of them is its connectivity by air. The Mayor does not wish to prevent people from flying or undermine London’s competitive position, and he does recognise the need for additional runway capacity in the south-east of England.  However, he considers that the noise problems and poor air quality at Heathrow have reached such levels that further capacity increases there are untenable, and that there is a need for a thorough reappraisal of airport policy in the south-east.

The Mayor of London, and this is something that is often overlooked, has to ensure his Strategies complement national policy, which means his notional additional runway capacity would have to mesh with either a third runway at Heathrow (Labour’s policy) or no runways at all (Theresa Villiers’ although not universally the Tory view by any stretch).  The Draft London Plan manages to be incompatible with both, which means it’ll be incompatible with the next Government, whatever happens.  Nice work, Boris.  That’s without even considering his now traditional reverse ferret on the subject of London City Airport last week when confronted with actual voters.

More on Cameron’s slap down at Tory Troll and Liberal Conspiracy.

A final thought – Boris’s big idea was to build an airport in Kent, an area outside his control.  Cameron’s big idea is to build a rail hub at Heathrow, which is in an area under Boris’s control.  Any chance of them, you know, getting together to work things out?  No?

P.S. Our old chums at CFIT have chosen a great day for their first tweet since 31/10/2009, plugging their online poll.  Do check the Politician of the Year category for a certain Conservative Mayor who…

…despite belittling from many in the press and from within the party itself, the Mayor of London has kept to his word of investigating a new airport in the Thames Estuary.

Timing is everything in comedy, boys and girls.

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