This mayoral election was a tough one. Vote for a scruffy, mildly amusing guy with a keen interest in conservation, or for a hypocritical tax-dodging quasi-communist. Neither was a particularly appealing choice for someone like me. How I voted is irrelevant, in the very first interview I read with the plummy Mr Johnson, he spent the first half of it banging on about the airport in the Thames Estuary, and calling on the government to be brave. Genius. Hopefully the decision to go ahead does not lie with Boris, if it did the pile-drivers would have already started. I don't need to bleat on here about quite how catestrophic this would be for birds, there are many places where that information is available, and with scientific back-up. What I can say is that Boris, for all his undoubted intelligence, must be out of his mind. Wildlife in London is already stretched to the very limit, the Thames corridor especially so. To slap an airport, and a bloody massive one at that, in an area of critical importance for vast numbers of wintering birds is morally repugnant.
Do we actually need more planes? We have Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, City. Five airports - isn't that enough? It seems to me that the sky is constantly full of planes, pretty much from dawn until dusk. In fact this morning on Wanstead Flats I probably saw more planes than birds. That we need yet more planes seems odd, I'd argue for fewer, but if we do, then please, not in the Estuary. And not at Lydd either. In fact I can't think of anywhere I'd like it to go really, or at least not anywhere where there isn't anything currently. Demolishing Hounslow and expanding Heathrow would be fine, albeit quite traumatic for the residents of Hounslow.
Anyway, must dash, got to start packing as I'm flying to Bulgaria next week.
My personal rule is, those that want expansion should be made to live under the flight path,that would change their minds pretty quickly.
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