Is BAA flying on hot air?

According to The Independent, "there is not much doubt what the Government's decision about a third runway for Heathrow will be. This week, Geoff Hoon, the Transport Secretary, with the support of the Prime Minister, is likely to give the go-ahead to the expansion. Equally, however, there can be little doubt that the third runway will never be built".

That is much of the trouble with the governance in Britain. It's looking two ways at once in the vain hope of pleasing as many people as possible. With so many years of this nonsense, we have become a country very much ill at ease with itself. The recession is bound to cause more of the same. In a nutshell it is called "Short Termism". Quick fixes just to gain instant popularity. So long as something is happening, we are given to believe all is OK.

So the "slippery" BAA carries on. Sir John Egan, its former boss, said that Terminal Five would not add to pressure for a third runway. Last week, BAA admitted, "That's what he had to say to get permission for Terminal Five." There's a TV commercial running at the moment about "who do you trust?" and given the antics of the corporate world, most people don't trust business-speak anymore.

The Third Runway debate with be just like the Euro debate. Stick up the Five Tests, which in this case are all anti-pollution ones, and say that when they are met you can have it. So the runway will never be as the tests will never be met.

If only these nutcases could sit down in a room and actually think out a proper transport strategy for the whole country. But being what they are that is probably impossible. A whole new set of people, with clean sheets, are required. For unless we get an integrated transport policy, we will continue to have airports each doing their own thing, trains running around full and empty, cars clogging up some roads whilst others are almost vehicular free.

It's either a frustrated travelling public or a happy one.