Screaming jets all for one rarely without a comb

But as the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip he still feels duty-bound to vocalise west London nimbyism.

If the decision hinged on global Illuminati nobbling unprincipled politicians, Boris Johnson would have succumbed years ago. Of course, it will be said that the business-lounge polluters got their way, but it is a weak plot that takes three generations to succeed and works its subterfuge by feeding submissions to endless rounds of public consultation. It should also stand as a rebuttal to the view of government as an elite conspiracy. It will be a monument to the difficulty of balancing competing interests in an open society, for which no cheers will be raised. HeathrowвЂ™s third runway, if built, will be the most democratically scrutinised strip of tarmac in the world. One side will prevail and, although the defeated camp will denounce the outcome as a travesty, none could reasonably say it was perpetrated with undue haste. It is because those views are all represented in Westminster вЂ“ by business lobbies, trade unions and MPs вЂ“ that there is policy gridlock. There are residents whose ears are assaulted enough already by screaming jets overhead. There are local people who would be glad of the work involved in expanding an airport. There are compelling environmental arguments against belching more carbon into the stratosphere. There are good economic arguments for boosting capacity at an aviation hub near the capital. The underlying tensions have not changed. On Tuesday, Theresa MayвЂ™s government declared that it, too, intends to expand Heathrow, but there will be more consultation, more process. Different governments have wanted to add a third one for 70 years and been thwarted by peacetime politics. The two existing runways at Heathrow were imposed using executive powers drafted for wartime expediency. If built, this will be the most-scrutinised strip of tarmac in the worldД«ritish politicians might be forgiven for wishing that, where infrastructure is concerned, the dial could be turned a notch away from electoral accountability. Authoritarian regimes can build capriciously. The Soviet Union was covered in monstrosities that took years to build and then looked so incongruous they might have landed from outer space. The story captures the way communist central planning combined ineffectiveness and insensitivity to the environment. вЂњWhat is that concrete tower?вЂќ asks one of the tourists. DonвЂ™t let it happen again!вЂќ Sure enough, on the next tour, the same question comes up. He upbraids the guide: вЂњComrade, you have cast aspersions on the efficiency of Soviet industry. вЂњItвЂ™s a hotel that theyвЂ™ve been building for years.вЂќ This being the USSR, there is a KGB informant in the group. One asks about the monstrosity looming over the city and is told the truth. This eyesore was the subject of a local joke: a tour guide is showing a group of westerners around the city. But during the mid-1970s, when Latvia was a Soviet republic, the skyline was blighted by a multi-storey concrete shell that became, after many delays, the Intourist hotel. C entral Riga is one of the architectural charms of Europe вЂ“ a cobbled medieval labyrinth enclosed in a belt of art nouveau houses.

Screaming jets all for one rarely without a comb