Ports, Air and Water

One would have thought that the LibDems would have welcomed the idea of a new airport in the Thames. It is difficult to understand their objections which seem to have something to do with being against further development in the South East of the country. They are more than happy to ruin the countryside by the construction of wind farms, the greatest white elephants ever seen (and which we now learn are not allowed to operate when the wind is strong but for which downtime the owners are paid compensation costing us £25million last year). As airports are profitable operations private enterprise should have no problem raising the necessary finance as Boris Johnson has stated. No reason either why the road and rail network extensions to and from the airport should not be financed by private enterprise with the investment recouped out of road tolls and train fares. The only problem there appears to be is the World War 2 US Liberty ship which sank in the estuary with a cargo of explosives on board. Boris Johnson also pointed out that Singapore and Hong Kong built their new airports in something like 6 years. The reason for having a new airport is because our present airports are unable to take further traffic and we need to provide additional capacity to ensure we remain the biggest airport hub in Europe at least. So let's get on with it. We also need to provide additional shipping facilities and so its good to know the proposed deep water facilities at London Gateway are coming on stream in the fourth quarter of 2013. London Gateway will then be the largest deep water port in the UK and is capable of more than doubling its capacity. It will compete with the deep water ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. London Gateway is being developed and financed by private enterprise and will create a significant number of jobs both directly and indirectly as of course will the new London airport, if it's built. Perhaps we should get private enterprise to build more of our infrastructure such as roads and railways. John Redwood has an interesting blog today on private enterprise roads here.