The answer lies to the east of Heathrow

A retired civil servant of my acquaintance usually provides a telling perspective on the administrative affairs of the day. We discussed the Heathrow row recently. He said that it was ‘right’ to delay any decision until 2015 so that proper investigations could be made and considered. If he thought that the Tories would not dare break their no-runway manifesto pledge in this parliament, then he did not mention it. For him, it was a question of process and nothing else.

The policy not to have a policy on Heathrow until 2015 certainly exudes a bureaucratic air, compounding the sense that this government has fallen captive to a conservative civil service. But one can also smell the fetid whiff of faction as a demoralised party, which is already showing signs of turning on itself, looks to the future. The Downing Street aide quoted in James Forsyth’s latest Spectator politics column as saying ‘[Justine Greening] will have plenty of time to think about runways as her flight to the next developing country circles the airport yet again’ lends an insight into the malice and acrimony that is likely to characterise the battle.