The hypocrisy of the Heathrow Nimbys

Some readers may have noticed that it takes rather a long time to get anything done in Britain these days. For example, if you added them all together, I wonder how many hours of Prime Minister’s Questions and BBC Question Time – under consecutive governments – have been taken up by a discussion of HS2. The debate over whether the country could construct a faster way to get out of Birmingham seems to have dangled over us for decades now.

It is always we who must become impoverished and everyone else who can become enriched

It is the same with almost every other major infrastructure project. That is because the UK is not just caught up by a sclerotic officialdom, legal overreach and much more, but because we seem to be caught between ideas. At least in principle, I imagine the country wants to boom. At the same time we want to be a world leader in net zero and much more. And thus you get these un-resolvable debates – such as the endless discussion over whether or not there should be a third runway at Heathrow.

Most countries would be delighted to have an airport that is one of the world’s great travel hubs. But not this country. Whenever the subject of a third runway at Heathrow comes up, MPs and others put their boots on and once again complain that we shouldn’t have that new runway, because people who bought houses in Hounslow thought they were buying in a nice, quiet area.