Unesco's Stonehenge threat isn't worth taking seriously

If you gaze south from the sarsens of Stonehenge, your view at present is of a constant crocodile of cars and caravans grinding along the nearby A303 en route to the West Country. Unfortunately the government’s plans to improve matters by burying the road in a neat two-mile tunnel, already badly delayed by activist lawfare, now face another obstacle. The problem is that Stonehenge is a Unesco world heritage site – and the UN functionaries that run Unesco do not approve. Indeed they disapprove so much that the Unesco World Heritage Committee last week recommended that unless it was stopped, Stonehenge should be added to its official list of heritage in danger.

For a principled government, there is only one answer to this impertinence. It should ignore the finger-wagging emanating from Unesco and announce that, assuming it wins the final round of judicial review, it will press ahead regardless.