What Boris Island tells us about Cameron

He already has his bikes and his buses, but might Boris get his island too? Today’s Telegraph reports that David Cameron is going to announce a consultation into building a new airport in the Thames estuary, as was first proposed by the London Mayor. The PM will wait until that consultation is over before making a final decision, but he’s said to be ‘provisionally supportive’ of the plan at the moment. Nick Clegg, by the sounds of it, is more provisionally negative.

Even the very prospect of Boris Island is a triumph for the Mayor, and not least because Cameron and George Osborne were previously opposed to it. It also says much about the more general shift in attitude of those Tories in government. In everything from education policy to their travel destinations, their focus is increasingly on both competing and cooperating with the BRIC nations. That means not just better infrastructure, such as airports, but also Cameron sidling away from the environmentalism that defined his early years as leader.