Why Boris Johnson’s ‘slow and feeble’ attack on aviation policy isn’t so bothersome

‘Let’s have it every 90 seconds!’ shouted Boris to the CBI this afternoon as he played a series of clips of loud and quiet plane engines. He wanted to illustrate that ‘quiet’ planes would not make another runway at Heathrow palatable, and he used his customary strong language in attacking the government’s position on aviation policy. ‘End the dither, cut the cackle,’ the Mayor of London told the conference, urging the government to rule out a ‘toxic’ third runway by Christmas.

While he’s trying to be loyal, the Mayor seems to have a special licence to attack the government on aviation. Today he said that ‘you can’t blame British business for failing to get into new markets if the British government is so slow and feeble [on aviation]’.

But is Boris really causing that much bother with all this colourful language and plane noise audio? This morning he was all guns blazing for HS2 in his Telegraph column, and given his previous sceptical noises on this, it is better that he helps Number 10 with this live topic and chunters on about aviation in an unsurprising way than upset the fragile balance on HS2.