The conference season is drawing to a close, this week it’s the turn of the Tories (that was for the people who have their heads buries in the sand). Early in the week during one of his speeches he indicated that if comes to power he would scrap the expansion of Heathrow Airport in favour of better rail transport links, a sure vote winner for people living in the Heathrow area.
Yesterday he announced that again when he his in power (I don’t think there is little doubt that the Conservatives will win the next election, Labour has made such a harsh of it in the last two years) he would also scrap the second runway at Stansted, a sure vote winner in that area as well.
It is interesting listening to the bosses at Heathrow and Stansted that if expansion does go ahead at these airports it would threaten local jobs. Now correct me if I am wrong but how can it threaten local jobs. If the airports went into reverse and less aircraft used the airports then yes jobs be under threat. However, if the number of flights stayed constant then the airports would require the same number of employees hence no loss of jobs. Am I being stupid and missing something.
Another point, made by the boss of Heathrow, he stated that if Heathrow did not expand then that would threaten job prospects in the city, well after resent events would that be a bad thing, after all it’s the bankers and money markets that have got us in to this situation a few thousand of those people going could only be a good thing. But the point is if our investment company’s and banks were the best in the world then no matter what the transport infrastructure was people would still come to us because we are the best irrespective of what the transport links were like. Heathrow and Stansted do not need expansion they just need to improve how they operate.
