Ben Gummer has taken to Twitter to give ten (or eleven – have you ever known an MP to say less than he promises) reasons to back Boris Island airport. And misses the biggest problem.
Some people that I respect, Gavin Maclure, Kevin Algar and Paul West (err, and Alasdair Ross) all took an incredibly stupid stance on HS2 because they again missed the elephant in the living room.
Let’s not worry about the nimbys. Sometimes they have a point, often they don’t. In both Boris Island and the High Speed 2 cases they are wrong.
The problem is that both these incredibly expensive projects are based on massive government financial backing.
Governments are remarkably bad at making decisions about investment. This is why people clamour for government investment. Essentially it’s an easy ride. There are no shareholders hustling for a return. Risk will almost always be far too steeply discounted. Over-runs will be tolerated. Unions will be allowed to thwart cost control. Decisions will be taken on political rather than economic grounds.
In short the majority will pay through their taxes for a minority’s financial advantage. In even plithier form, Bob Crow’s in favour.
If Boris Island could be privately financed (without a government guarantee) then it would be an elegant and radical way of sorting out the Heathrow headache. However at the moment it is just une grand projet, and we simply should not be getting involved.
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