Londoncentric Cloud Cuckoo Land

Norman Foster's Vision for the new airport

As yesterday's news about recession in Europe (-0.3%), unemployment in Britain (8.4%), retail decline and more austerity sink in, we were treated to the news this morning that Goldman Sachs had protected their employees bonuses by sacrificing profits. Stephen Hester, the generally well regarded CEO of RBS, is likely to be voted a £7m a year package by the RBS Board despite share prices plummeting by 40%.

The boardroom elite, a self perpetuating club which includes our pension fund managers, just don't seem to get it as they continue to live in a world where it is normal for the ratio of top pay to the lowest pay of full time employees to exceed 100. Even the much idolised John Lewis Partnership have a regressive ratio of 30 whilst most public services, which have a much less regressive ratio of between 6 and 12,  get routinely savaged for this profligacy by both the media and government.

Back on Planet Westminster our political leaders are competing today in a game of 'responsible capitalism' that is clearly aimed at pacifying disgruntled voters in the real world.  The prime minister is even talking about cooperatives.  Talk about shifting the director's chairs on the Costa Concordia.  Because I have little faith in the government doing anything about this I have decided to extend my portfolio of more responsible citizen actions instead.  I have closed my RBS account today on the back of the CEO's pay deal to add to my long term boycott of News International, Coca Cola, Ryanair, Paypal, PC World, Amazon, Starbucks, Asda, MacDonalds and any company that I discover to operate out of a Channel Isles tax haven.

George Osborne is meanwhile handshaking 'comrades' in China and looking for the Chinese to invest in Britain on the government's latest wheeze: a new airport in the Thames Estuary.  It is only a consultation exercise at this stage but it took our attention away from the triple whammy of bad news yesterday.  The gist of the idea is that all that accumulated capital in south east Asia would provide investment to replace government expenditure and this would enable the UK to remain at the epicentre of the world's financial markets by virtue of its mega hub airport.

It would have been a good idea thirty years ago, and indeed Foulness was considered in the 1970's, but that was before the Heathrow expansion and the building of Stansted. But does London really need 6 airports?  The nerve wrenching and time consuming scurry round any of Heathrow, Gatwick or a future Boris Island terminals - dodging through the shopping malls and queueing at Border controls - would make it even more likely for us to use regional airports or less confusing hubs such as Amsterdam or Paris for long haul flights.

The Londoncentric tendency of the government is palpable but the UK is a nation, with constituent countries and city regions, it is not meant to be a megalopolis. The proposed new airport is another example of burlesque gesture politics that suggests the government are creating a disunited kingdom with more than a twist of cloud cuckoo land about it.  A new airport in the Thames estuary with a planned turnover of 130million passengers a year and as far away from the proposed HS2 rail line as it is possible to get is bizarre and will no doubt be used to justify Crossrail 2.  What other country would want to build an airport in an estuary that is slowly sinking, on a protected bird reservation at the opposite end of the capital city than the vast majority of its and the nation's population.  As the tag line for the coalition policies goes  'you couldn't make this up'. The Lib Dems will never be able to live this down.

The posh boys crash hats look ominous