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Heathrow

I am glad that I have sat through this debate, if only to listen to the right hon. Member for Suffolk, Coastal (Mr. Gummer), who made a clear and rhetorical speech. It often helps to listen to a speech of such clarity, so as to realise why its arguments are wrong. What the right hon. Gentleman was really saying was that building a third runway at Heathrow would be the end of this Government’s commitment to the environment, and of our leadership in Europe. It was a millennial speech. But he makes that argument in the context of hubs all over Europe—not just the ones that have been mentioned, such as Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt and Schiphol, but Madrid, Copenhagen and others—increasing their capacity. Such contentions are absurd when viewed in that broader context.