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Heathrow

The right hon. Gentleman makes his point clearly. What is absurd is saying that if we make this decision, this country will lose its leadership in Europe and environmental catastrophe will ensue. I come to this debate from the north of England, and I have supported Manchester and other regional airports over the years. It is an odd position for me to be supporting investment in London. The Olympics will not be good for the regions and they will receive no benefit from Crossrail—I could go on. However, this country would be making a mistake if we did not expand Heathrow. People who take a different position on this issue ask—reasonably—where the evidence is. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State mentioned the 30 or so destinations that have been lost, and they are important not only for the straightforward economic benefit that has been lost, but because if we do not have the connections to Osaka or to emerging economies in China, India or even Vietnam, it is unlikely that investment from those countries will come into this country. It will be a real problem if those routes are lost for ever. My right hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd) made the reasonable point that capacity exists throughout the regional airports. If we used all that capacity, we could have 10 times as many planes coming into this country. In theory, we could replace the routes that are duplicated at Heathrow, but that is not the economic reality. This Government and the previous Government—and the European Union—have increasingly liberalised the skies, so no one can tell planes where to land. They will go wherever they want, and there are fewer bilateral agreements all the time. It simply is not possible to say that too many flights from New York go to Heathrow, and to send five to Manchester, three to Birmingham and two to Glasgow. There is no power, either in this country or in the European Union, to do that.