Do any of the new proposals deliver on environmental issues? Many of the new ideas, such as noise compensation schemes and a congestion charge, aim to tackle these impacts but much of what has been proposed either misses the key questions or makes impressive promises on issues that are outside the control of airports.
Without any reassurances from the independent Commission, communities will look to politicians to provide them. The Airports Commission has failed for now to achieve its purpose to take the politics out of the airports debate. Has this week's announcement really given the green light to a new runway or just reopened the political debate?
I went to bed at about half past eleven last night. That's fairly early for me. (Read on, this gets interesting.) I was quite tired, having finished work late, and then I'd had two cocktails, which were great but did not serve to wake me up. All in all, come half past eleven, I wanted to go to sleep.