What an excellent idea

When I lived in the UK, I was quite impressed with a certain politician called Boris Johnson, despite a buffoonish facade and questionable judgement in his choice of relationships, an educated and erudite man with much to commend him to the voter. Now he is Mayor of London, he and his team have come up with the epic wheeze of building a whole new International Airport to the East of London on a new Island in the Thames Estuary.

The proposed airport is to be built on an island built on Landfill.

This is an excellent proposal because:

a) It deals with the huge problem of insufficient landfill for Britains growing population.
b) Whilst there will be environmental impacts, there are greater environmental benefits, such as;
A 'green field' site which does not build over much needed agricultural land
A shift away from the overcrowded Heathrow
Lower noise levels

c) New, high speed rail links and supporting infrastructure can be designed in from the beginning, instead of being poorly thought through and inefficient afterthoughts.
d) It works with proven technology.
e) The strategy has worked for a number of other sites around the globe. For example, BC's own YVR (Vancouver) is built on mainly reclaimed land. The Chinese built a new airport on a similar scheme.
f) Such a scheme will provide something like well over five years employment in construction and associated industries when jobs will be at a premium.
g) Security.
h) Since Boris's Dad has connections with the World Bank, finance might not be such a limiting factor either.

This idea, as they say, has got legs.