Are these people actively mad?

Could be, could be:

Gatwick airport is preparing to reject government demands for it to guarantee that the majority of passengers using its proposed new runway will arrive by train.

Stewart Wingate, chief executive, said meeting some of the requirements for approval of the £2.5bn plan to add 100,000 flights a year, such as lower noise levels, may be feasible.

However, he said providing a binding guarantee that at least 54pc of travellers will get to and from the airport by rail – up from 44pc now – is beyond the airport’s powers to deliver.

Imagine, you are in East Grinstead. You have a flight out of Gatwick. You could take the bus (the 400) which takes about an hour and costs, apparently, £4. You could take the train which takes about an hour, given that little wait to switch at East Croydon, and costs £20 apparently. Which route you take is not something under the control of Gatwick Airport.

But, of course, there’s more. There will be men with tickers, counting machines, at every entry to the airport. The bus will turn up and not be allowed in. Oooh, no, not enough people have arrived by train this morning, see? Then a train arrives, it’s not very full and the first 20 people will be allowed off the bus. The other 15 will have to wait for the next train. Rules is rules, see?

Obviously, this is then also applied to everyone coming by car. Or bicycle and yes, one of us here really has walked to Gatwick Airport (from Three Bridges, nice day, time to spare, why not instead of the train?). And, given the way the original statement is made only 46% of the people arriving may come by airplane but we doubt that the insanity has really gone that far.

But, yes, these people are indeed actively mad.

Nick Stern warned us all about this too. Yes, doing something about climate change seems sensible. Get the externality into prices and leave markets to work the rest out. We have Air Passenger Duty on flights, we’re done there. We have fuel duty (trains might be electric or run on red diesel, buses pay full tax whack) so we’re done there. In fact, we’re done.

Stern also warned about having plans for everything. In language he didn’t quite use that would allow every pecksniff clipboard wielder in the nation to stick their oar in. Every Single Issue Fanatic would be insisting upon their particular, pecksniffian, part of the plan. As here of course. People whining about the use of fractions of litres of fuel to get to a form of transport that uses hundreds of litres an hour.

The reason nothing happens in Britain is because the pecksniffs have seized power. Time we drove them out of it perhaps.

Tim Worstall