Aviation
Who would want to be a housebuilder in Britain?
In a radio discussion of the Renters’ Rights Act which passed into law this week, I heard ‘Britain’s housing emergency’…
How long does it take to build a runway?
Flight path How long does it take to build a runway? — 33 years (at least) in the case of…
Housebuilding’s in crisis? Bring back Angela Rayner!
Barely noticed amid all the other bad news and political shenanigans, there’s a slump in UK housebuilding that makes Labour’s…
It’s time to get rid of the Rich List
Here’s a takeover tale that captures the zeitgeist. It involves two FTSE 250 companies and some deep-pocketed US investors –…
Is Simon Heffer a security threat?
Airport security was much on my mind last Friday afternoon. I had been due to fly from Heathrow to Zurich…
The Gen-Z fliers obsessed with maximising their air miles
Oscar, 26, joins me on Google Meet from Buenos Aires, having arrived earlier that day from New York – by…
Save our steam engines!
Last week, if you’d known what to listen for, you might have heard a chorus of miniature whistles in gardens…
How many summers do you have left?
If the new government’s ‘pensions review’ takes forward last year’s ‘Mansion House reforms’ – credited to chancellor Jeremy Hunt but…
I need a holiday from my holiday
Reading about all the travel chaos, I began to regret my summer holiday plans. Wouldn’t it have been more sensible…
Southeastern’s on the wrong track
A few years ago I wrote here about the unexpected symbiosis between economy passengers and business travellers on commercial flights.…
Sack Heathrow’s boss? No, put him on the front line
Airports are on my mind, since I’ve just stepped off an on-time early-morning flight from East Midlands to Bergerac –…
Top flight
Why Ryanair is Europe’s best airline
Of course airlines should have started rehiring months ago — but they didn’t
I sincerely hope you’re not reading this on a holiday flight that’s sitting on the tarmac with no indication as…
Barometer
Biergate Sir Keir Starmer was facing the scandal of ‘beergate’. Biergate is a lane in the Lincolnshire village of Grainthorpe.…
End of the line
It’s time to rethink the queue
Diary
As the cross-Channel ferry noses into Ouistreham, I have a perfect view westward along the D-Day beaches. The excitement of…
Better to back clean aviation than to punish frequent flyers
Have you been scanning airline websites for exotic destinations to which your double-jabbed status might allow you to slip away…
Barometer
Royal waves Does any other country have a royal yacht? — The Queen of Denmark uses HDMY Dannebrog, a 260ft…
Air travel is in terminal danger
During the political car crash of 2019, I couldn’t imagine ever agreeing with Theresa May. Yet last week she exhibited…
Flying visits
UFOs are no longer a joke
Flights of fancy
Soon after the pandemic hit, the world’s airlines turned off their pricing algorithms and resumed pricing flights manually. Everything the…
Searching for points of light in the darkest of weeks
Aviation, nuclear power and public transport — along with good restaurants, golden retrievers and hand-knitted bed socks — are, as…
This dead-bat business minister should plead to be reshuffled
What advice can I offer Alok Sharma, who took a pasting in the weekend press for his lacklustre performance as…
Are the wheels coming off Rolls-Royce?
Along, cold weekend brought a haul of business news more bad than good. The worst was from aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce,…
