As far as Heathrow's £14bn third runway goes, this is just the end of the beginning. Judicial review by neighbouring councils, Hillingdon, Wandsworth, Richmond and Windsor & Maidenhead, could slow up construction. There are also financial questions. The M25/M4 junction for the airport is already chronically overloaded, and the issue is who will foot the £1bn bill for the necessary road infrastructure, the taxpayer or the indebted owners of Heathrow Airport Ltd?

Then there are the politics. Labour has not ruled out scrapping the runway and shadow chancellor John McDonnell is virulently against it. Even Boris may yet rediscover his backbone; his parliamentary majority in Uxbridge was down to 5000 in 2017 and he is not exactly flavour of the month among anti-runway Hillingdon Tory councillors let alone the local electorate.