Howard has given his enthusiastic backing to a mosterous scheme to turn the little airfield in Lydd in the middle of Romney Marsh into a huge "new London airport", with 500,000 travellers a year initially, eventually rising to 2 million.
The man behind this plan is the airfield owner, Saudi arms dealer Sheikh Fahad al-Athel, a former buisness partner of Jonathan Aitken.

The proposed air terminal will be next to a world-renowned RSPB reserve and a beutiful area of wilderness.

SEERA , which is usually pro development has come out against it, so have the RSPB and the Council to Protect Rural England, but not Howard or the tory controlled Kent County Council, who are supporting the scheme because the think it will bring jobs, regardless of the environmental consiquences.

If this isn't enough to persuade Dave to have a quiet word with Howard, he should also be aware that the scheme has dire consiquences for one of his party's elder statesmen.
If this airport is built, Bill Deedes's home gold course at Littlestone, will be turned into a clone of Hounslow.