MAIL COMMENT: Time to smash BAA's monopoly of misery

Again and again, you'll hear the same stories of discomfort and inconvenience from exhausted passengers who've had the misfortune to fly to or from one of Britain's major airports this summer.

Indeed, increasing numbers of foreign holidaymakers and businessmen now choose to avoid Britain altogether  -  with damaging consequences for the economy  -  rather than face the horrors of the biggest and worst of the lot, Heathrow.

Passengers queuing at Heathrow in 2006

But now at last there's a spark of hope. In a blistering report, the Competition Commission recommends smashing the near monopoly enjoyed by the Spanishowned BAA, which runs seven of Britain's airports, including London's Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted and Scotland's Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

As the commission points out, BAA's freedom from real competition in the South East and Scotland has made it contemptuous of the needs of its captive customers  -  passengers and airlines alike.

The company has been shockingly slow to press for greater capacity, while hiking up charges for airlines and treating flyers as cash-cows to be herded and milked.

To be fair to BAA, it cannot be held responsible for all the frustrations at its airports. Airlines, air traffic controllers and the supine Civil Aviation Authority (the feeblest of all Britain's regulators) must also take their share of the blame.

What is clear, however, is that until BAA faces proper competition, it will remain far more interested in squeezing profits out of its shops and car parks than in the main purpose of an airport  -  helping passengers quickly, comfortably and efficiently on their way.

The break-up can't come a moment too soon.

A greedy chancer

He is Britain's most senior Asian policeman, holding the third highest rank in the country. He earns a staggering £180,000 a year  -  and if he were to exercise his right to retire tomorrow, he would walk away with a lump sum of £522,000 and an index-linked £85,000 a year for life.

Yet, outrageously, Assistant Met Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur is claiming his career has been blighted by racial discrimination  -  and is said to be demanding compensation of more than £1million.

What an insult to our intelligence  -  and to thousands of uncomplaining officers, who can only dream of Ghaffur's smooth rise to the top.

Leave aside the irony that the man Ghaffur is suing, Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, is the most politically correct policeman in the land, who often seems more committed to promoting racial diversity than to fighting crime.

If Ghaffur's claim succeeds, it will open the floodgates to litigation by any officer with any grievance, gravely undermining police discipline.

This greedy chancer must not be allowed to get away with it.

Selling our security

Crippled by the cost of waging two wars on a peacetime budget, the MoD is trying to off-load dozens of the Eurofighter jets it ordered ten years ago.

This can mean one of only two things: either we don't need the planes  -  in which case ordering them was a scandalous waste of taxpayers' billions  -  or the Government is jeopardising our national security to save cash, in a world far more dangerous than it was ten years ago.

So which is it, Mr Brown?