Government's former scientific adviser: third runway is white elephant

Former scientific adviser Sir David King used to love the third runway. When taking the Government shilling he'd wax lyrical about the need to balance the economy and the environment, bleating about green planes and how hard the industry was working to green itself.

But now that his pension's been secured and with a healthy future on the lecture circuit before him, he's slammed the third runway as a "white elephant". The need to tackle climate change means "we will drive people toward land-based travel rather than air, and investments in new runways will turn out to be white elephants."

Now I'm all in favour of support from people who used to have the Government's ear - climate change is too important for to be partisan - but it infuriates me when former advisors and ministers wait until out of influence before taking sides. What's the point of opposing something when out of office if you supported it while in office - working hard to help the Government advance the very plans you're going to oppose in later life? Does seem a bit silly...