How could Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson make his mark and create a genuinely better life for future generations? One neat solution is to end the misery of Heathrow, both for passengers and for the residents unfortunate enough to live under its flight path. Mr Johnson has a plan to do that and the London mayor and his team are working on the details. The scheme, which draws its inspiration from Hong Kong, would feature a Thames estuary airport, built on an artificial island off Sheppey with four (and potentially six) runways.

Critics may scoff at the idea, regarding Sheppey as about as close to the centre of London as one of Ryanair’s destinations. But Mr Johnson’s team have an answer to that, too. Fast trains would whisk passengers there in 35 minutes. The airport would be integrated with Europe’s high-speed rail network so travellers for continental Europe could hop on a train and head through the Channel tunnel. Heathrow would be turned into Britain’s Silicon Valley, a home for high technology firms.

This newspaper has campaigned for a new airport in the Thames estuary rather than squeezing more into overcrowded Heathrow. Mr Johnson is to be commended for thinking big and outside the box. It is increasingly evident that Heathrow is in the wrong place and will never adequately meet the demands of future air travel. Only a new airport which can operate for 24 hours a day without disrupting the capital can provide the solution.