London hokey-cokey: Gatwick sold (?) Estuary in, Heathrow out (?) UK govt shakes it all about

Confusion abounds as the main British airports are thrust back into the spotlight. Depending on who you believe, London Gatwick Airport has all but been sold to one of the bidding consortia, or it has not; BAA has abandoned plans for a third runway at Heathrow in deference to the desires of a 'future government', or it has not. Meanwhile a senior government minister hints that the few remaining British airports that are still partly or wholly in the public sector should be sold to help pay off the gargantuan national financial deficit. Or did he? And that is only part of the story, as the political shenanigans surrounding Britain's airport infrastructure deepen. We try to make sense of it all.