Mark Andrews on Saturday: What's in a name and why Birmingham needs a bigger airport

It seems most of the Democratic hopefuls for this year’s presidential election have gone a bit showbiz by deciding they only want to be known only by their first names. Hence supporters waving posters for “Bernie” (Sanders), “Mike” (Bloomberg), and “Pete” (Buttigieg).

I suppose we should blame Cherylin Sarkisian, who decided sometime during the 1960s that she would prefer to be known as Cher. Then we had Dana, real name was Rosemary Brown, and Madonna, who dropped her surname Ciccone. More recently, the footballer Dele Alli stopped using his surname, because he didn’t want to be associated with his birth parents.

Maybe it was for the best that Björk Guðmundsdóttir never bothered with her last name, although you would love to have heard them grappling with it on Top of the Pops. Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein al-Majid al-Tikriti was rarely addressed as such because (a) it was a bit of a mouthful, and (b) he had passed a law banning surnames, and the penalties were not for the faint-hearted.

But back to the US Democrats, wouldn’t it be great if Mr Bloomberg and Mr Sanders ended up fighting the election on a joint ticket? Mike and Bernie for the White House. Aided by Schnorbitz the dog, obviously.

Talking of which, Prince Harry has asked to be known by just his first name as he prepares for life outside the monarchy. Does that make him the Royal Formerly Known As Prince?

Philip Schofield asked viewers of This Morning whether he should ‘self isolate’ after returning from holiday in Paris.

Yes he should. And Piers Morgan. For 12 months at least.

A court has ruled it unlawful. The Prime Minister said he would lie down in front of bulldozers to stop it. The chances of a third runway being built at Heathrow now look rather slim.

Well here’s an idea. Given that HS2 is going ahead whether we like it or not, why not expand Birmingham Airport instead?

At the moment it takes between 15 and 50 minutes to get from London to Heathrow, depending on which station and which terminal you use. HS2 will reduce the journey time between central London and Birmingham Airport to 39 minutes, so for those travelling to and from London, it won’t make that much difference. It should also be possible to connect flights between the two airports, so somebody could potentially fly into Birmingham from, say China, and then depart from Heathrow to the US.

And while it wouldn’t inconvenience people in London too much, it would surely make the West Midlands a more attractive place to invest.

Of course there are some people who will oppose any expansion of airport capacity, but if we are serious about being a global, outward-looking nation, we need to be connected to the rest of the world. It would do far more to rebalance the Midlands economy than any regional quango.

And think of all the car journeys to London it would save.