If he accepts, Lord Callaghan could be one of several prominent figures appearing for the defence during the trial, which is scheduled to begin in April. "It's the same distance from the M6," say Liverpool's managers."Half its catchment area is water, and another quarter is hills," Mr Stringer says. "Unless fish and sheep start buying aeroplane tickets, it's not got much chance.". Lawyers acting for Kevin and Ian Maxwell have asked Lord Callaghan, the former Prime Minister, to act as a character witness in their forthcoming fraud trial. "Trying to split the business will just destroy it."Brickbats are also flying over whether Speke is less convenient. Mr Muirhead says it would also damage his operation if the charter flights left. "When we had a charter downturn, scheduled was strong, and vice versa," he says.

The easiest way, it believes, is to persuade airlines to switch from Manchester.But Ms Congden retorts that 16 of the 17 carriers currently using Manchester say they would not move to Liverpool, and they cannot be forced to. There is no reason charter airlines cannot be charged more during peak times to make them use less-congested slots, Mr Shepherd says. Louise Congden, the airport's head of government and industrial strategy, disagrees: "Under EU law, they have an absolute right to retain their slots."Liverpool Airport at Speke, belonging to British Aerospace, has only 400,000 passengers a year now and wants to build up charter traffic. We are disadvantaged because of our peripherality to the European market."All this is scaremongering, Majag says.

The bottleneck that needs to be lifted is that on business flights - and this can be removed simply by moving charter flights from the busiest hours; either to other slots during the day or, better still, to Liverpool.The experts have been attacking each other hammer and tongs on whether either option is possible or desirable. "There is clearly a competition going on within Europe to decide the 12 to 16 cities thatwill became major decision-making centres," he says. "London, Milan and Paris are already established - the dozen cities that go with them will depend on how good their communications are. Manchester's main competitors are Lisbon, Copenhagen and Amsterdam - not Birmingham or Glasgow."The consequences of failing to get the runway, he says, are dire "We would go backwards.

The management says that 68 slots for the peak hours were requested for this year, when the capacity is 42.If more aircraft cannot take off and land, airlines will start to turn away and that, Mr Stringer says, would be disastrous He has grand ambitions for Manchester. For every pond destroyed, for example, it is proposing to build two somewhere else.The really knotty point, and the one that Mr Smith will have to ponder most profoundly, is whether the airport needs another runway to cope with the expansion of scheduled flights.Both sides agree that as it operates now, it is reaching capacity. Like a retail chain wanting to build a store on a piece of parkland, the airport has promised a range ofcompensatory benefits elsewhere. But it does not deny that the new runway will be an unlovely thing. Callum Thomas, head of the environment at the airport, hasa sign saying "I love aircraft noise" on his door.

In truth, he is the nearest Majag has to an ally in the airport. He has spent many months working out how animals will be able to work their way round the runway without disturbance, and how the flora and fauna can be attracted to the tunnel through which the river will be routed (there will, it seems, be bats in the Bollin).Cheshire County Council opposed the runway - until the airport came up with more than 100 promises that amounted to a vast "planning gain" operation. A bigger airport will create more congestion on the already busy suburban motorways and, the protesters claim, the people ofnorth Cheshire will be assaulted by more noise.The airport disputes the noise argument - it says that as aircraft get quieter, the total "noise footprint" will remain steady. Four listed houses will be pulled down, and ancient woodland and ponds will be destroyed. It says 20,000 more jobs will be created, directly and indirectly, by a second runway. Majag disputes the figure but cannot deny that a bigger airport will employ more people - which is why a Mori poll showed substantial support for the runway.Majag's strong suit is the environment.