Written in his own inimitable style, Boris Johnson speculates on a 'New Deal' spending spree by taxpayers to get Britain out of recession:

"There is Crossrail, 75 miles of track, finally providing a link between Heathrow and the City and a staggering 10 per cent increase in London's transport capacity. There are the upgrades of the Tube, massive investments in track, signalling and air conditioning, vital to the future liveability of Europe's greatest city.

There is the Thames Tideway tunnel, a truly colossal enterprise, with a diameter wider even than Crossrail, which will run all the way under the bed of the Thames, through London to the sea, and finally help clean up the river by dealing with the unmentionable problem of what happens when the Bazalgette interceptors overflow.

There is the completion of the North London line, and its joining with the East London line, to create, for the first time, the equivalent of an M25 in the overland rail network.

These projects will produce employment on a vast scale: by 2013, it is estimated that Crossrail will need 28,000 workers, and these will be skilled, high-end, engineering jobs. We calculate that London alone needs a further 20,000 engineers to cope with the projects to which the Government is already committed.

That is why Crossrail plans to set up an academy for tunnelling and, for the first time in decades, we can tell our sons and daughters that they have a future in engineering. But even more important than the employment benefits of these projects - and I haven't even mentioned the suggestion of an estuary airport - there is the long-term value and revenue they will deliver for this country."