From CiF:
We managed to add a 5th terminal to Heathrow without too many problems – apart from some lost baggage in the immediate aftermath; which, while tiresome, was hardly a showstopper. Trouble is, with our infinite capacity to see the negative, this was seen as some kind of apocalyptic proof of how useless we are at infrastructure.
The French built a new terminal at Charles de Gaulle airport a couple of years before Heathrow terminal 5. It fell down.
I don't think you understand British negatavism. It's built on two axioms:
a) we are useless at pretty much everything
b) at least we're not as bad as the fucking French