Put the needs of the planet before Flybe
In his discussion of Flybe and HS2 (Growth versus green? The short-term view always prevails, Journal, 16 January), Larry Elliott seems to be tying himself in knots. On the one hand, he rightly claims that it is the better-off who fly intercity in the UK, while on the other hand he suggests that allowing Flybe to go under would hack off a lot of voters, many of whom voted Tory for the first time in December. Frankly, I think it is more likely than not that intercity fliers and the reluctant Tories of the now-collapsed red wall form two mutually exclusive groups.
The bottom line is that both bailing out Flybe and pushing through HS2 are appalling options from an environmental perspective. The green way forward is simple and straightforward. Leave Flybe to sink or swim, keep air passenger duty as it is (or preferably hike it further), and scrap HS2. The £100bn or so saved should be diverted to developing railways – and reopening some of those lost to Beeching’s axe – in those parts of the country where improved transport links are needed most. Bill McGuire Emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards, University College London
• Larry Elliott’s article is a worrying warning that politicians are very unlikely to do anything to head off the developing climate catastrophe.
Perhaps it is time to ditch the facile terminology – green initiatives, wildlife protection, special scientific interest – which give the impression that these considerations are somehow external to our own interests. Perhaps if we started talking about the biosphere of which we are all a part as “the life support system” and the choices politicians make as being between the protection of life and the destruction of life, then the consequences of these choices might be easier for us to grasp. Isabella Stone Sheffield
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