It is the most beautiful day here today. Considering it’s late October, and Christmas is less than two months hence, it’s warm (t-Shirt) and the sky is winter blue. I can see the vapour trail of a lone jet as it wafts towards London.
It’s really time we did something about air travel, isn’t it? How can the Government continue to sanction cheap air travel in this way, giving airlines Vat relief on fuel? What would it matter if a few of the cheapo flights were to go by the board? Or if a few businesses had to pay realistic fares? Not that many of them use the really cheap flights: they are too unreliable, too inflexible, uncomfortable and don’t got to the right places. I can’t see that there is a problem in all flights becoming more realistically priced. So what if my flight to Malaga or Ibiza costs me double what it costs today? It’s still a very cheap way to travel, and a reduction in air travel is vital. Why is everyone so focused on the 4x4 population which, let’s face it, is not going to figure in a top ten or even top twenty, of worse source of pollution. Surely those people who go around slapping fake parking tickets on the Jeeps of over wealthy yummy mummies in London would be better expressing their anger at the way we subsidise the flights of millions ? So come on, lets get serious about pollution.
And cutting a few flights might encourage more people to holiday in this country and to find out its real delights, while giving a bit of a boost to several local economies. So there you go: sort out air fuel tax and the local economies of Devon Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and other holiday regions in one fell swoop.
Good, that’s the problems of pollution and the economy solved. Next?
