Economic growth at what cost? ‘we’ll never have electric airliners’ says reader
Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.
Is Reeves sacrificing the environment in order to fix the growth impacted by her budget?
Nothing better illustrates the ignorance of government ministers than chancellor Rachel Reeves’s justification for the expansion of Heathrow airport (Metro, Mon).
It’s well known that whatever the advances in battery storage, we’ll never have electric airliners. Similarly, biofuel is only ever going to have an insignificant impact on pollution.
Still, when your own budget has impacted growth, you’ll clutch at any straws – even at the expense of the environment. John Daniels, Redhill
Are power outages a reason to shun electric vehicles?
‘Not my diesel car’
I had just finished my meal at the M6 service station at Tebay when there was a power cut. As I was leaving, a man complained to me that he had just put his car on to charge and would have to wait for the power to come back.
Not a problem I faced. My diesel car took me down to Liverpool and back home to Scotland on one tank.
Our unreliable electricity supply is one more reason why people are shunning electric cars. Otto Inglis, Fife
Prohibiting knives
Rather than introduce stricter controls on who can buy knives online or bring in stronger age checks, why does the government not just prohibit such sales completely? Anyone needing a kitchen knife, for example, would have to go to a shop – as we do for other items and have done to buy such knives for hundreds of years. Robert Evans, via email
Black bins as a last resort
‘We can’t keep sending rubbish to incinerators and landfill’
May I applaud Bristol council’s proposal to collect rubbish from black bins once every four weeks (Metro, Tue). While I do not have a large family, my household manages to almost fill one black bin bag every five weeks or so, without any unpleasant aromas. All else – paper, plastic, metals and so on – is recycled, and we ensure we have little food waste.
I am not holding myself out as some sort of paragon of virtue but, surely in this day and age, people need to realise that we can’t keep sending rubbish to incinerators and landfill.
Black bins should be used only as a last resort. This should come as a wake-up call to other local authorities as a positive way forward and I recommend we all follow suit. Timothy Wigglesworth, Newcastle upon Tyne
Gen-Z is wrong – women still need equality
‘How can anyone believe women have any advantage in this society‘
Regarding the Channel 4 poll saying more than a half of Gen Zers believe the west has gone ‘too far’ in promoting women’s equality and believes society now discriminates against men (Metro, Tue).
Women earn less, do not climb the career ladder so easily, have huge caring responsibilities, are the predominant victims of domestic violence and rape and are – in general – more compliant, kinder and more empathetic than men.
How can anyone believe they have any advantage in this society?
There might be the rare high-flyer, but most women work in low-paid, dreary jobs which don’t pay enough to get by on.
The likes of paranoid, woman-hating influencer Andrew Tate are fuelling this backlash against women among men who are looking for a reason for their own inability to reach the heights they want to in their own lives. He has told these men it is all women’s fault.
If he hates women having equality then why doesn’t Tate go and live somewhere like Afghanistan?
Women deserve equality. Everyone is happier when they get it and our societies are kinder, more compassionate and empathetic when women have influence and equality. Barbara, Gloucester
New technology has always replaced jobs
‘Just like when the railways destroyed the coaching inns’
Emilia Jones (MetroTalk, Wed) says AI will kill off working-class jobs. New technology replacing jobs is a timeless process. Remember the businesses which used to develop films before we all went digital? And the railways that destroyed the coaching inns? ‘Twas ever thus.’ Andrew Turek, London
The Brexiteer doth protest too much
‘Rejoiners never claimed Britain would ‘go into bankruptcy’
Straw-man argument from Nick Rougier (MetroTalk, Tue). Where have Rejoiners such as myself ever claimed City banks and northern carmakers would disappear because of Brexit – or Britain ‘go into bankruptcy’?
If Brexit hadn’t failed, Nick would’ve been telling us about the benefits, not making stuff up his opponents never said. Peter Brown, Cleckheaton