Battle of the environment
Page 48
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I read with great interest the article by Mr T. Normanton MP (CM January 1) and desire to make the following comment.
It was well to know of Mr Normanton's fiscal connections with the motor vehicle and ancillary equipment industries, but had they not been declared they could well have been presumed!
The opening paragraph, nay the opening sentence, set the tone of the whole article. Who, may we inquire of Mr Normanton, won and who lost the two World Wars? Is there always a winner and a loser? Is it not possible that there are two losers? If the battle—and it is a battle— of the environment is lost there will be no winners: no one in road transport to ask those questions of operators, managers, customers or even general public.
As to the penultimate sentence in the article. I consider your priorities are a little awry, Mr Normanton. Surely the preservation of Britain" is of greater importance than your interpretation of the "very economic existence of it". It was considered 150 years ago that industry must be revolutionized, and it was: we are now attempting to correct the ills—and not only environmental ones—which were inherited from that revolution.
I do not wish to be misunderstood. I am no long-haired anarchist; not even an idealistic sociology student, but a reasonable thinking 40-year-old involved in the road transport industry. The ever-spiralling costs, not only of road transport but of all services, makes one ever mindful ofthe necessity of development trends to allow the utmost forward planning for the maximization of resources; but let us keep things in perspective.
Perhaps our representatives at the Palace of Westminster should pay more consideration to the natural environmental inheritance of our grandchildren and a little less to the financial legacies we may wish them to have.
J. A. HINCHLIFFE, Bingley, Yorks.