It is not clear to me what problem Paul Morland (Encounter, 12 July) is seeking to solve. Indeed, it may be that he is making an existing one worse. First, there is no evidence that women will wish to give up their hard-won economic and personal freedom in pursuit of childbearing. All policy efforts to reverse this have failed. Second, “too few people” needs to be set in context. The peak of the world’s population is expected at 10.3 billion in about 60 years. That figure is 25 per cent above the current population. It means that every day for the next 60 years the population is expected to increase on average by about 100,000. What price climate change goals? Third, demography, like politics, is local. People will be concerned, for example, about sub-Saharan Africa, but they will also be worried about what lies ahead for them.
There are no projections that suggest the UK’s population will decline within this century. The most favoured projection suggests it will increase by five million. With all the challenges that this entails for public services, food and water security, climate change and social cohesion, are more babies really the answer?
Robin Hodgson, House of Lords
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