Letter of the week: Air points

Write to letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine

Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

I was pleased to see Tom McTague drawing attention to the extremity of this summer’s successive heatwaves (Editor’s Note, 21 August). As he described a landscape of parched grasslands – “a desert assortment of bone-dry yellow and brown” – I looked forward to a clear editorial statement on the politics of climate emergency. How wrong could I be? This scorched landscape was viewed by Tom, it transpired, from the comfort of an aeroplane winging its way from Edinburgh to (I assume) London.

A 2025 House of Commons research report on aviation and climate change notes that by 2022, the UK’s domestic and international flights produced 29.6 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions. This is around 7 per cent of total UK greenhouse gas emissions. The government’s net zero strategy recognises the necessity of reducing emissions from aviation if global heating is to be combated. A flight from Edinburgh to London generates approximately 165kg of CO2, as compared to 12.5kg for train travel. Perhaps Tom might reconsider his travel plans next time he heads to Edinburgh.
Erica Carter, King’s College London

Appalling short-hauling

Having just read Tom McTague’s Editor’s Note (21 August) I am motivated to write my first letter to the magazine. I can’t be the only person to have thought this, and I imagine others will write in about it too. The irony of Tom writing about the scorched landscape he saw from his short-haul flight from Edinburgh to London – a distance covered so easily by train – is too heavy to bear. A bit more perspective needed, perhaps to be gained by hopping on a rocket with Jeff Bezos to see the roasted landscapes across the world, not just the UK? Otherwise I am very much looking forward to reading the summer issue, which has arrived just in time to take on my holiday (by train) across the Alps.
Jess Daggers, London SE6

Capital letters

I turn to the letters first; apologies to Nicholas Lezard. It’s great to read intelligent responses to the previous week’s copy, and to feel the cogs of indignation at work – “maudlin left-wing tosh” (Brent Charlesworth, Correspondence, 21 August)? I stand, erm, annoyed…
Cecilia Harrison, Nottingham

For two issues in a row you have published letters from Tom Stubbs, who has given his place of residence as Surbiton, Surrey. I feel compelled to point out that Surbiton is not in Surrey, and has not been since 1965. If Mr Stubbs can be from Surrey, then I see no reason why I cannot declare myself a Londoner.
William Stocks, Guildford, London SW15

Modern parables

Rowan Williams writes of Jason Arday’s ascent and tragic death (Reflection, 21 August). Arday had previously compared himself to a modern Icarus. Perhaps, in the suddenness of his fall, he was more like Adam, banished from Eden – or, given the way he was hounded to his sad death, the Ministry of Defence scientist Dr David Kelly.
Tom Stubbs, Surbiton, Greater London

Rowan Williams rightly notes that public controversies are not only explained by the truth or falsehood of individual assertions. Some narratives have a force of their own. However, there is a danger in using one particular narrative as if it illuminates the whole question. Williams strips Jason Arday’s story to disadvantaged outsider, elevation, attack and death, and detects a process of sacrificial scapegoating. The problem is that by stripping away so much, rather than revealing the event’s underlying structure, he removes distinctions essential to understanding it.

There is another powerful archetypal process that may have been in operation – hagiography. Arday’s public biography had many of the features of a secular saint’s life: affliction, hidden vocation, extraordinary feats, service, persecution and, finally, recognition. When archetypal configurations fall into place, all involved can be overtaken by a sense of narrative truth that has little to do with the evidence. People are predisposed to believe something not because of political or moral failure or virtue, but because, on some level, it seems absolutely true. The danger is that narrative coherence can feel like evidence.

That should make us cautious. Politically motivated critics may uncover real discrepancies; sympathetic institutions may fail to scrutinise adequately. The motives of accuser and supporter, and the truth of their claims, are distinct issues. If we examine the archetypal structure of Arday’s condemnation, we should equally examine the archetypal structure of his canonisation.
Dr Chris Maloney, Saxmundham, Suffolk

Bin there, done that

Anoosh Chakelian’s account of Clacton (The Sketch, 21 August) proves that Count Binface has stumbled upon the secret of modern politics: turn up. An 8ft dustbin may seem an unlikely challenger to Nigel Farage. Yet Binface did what the principal candidate apparently could not: he turned up, faced the voters, answered questions and stayed for the count.

The joke, therefore, is on us. When a politician can win an election without attending the count, when a man in a bin becomes the most visible opponent, satire looks less like an alternative to politics and more like its most accurate description. As Chakelian puts it, “post-truth became pre-truth”. Clacton simply added a new stage; politics without the politicians – but with a surprisingly serious bin.
Federico Forni, London SW15

Good advice we just didn’t take

Nicholas Harris’s story on Wetherspoons in Alicante (Esta Inglaterra, 21 August) was an excellent prose piece. However, I do feel he made one glaring omission: a company that was an enthusiastic supporter of and donor towards Brexit, opening in Europe. This is a level of irony that Alanis Morissette would find a bit too much.
Kev McCready, Tiverton, Devon

In search of lost time

Amelia Tait does a good job of debunking one of a range of bizarre conspiracy theories related to work at Cern (Special Report, 21 August). Nonetheless, it is worth being clear that the answer to the question posed by one YouTuber, “Who knows what they’re actually doing [at Cern]?”, is… anyone who cares to find out. Cern is funded by the taxpayers of its member states, including the UK, and its research is made freely available through open-access publication. Additionally, members of the public are very welcome to visit, to see for themselves the amazing science and innovation that their investment enables.
Tim Gershon, spokesperson for the LHCb experiment at Cern

Amelia Tait’s report on the possibility of time speeding up revealed nothing new. At the secondary modern school I attended in Berkshire during the early 1980s, time was successfully adapted to run at half speed. It was called double-period maths, with Mr Morgan on Friday after lunch.
Adam Perry, Reading

Proper jobs for proper dogs

I knew a woman who assisted in training guide dogs for the blind. I was in awe of their interactions, and the support these dogs would eventually provide. By comparison, Finn McRedmond’s visit to the Belgravia Dog Cocktail Party Parade was a depressing read (Reporter at Large, 21 August). Have we created a “wet-nosed, anxious generation”? Dogs are widely welcomed into many human eateries, proudly transported in specially manufactured prams, eat ice cream, go to the cinema, wear clothes… I have to remind myself some are still being trained for sensible and valuable tasks.
Julia Edwards, Winchester

Tools maketh man

I am right with Nicholas Lezard in his lukewarm description of using a colander to see the eclipse (Down and Out, 21 August). It was a rubbish idea. Luckily, after queuing for two hours on the morning of the event, I managed to obtain a pair of eclipse glasses from the enterprising owner of a toy shop who’d driven up to some lay-by in the Midlands the night before to take delivery of a job lot of several thousand, and who was rewarded by selling out by midday.
Nigel Austin, Dorchester, Dorset

We reserve the right to edit letters

[Further reading: Letter of the week: Prestige is never innocent]