Home Page Opinion October 19, 2021.

UK Today

The Ongoing Assault on Democracy and Freedom

The murder last Friday of Sir David Amess MP has been reported in shock not just within the United Kingdom but around the world. There are of course, some countries where political leaders run the risk of physical harm as a matter of routine – but it doesn’t happen in the UK. Except of course it does, as both the murder of Sir David and the murder of Jo Cox MP demonstrate.

Obviously the responsible people are those who carried out the attacks but we have to look at a wider context. Social media is often blamed and online platforms do carry part of the responsibility. But it is people themselves who post offensively and other people who take as gospel the words they read. And then act upon them.

Responsibility also lies however, with MPs themselves, both by word and deed. When Angela Rayner used her now-infamous description of her political opponents as she did, did she not think there might be consequences? When governments use a health emergency to ruthlessly oppress people, does nobody stop to think of the possible results and response of previously free people?

Violence is growing everywhere and must be condemned – it is not the answer. But unless everybody restrains the rhetoric, at all levels, it will get worse before it gets better and more people will die.

Airlines and Airports Today

Rising Costs Continue to Hold Back Recovery

London Heathrow airport has been criticised in recent days for its proposed increase in fees. Yet what some seem not to understand is that Heathrow is a business, like any other. It has to make money or fail. Just like the shops in the high street that have failed as a direct result of the lockdowns imposed by government.

Increasing charges may or may not be the right thing to do as the UK tries to mount a recovery from the devastating effects of the government’s response to COVID-19; that’s a matter for debate but Heathrow has suffered in the same way airlines and other businesses have. Jobs have been lost, perhaps permanently. Financial Armageddon is still waiting to swallow whole any business that either can’t or won’t do something to save itself, both in commercial aviation and in every other walk of life.

Perhaps this is something governments around the world should contemplate before rushing to shut down the livelihoods of millions of people.

© KJM Today 2021