Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.
I am fed up of saying this but Dan Hartley (MetroTalk, Mon) is fundamentally misinformed when he claims that our drive to net zero is futile because ‘China wants to be the world leader… regardless of the environmental damage it is causing to the world’.
I am no fan of the brutal, dystopian Chinese dictatorship. And there is a lot more China could do for the environment.
But this idea lots of people seem to have – stoked by the anti-green radical right – that China doesn’t care about the climate crisis is simply not true.
China was one of the key movers in creating the 2015 Paris Agreement on the climate and one of its first signatories.
Though extremely difficult to calculate precisely, some external reports posit that China’s carbon emissions have already peaked and are now declining.
Its 1.4billion-strong population is on track for 40 per cent of its electricity to be generated by non-emitting sources by the end of next year. These are facts.
[China has pledged to reach a peak by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Reuters says its renewable capacity exceeded fossil fuel last year, two years ahead of schedule].
You can’t fob off our responsibility to our planet by claiming others aren’t doing their bit. We have to keep striving – soft power does have a hard impact, otherwise the Paris Agreement would never have happened.
Climate change is the greatest crisis humanity has ever faced. Pointing fingers isn’t going to make it go away.
The Chinese government is acutely aware of how much damage a collapsing climate would do to its country, which is why it is working hard to avoid it.
And as for net zero ‘bankrupting the economy’ – when our cities are destroyed by wildfires or flooded by the rising sea, we’ll know what bankruptcy looks like. Ryan Cooper, London
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‘Few countries agree on everything – doesn’t mean they can’t be rational’
Michael Jones (MetroTalk, Thu) says Sir Keir Starmer is ‘supping with the devil’ in seeking ‘respectful’ relations with China.
He talks as if one can only rationally deal with countries the UK politically agrees with. Yet few countries agree on everything and such a view would result in there being few UK embassies abroad.
Mr Jones further talks of ‘liberty in Tibet, freedom of expression in Hong Kong and independence of Taiwan’.
This implies the West has an implicit and non-existent right to attack the internal policies of countries, simply because of such inevitable disagreements.
Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan are parts of the People’s Republic of China and,aside from 12 countries with Taiwan, are not legally recognised as independent .
And countries such as the UK rarely accept foreign interference in their internal affairs eg no UN peacekeeping troops in Northern Ireland during the civil war there. The only true mark of respect, in this context, is to respect those with whom you do not agree and that being respectful of the concept of national sovereignty is the highest good, regardless of whether or not you agree with any nation’s internal policies. Robert Bucknor, Tunbridge Wells
Neglecting to mention the actions of Modi’s party…
In his defence of prime minister Narendra Modi, Mr Sharma (MetroTalk, Thu) pushes the issue of the demise of Indian democracy to one side and neglects completely the fact that tens of thousands of Christians, Muslims and Buddhists have been attacked, tortured and murdered by the extremist bigots of his political party, to which he has lent encouragement.
Democracy? Religious tolerance? Mr Sharma is clearly ignorant of such critical aspects of any civilised society. Julian Shurgold, Croydon
‘I’m forced to go abroad for dental treatment‘
All week I have been seeing reports of poor if not fatal medical treatment abroad. Last week I broke my denture. Trying to get an NHS or affordable replacement is impossible and I am being forced to go abroad. So, thanks Cameron, Johnson, Truss and Sunak for destroying NHS dentistry. George, via email
‘Farmers are angry at losing the exemption they enjoy’
Great ‘Farmageddon!’ headline about the farmers’ protest in London (Metro, Wed). I was at the House of Commons visiting the justice select committee and chatted with some of those taking part.
I do think they can plan their inheritance tax affairs – they are angry at losing the exemption they currently enjoy.
Any liabilities can be spread over ten years. They can gift assets and if they live seven years longer, there is no tax. Many farmers voted for Brexit and hated the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP)
I rather think they wish they were back in the days of the CAP. Andrew Edwards, Islington
‘Tax is the subscription fee we pay to live in civilised society.’
In response to Richard (MetroTalk, Mon) and to concur with Mr Dhadli (MetroTalk, Wed) , tax is the subscription fee we pay to live in civilised society. Richard would do well to remember that. Yann, Manchester
‘Inexperienced person in the scanning area’
Could supermarkets please bring back the ‘ten items or less’ checkout aisles? In my local the other day, a little old lady was getting very confused when trying to use the self-service checkout and had to call an assistant three times to help. By then an irate queue was forming. It’s not always the ‘unexpected item in the bagging area’ that slows things down but sometimes the ‘inexperienced person in the scanning area’. Carlos, Lancashire
‘Buying a house was never easy’
I read a lot about millennials complaining that their parents had it easy, that houses were cheaper and there were plenty of jobs etc. That wasn’t our experience. Yes, houses were cheaper but wages were much lower so houses were never cheap.
As for work, I was made redundant three times during the Thatcher years. There was massive unemployment. Hanging on to any job wasn’t easy.
I remember the riots. The miners’ strike and the three-day week and power cuts. No, it certainly wasn’t easy back in the day for anyone. T, Glasgow
‘Paul Weller is unmatched’
Simon (MetroTalk, Wed) talks about soundalike artists. Well, there is no one who sounds like Mr Paul Weller – he has a unique voice and so many different styles of music. Holly, London
