Letter From The Front...

David Carnell, Consultant, Mechconsult

"As a retired person my main focus is on how to restore some meaningful interest on my investments-the shameless way in which banks continue to hold onto other peoples funds and try to keep their profits at pre-crash (theirs) levels shows just what a sheltered life some of them lead.

However, in the other half of my time where I try to keep the grey matter occupied with voluntary work for my professional institution-IMechE The Institution of Mechanical Engineers-we have a big focus on how we can influence the future through engineering. You might find our website www.IMechE.org of interest.

Another issue in this area intrigues me-every week there will be an article about another city anywhere in the world and how its economy (and often that of its whole country) depends on tourism. UK included! Tourism is almost the only case where you have to take the customer to the product. So how do all the so-called green environmentalists propose to square this with all their anti-travel arguments? Are we all to use sailing ships, horses and mark one feet? In any case it is well proven that air travel is a small part of total pollution-they just happen to be an easy target. Economic survival and environment quality have to be balanced a lot more carefully than some current attitudes would suggest. Whilst I support the use of renewables, they can never be enough and nuclear has to be a part of the solution if we are to preserve our current type of lifestyle. Regards David Carnell"