Expert Comment
Professor Helen Walker, an expert in sustainable supply chains and corporate social responsibility at Warwick Business School, says the insight we are currently having into a Britain without flight is a useful exercise.
"We have in the last 10, 20, 30 years been moving increasingly towards off-shoring our manufacturing to drive down costs. We have got increasingly complex global supply chains.
"If we are reliant on suppliers in other countries, it is necessary to have multiple sourcing strategies."
She concurs with the analysis of the UK's changing economic base.
"Britain as a nation has become more a service sector nation. That makes us vulnerable."
Prof Andrew Oswald comments on GDP (gross domestic product) as a measure of living standards: "GDP is a gravely dated pursuit. The first reason is the Easterlin Paradox (the empirical finding that countries do not become happier as they grow wealthier); the second is that global warming means it is necessary for Homo sapiens to make fewer things, to travel less, and to lean on the direct energy of the sun and water."