the times | Friday March 6 2020 1GM 29
Leading articles
including Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Group and the
private equity outfit Cyrus Capital. They could
have injected fresh equity into the business if they
thought it was viable. That they were unwilling to
do so is a mark of the depth of Flybe’s financial
woes. It had extensive debts and few assets other
than its valuable landing slots at Heathrow and
Gatwick. All of its aircraft were leased. A cut to air
passenger duty, unwisely mooted by the govern-
ment in January, would not have helped. A slump
in bookings as a result of Covid-19 was the final
straw.
But the collapse of one airline does not spell the
inevitable loss of all air transport connections
between Britain’s regions. The airline industry has
always been unstable. It operates on high fixed
costs and is vulnerable to swings in variable costs,
including fuel prices. The result is that small varia-
tions in passenger numbers can have an outsized
impact on profitability. Over recent decades large
numbers of US airlines have gone bust without
halting the relentless rise in air traffic. Flybe’s
landing slots will be auctioned off to other opera-
tors who may calculate they can make more com-
mercially viable use of them. If the government
believes it is in the public interest that specific
routes be kept open, then it has the option of subsi-dising them. Flybe’s Newquay to London route is
already subsidised under such a public service
obligation. But if there is real demand for the ser-
vice, it is reasonable to expect that Flybe’s demise
will pave the way for another operator to step in.
As for the government’s regional strategy and
levelling-up agenda, it is important to note that
Flybe’s greatest competition on many of its
domestic routes came from other forms of trans-
port, including bus, train and car. Indeed Flybe’s
overall market share on most of its routes was tiny.
It is these other forms of transport that are key to
improving regional connectivity. The real scandal
is that the quality of infrastructure underpinning
so many of these transport links is poor, reflecting
decades of underinvestment. Access to the south-
west, for example, where Flybe maintained an
important base in Exeter, depends on one over-
crowded motorway and a congested trunk road,
the A303, that successive governments have been
promising but failing to upgrade for decades.
The budget next week is an opportunity to show
that the government is serious about improving
regional infrastructure. Throwing taxpayers’ cash
at a poorly run private business was never the
answer. Instead a comprehensive investment pro-
gramme cannot start soon enough.charity responded to media reports of the scandal
with misleading press statements. It then spent
more than £100,000 on a legal team to try to keep
stories out of the press and threatened journalists
with legal action for asking questions. The charity
is now on the brink of a fourth blunder. Mr
Watkins was a trustee in 2015 and oversaw the
bungled media strategy in 2018. As a friend of Mr
Forsyth he provided a reference that helped him
into the job at Unicef. Mr Watkins is part of the
problem. He cannot help find its solution.
Save the Children has already paid a high price
for its mistakes. In 2018 it was obliged to withdraw
from bidding for British government funding,
which has caused its income to drop significantly.
Mr Watkins this week wrote to harassment vic-
tims to offer them a “heartfelt apology”. Yet that
will be small comfort given that for two years he
has repeatedly refused invitations to meet them.
The organisation’s woeful failure to deal with
the serious misconduct of its staff echoes scandals
in other charities. In 2018 The Times revealed
Oxfam’s efforts to cover up misconduct by senior
aid workers in Haiti. A subsequent report by theCharity Commission found it had been too lenient
on staff accused of impropriety and had failed to
be frank with donors. In 2002 aid workers for more
than 40 agencies in west Africa were found to have
exploited refugee children, offering food in return
for sexual favours. The seeming inability of chari-
ties to root out such behaviour has caused great
harm to vulnerable people. It has also damaged a
sector which relies almost entirely on goodwill.
It has become clear that charities cannot be
trusted to investigate their own misdeeds. They
and their staff must become more accountable.
Part of the answer lies in more thorough back-
ground checks, particularly for those who work in
disaster areas overseas. An international register
of aid workers that included criminal records and
job references would help keep track of offenders.
Protection for whistleblowers would help too.
That an organisation has a noble mission does not
mean it is free of corruption or abuses of power.
Save the Children has much to do to restore the
trust of its staff and those upon whose donations
its relies. The first step in that process should be
the resignation of its chief executive.not living in Scotland, losing weight, being reli-
gious, having a dog, laughing, exercise, sleep, stop-
ping drinking, drinking red wine and stopping
drinking altogether. Simple logic thus suggests
that doing all of these things at once, if it were
possible, would reduce the risk by several hundred
per cent. Thereby freeing you up, once you’ve
figured out what on earth that means, to cheerful-
ly start smoking.
The temptation, perhaps, is to regard all of this
cumulatively as nonsense. Resist that. With every
advance it becomes clear that some things are
good for you, and some are not. Some thingsbenefit us in moderation, and others not at all.
Snapshot by snapshot, the finer detail may not be
clear. Those with one perceived good habit are
more likely to take care of themselves generally.
Do not presume it enough to live a hard, overin-
dulgent life, but very occasionally eat an almond.
Gradually we learn the parameters of a healthy
life. Swapping some red meat for some nuts,
almost certainly, is beneficial in this regard. Yet
should anybody ever seek to tell you that there is
a silver bullet that can be slipped into your Nutri-
Bullet, take it with a pinch of salt. Although,
according to research, not too much.Hard Landing
The government was right not to spend taxpayers’ money bailing out Flybe.
Now it must show it is serious about improving other transport infrastructure
The demise of Flybe in the early hours of yester-
day is a devastating blow for the 2,400 employees
of the failed airline, many of whom have already
been served with redundancy notices. It is also a
worrying time for Flybe passengers who find
themselves stranded, although other transport
appears to have been offered to help them get
home. It is tough, too, for those with future book-
ings, not all of whom will get their money back.
And it is an anxious time for many regional airport
operators who face their own uncertain future
without Flybe’s traffic. Those who use these air-
ports will worry that a valued transport link has
been lost. And Flybe’s demise raises questions
about the government’s “levelling up” agenda,
which depends in part on improving regional
connections.
Nonetheless the government was right not to
intervene to save an airline which has been in
financial difficulties for at least a year. Ministers
had granted Flybe a temporary reprieve in Janu-
ary when they allowed it to defer payment of taxes
but stopped short of putting public money at risk.
There was talk at the time of the government
providing an emergency loan, but this has not
been forthcoming. Nor should it have been on the
table. Flybe has deep-pocketed shareholders,Misplaced Charity
Why hasn’t the chief executive of Save the Children resigned?
For the latest evidence of the deep problems with
the governance of the charity sector, look no fur-
ther than Save the Children. It has just been found
guilty by the Charity Commission of “serious fail-
ures” in its handling of a sexual harassment scan-
dal. Those failures included serious blunders by its
chief executive, Kevin Watkins. Yet despite calls
from politicians and campaigners for him to
resign, Mr Watkins insists he intends to stay and
reform the charity. That is an error that not only
risks inflicting further damage on Save the Child-
ren’s reputation but will fuel doubts that the sector
has learnt anything from recent scandals.
Save the Children’s problems stem from allega-
tions of sexual harassment made against two of
the charity’s senior executives, Brendan Cox and
Justin Forsyth, in 2015. The charity’s first mistake
was to hide the details of the allegations from trus-
tees and the sector’s watchdog. Its second was to
try to resolve the problem internally. Mr Cox
resigned before a disciplinary investigation was
completed. Mr Forsyth offered apologies to three
women before leaving for a senior position at
Unicef. A third error came in 2018, when theGoing Nuts
Solid advice for a healthy life should never be confused with a quick fix
According to a study reported in The Times today,
swapping one meal of red meat a day for a handful
of nuts can reduce your risk of dying from a heart
attack by 17 per cent. Replacing one such meal with
whole grains, meanwhile, such as brown rice,
could reduce it by 50 per cent.
Other reports in recent years have suggested
that the risk can also be reduced by statins, drink-
ing the right amount of coffee, losing weight, beta
blockers, aspirin, gene therapy, fibre, fruit and veg-
etables, ghee, more testosterone, less testosterone,
moving to a warmer climate, having cold baths,
dark chocolate, tea, folic acid, omega-3 fatty acids,UK: The Welsh Conservative Party
conference opens in Llangollen.
Belgium: EU health ministers meet to
discuss the coronavirus outbreak.
The first wheatears
and chiffchaffs are
arriving here now.
The chiffchaffs sing
energetically in
treetops while the
wheatears dart
about on the ground. The first glimpse of a
wheatear is often on a football pitch or by a
golfer on a fairway. They are small, elegant
whitish birds that chase insects in the grass,
frequently leaping up for them. Their breast
is orange-buff and their wings are black, and
when they fly they show a white rump (their
name is a politer version of white arse). Most
of them will head north for the hills and
moors, though some may remain in the
south on the downs, where they were once
common and were caught in abundance for
food. They nest in hollows on the ground,
including in rabbit holes and, as was once
recorded, a discarded trilby. derwent may
In 1836 , at the end of a 13-day siege of the
Alamo garrison, about 200 defenders were
killed by a much larger Mexican force; in
1853 La traviata, by Giuseppe Verdi, was
premiered at La Fenice opera house in
Venice; in 1930 the first test collection of 27
frozen vegetables, fruits, fish and meats was
released for sale by the company set up by
Clarence Birdseye.
David Gilmour, pictured,
singer, guitarist and
songwriter, Pink Floyd,
The Dark Side of the
Moon (1973), 74; Tom
Arnold, actor, True Lies
(1994), 61; Prof Tony
Badger, historian, master
of Clare College, Cambridge (2003-14), 73;
Jean Boht, actress, Bread (1986-91), 88; Steve
Connor, founder and chairman, National
Centre for Domestic Violence, 46; Alan
Davies, comedian, actor, Jonathan Creek
(1997-16), and panellist, QI (since 2003), 54;
Kiki Dee, rock singer, Don’t Go Breaking my
Heart (with Elton John, 1976), 73; Neil
Findlay, Scottish Labour Party MSP for
Lothian, 51; Alan Greenspan, economist,
chairman of the US Federal Reserve
(1987-2006), 94; Prof Sir David Hendry,
econometrician, 76; Cecilia Heyes, professor
of psychology, University of Oxford, 60;
Edmund King, president of the AA, 62;
Lord (Jim) Knight of Weymouth, Labour
MP (2001-10), employment and welfare
reform minister (2009-10), 55; Mike Manley,
chief executive, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles,
56; Richard Noble, holder of the land speed
record (1983-97), 74; Shaquille O’Neal, US
basketball player, 48; Rob Reiner, film
director, When Harry Met Sally (1989), 73;
Most Rev Arthur Roche, an archbishop at
the Vatican, RC bishop of Leeds (2004-12),
70; Prof Jean Seaton, official historian of the
BBC, 73; Sir Rabinder Singh, lord justice of
appeal, president of the Investigatory
Powers Tribunal, 56; Dame Marilyn
Strathern, social anthropologist, 79;
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, opera singer, 76;
Valentina Tereshkova, cosmonaut, the
first woman to travel into space (1963), 83;
Mary Wilson, singer, a founding member of
the Supremes, 76.
“We come and go, but the land is always here.
And the people who love it and understand it
are the people who own it — for a little while.”
Willa Cather, US author, O Pioneers! (1913)
Nature notes
Birthdays today
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