Corporate greed

If ever we needed an example of the contempt with which the private sector holds the ordinary citizen and consumer, it has been provided by the events surrounding the effects of the Icelandic volcanic eruption on the transport and hospitality industries (your report, 19 April).

Bus companies and ferry and train operators rushed to fill the gaps in the market left by grounded aircraft, and promptly increased their fares to capitalise on their windfall. We used to call that profiteering.

Hotels have also increased their prices and are helping to strip the bank accounts of the trapped traveller. It is a corporate feeding frenzy.

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Now even the airlines have joined in and are attacking the flight ban and demanding the right to fly, despite the scientific advice to government that it is not safe. They appear willing to put their profits before their passengers' lives.

The private sector nearly bankrupted the country 18 months ago. The pigs will do anything, it seems, to get their snouts back into the troughs.

When will we get a government that will bring the out-of-control private sector back into line?

DAVID FIDDIMORE

Calton Road

Edinburgh

Last week I flew to Dublin, but volcanic ash obliged a return via sea ferry. Oddly, I had to show my passport twice on the way out (to airline and Irish security) and my luggage was X-rayed, but none of that happened on the way home.

Don't our enemies travel by boat?

TIM FLINN

Garvald

East Lothian

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