Experts full of hot air and other noxious gases

I SHARE Mr Barrie Frost’s confusion caused by the changing and often contradictory views of experts mentioned in his letter on the pedlers of doom and gloom (Yorkshire Post, December 27).

I recall as a child being told cereals were bad for you because they brought you out in spots and that meat with plenty of fat was an essential part of growing big and strong.

The only consistent opinion over the years on beneficial foods has been your greens, but that now brings us into conflict with the climate change arguments.

In addition to the methane emissions of ruminant animals bred to provide us with meat, there is also the human contribution. One expert has worked out that alternative veggie diets, particularly those including cabbage and sprouts, can present us with a fire risk. His example was of several pensioners gathered in a small room, perhaps after a Christmas dinner.

As some will know, methane is lighter than air and his claim was that the flatulence emissions could rise and concentrate at ceiling height, thus becoming an explosion hazard if ignited by a bursting light bulb or electrical short circuit.

Another favourite playground of the experts is statistics. If we are to believe the official Government statistics, a rough check on experts’ claims in the media of deaths from one cause or another would soon reveal at least some percentage of the population has to die more than once in any one year. As Mr Frost says, the world seems full of experts, including the financial ones who successfully managed us into our present economic situation.

I say to Mr Frost, forget the aspirin, take your red wine, sit back and relax and take an optimistic approach to 2013.

I am now in my late 70s and thanks to our financial experts it looks like I might soon be losing my bus pass, fuel allowance and free TV.

But taking a positive view of 
the future and according to the latest census results, it also looks like I might live long enough to enjoy all the respect, perks and benefits of becoming an ethnic minority!