Travel chaos shows dangers of cutting so called red tape - Yorkshire Post Letters

David Behrens outlined the difficulties his son faced trying to return home from India amid the travel chaos following the US-Israel strikes on Iran (Why the insurance system has failed us all, March 14).

I hope “Behrens Junior” has since made it home safely. Mr Behrens’ column highlights an important double standard. Had his son been travelling with a UK or European airline, he would normally be entitled to accommodation, meals, and assistance while waiting for a replacement flight under passenger protection rules introduced through the European Union and retained in UK law.

Because he was flying with a non-European carrier departing from outside Europe, however, the airline had very limited obligations.

It is easy to dismiss such rules as bureaucratic ‘red tape’. Yet these are precisely the consumer protections that prevent travellers being abandoned in moments of crisis. Without them, passengers can quickly find themselves facing spiralling costs while airlines bear little responsibility.

During the Brexit campaign, we heard much about a bonfire of regulation and the promise to “take back control”. What was discussed far less was that many of those regulations were not abstract rules at all, but practical protections introduced during our EU membership and affecting everyday life – from airline compensation to employment rights such as paid holiday and maternity leave.

Today, some politicians still talk about sweeping away thousands of so-called “nanny state” regulations originally derived from European law without ever spelling out what those laws actually include. Reform UK is the most enthusiastic advocate of this approach, and many Conservatives yet to defect to Nigel Farage’s party still echo the same rhetoric. Stories like the one described by Mr Behrens offer a glimpse of what life looks like when such protections are absent.

“Taking back control” should not mean leaving travellers stranded and out of pocket while multinational corporations face few obligations. Regulations like these are not bureaucratic burdens to be tossed onto some ideological “bonfire of red tape”, but basic protections that stop ordinary travellers being left to fend for themselves when things go wrong.