C URQUHART is right to mention the selfish, greedy speculators who take huge short-term profits regardless of their contribution to the nation’s debt (Letters, April 6).

Even now, as the world sinks deeper into unavoidable economic turmoil, all major political parties still talk of growing the economy to repay our debts.

Can nobody see that the world’s dwindling natural resources are being sought by a spiralling population?

The assumption that business growth can continue indefinitely is no longer true – growth is already constrained by the world’s resources.

In the longer term, we cannot re-stock our planet, so who dares mention the only viable alternative, that is reducing the population to a sustainable level? The silence is deafening.

PL Hart, Springwood, Haxby.