The question of a third runway at Heathrow and the effect this might have in increasing fears of those living in the midst of all the aerial activity that would follow has nothing to do with Rhodesia or the suffering of the people living there, either before 1980 or after that year when it became Zimbabwe.

While most of my friends and colleagues when I was in government service in that country are no longer around, I still maintain close contact with poor rural African families who, today in 2008, would happily swap places with Mark in Isleworth.

They would view the noise and air pollution as a result of the prosperity denied them by an incompetent and evil regime which Britain, as head of the Commonwealth, has done little to call to account. As I leave and close the door of the headmaster's study for the last time, I can cheer Mr Middleton-Smith up a bit by suggesting that with a recession looming and more airlines probably going out of business there may not be a need for a third runway after all.

I am certainly not indifferent to the feelings of others but frankly do not care all that much if, in the national interest, Sipson village disappears under a load of concrete or just stays as it is.

One thing we can all be pretty sure about is that a decision about a third runway amid all the political indecision and capering that is taking place is going to be a long time coming.

JIM PASQUAL Estridge Close, Hounslow.