Pre-common market nostalgia may save UK business yet!
Brexit, a phoenomina driven by those who
hankered for a return of the Billy Cotton Bandshow on the radio, 12 pennies to
the shilling, cheap fish and chips three times per week, 2 O’clock closing on a
Sunday with the harassed little wife waiting for her man staggering home to
place his dinner before him and Newcastle United winning the FA cup!
Times have changed a bit since then but the sentiments the same, hankering for
the past has caused the anguish of the present day and whose paying for it? not
the top 7% who hold our nations wealth, its us the common people who find
ourselves wading through the mire like Dickens description of Abel Madgewick’s
escape in Great Expectations.
The Guardian has summed up the position the nation is in with a massively prospective shrinkage of our economy caused by the ‘smelly’ supposedly ‘oven ready’ trade deal accepted by the Tories in a story about the position a cheesemaker finds his company in.
So you may ask how can nostalgia and history help the UK now?
Britain became Great Britain through our unified nation being an island and the use of ships and shipping to bring in and export goods from our manufacturing bases across the Country, there was no major highways use for mass edibles and manufactured goods until the mid 20th century. a simple look at a map shows the rail and canal networks link manufacturers with ports both big and small on both sides of the North Sea.
On our Eastern seaboard ports sit fairly and squarely facing the ports in Europe many of which have sat semi redundant since the 1960’s. Those with ferry terminals on the continent are locking down and burying transport companies in red tape in a huge snub of the UK that may last decades.
But how can we get this blockade like situation eased to the satisfaction of our now geared to road transport industry on both sides of the briny pond which separates our nations and is damaging to all. We believe its quite simple, lets get our ports working with each other and increase shipping via the former short routes as opposed to most goods being transferred to and from the Continent via the South East of England and Hull.
Northumberland and the North of Tyne combined authority area has wonderful ports that face the Baltic with historical imports and exports to Denmark, Germany, Eastern European Baltic states including Russia and Poland. Traditional trade routes are still open, in some cases a little run down. Roll on roll off facilities and lorry parks are simple add ons that can be quickly developed, but its our historical shipping agencies that we need to grow back rapidly to beat the red tape blockade.
Currently red tape is being used to slow goods in and out as every single lorry must have its correct paperwork sitting in its cab, but is that really necessary? European Countries pre common market had massive amounts of red tape in place to protect their own national identities and jobs yet British shipping agents overcame the problems and goods flowed in and out of our ports both big and small and on across the country very rapidly indeed.
The DTI and Government business advisers are telling companies they must set up businesses on the near continent to handle the red tape but we believe that by using modern IT and transferring containers directly onto short route shipping via a larger number of ports road transport and shipping companies on both sides of the North Sea will thrive and the problems facing run down eastern seaboard towns will ease as as businesses begin to cluster around the historical powerehouses of the past.
So for those who hanker for the revival of ‘workhorse Britain’ lets get our giant Northern transport companies talking without ports and set up unified shipping agencies and not a myriad of different offshore companies to diminish profits and get our nation moving and trading again!
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