Sunday 12 July 2020

Sweatshop on Wheels


The horsebox we saw yesterday required too much work for the price being asked and the campervan we were due to look at had already been sold, so we're back to square one.

I tried to convince Hay that I was more than capable of the DIY required for the horsebox, but she remains of the opinion that my DIY ability was gleaned from the Tommy Cooper School of DIY, which I thought rather cruel.

Today we're looking at a large and well appointed campervan in Tredegar and a smaller one in Gloucester. Watch this space.



Personally, I prefer the first one in Tredegar (top photo).

In another development, the government wants to push ahead with the creation of some 10 Free Ports across the UK - something we could have done while in the EU, but thought better of because of their dubious value while we were members of the EU.

These Free Ports would attract businesses through a combination of lower taxes and a relaxation of planning laws. What's not mentioned is that they would not create new jobs, but would merely siphon jobs from surrounding areas due to tax breaks and because, for all intents and purposes, they'd be legally outside the UK, employment laws would probably be watered down too. In a worst case scenario, already established businesses would relocate to the zones and pay significantly less taxes than before, without generating any additional economic activity and employment - they would, in effect, become offshore tax havens and sweatshops. 

To work at all, they require a trade framework. The UK is set to lose the best trade framework it has ever had, so new trade deals need to be negotiated that more than make up for what will be lost before a Free Port can be of any value. They only overcome domestic import tariffs and do not forestall import tariffs in your export markets.



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