We lose another pub

 Since settling in Skewen twenty-odd years ago, I reckon to have seen the closure of three public houses and the establishment of three new mini-marts. With the imminent conversion of the Miners' Arms, each of those totals will go up by one. 

The Miners' was a fine pub dating, I would guess, from the end of the nineteenth century (the Skewen Historical Society can put me right on that). Latterly, in addition to its traditional ambience it added generous home cooking to its attractions. 

Some of the reasons for British pub closures can be found in this article. I would highlight the fact that "The handful of big companies that own most of the pubs are heavily in debt and they need to sell off more of their assets." The "pubcos" sprang up in the wake of the Thatcher government's apparently laudable attempt to break the monopoly of the big breweries and their tied houses, but, because of the way the legislation was phrased, the cure was worse than the disease. It was a pubco which owned the Miners'. The fight to maintain a great British tradition goes on, though. The is the Campaign for Pubs Facebook page: 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/262278151696447/

But why so many new corner shops when Skewen is already well-served by two establishments on New Road? Can't the planners do something about this? Well, no. As laid out by party colleagues in Cheshire, 

There are lots of valid objections to planning applications, called “material planning considerations”. These include:

• Loss of light or overshadowing (this isn’t just a high wall – it means loss of light to the extent that you don’t get enough natural daylight to see by).
• Overlooking/loss of privacy
• Visual amenity (but not loss of private view)
• Adequacy of parking/loading/turning
• Highway safety
• Traffic generation
• Noise and disturbance resulting from use
• Hazardous materials
• Smells
• Loss of trees
• Effect on listed buildings and conservation area
• Layout and density of building
• Design, appearance and materials
• Landscaping
• Road access
• Local, strategic, regional and national planning policies
• Government circulars, orders and statutory instruments
• Disabled persons’ access
• Compensation and awards of cost against the Council at public enquiries
• Proposals in the Development Plan
• Nature conservation
• Archeology
• Solar panels
• Fear of crime (with evidence to show that the fear is based in reality)

What you cannot object to is an increase in competition, even in an already well-supplied (or even over-supplied) locality. 

As to licensed premises, at least we still have the Bloom Inn piano lounge and restaurant, and the Colliers Arms.

Take me back ...

 Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the taking of Wounded Knee.

Bad Brexit leading to salad vegetable shortages

 A major cause of the shortage of tomatoes and green vegetables in our supermarkets is that, faced with escalating energy costs and market uncertainty, farmers and horticulturists in the UK did not see the point in investing in producing early salad vegetables. Agriculture ministers post-Brexit seem to have been more concerned about the appearance of rural Britain than its productivity. It is clearly time to repeat the advice of a Tory exile, a former land agent, of years ago:

CAP [the EU's common agricultural policy] led to tariff bars and cunning regulatory controls imposed to discourage free world trade in agricultural produce. Pre CAP, UK farmers negotiated guaranteed prices with MAFF annually. World trade in ag produce was free and if market prices fell below the agreed guaranteed price, UK farmers sent their receipts to MAFF and received a cheque for the difference. If world prices rose above the guaranteed price, no handouts were forthcoming. 

The system had the merit of being cheap to administer and did not involve the massive amounts of admin, the high costs to farmers in satellite pix, inspection fees and paperwork when they time would have been better spent farming.

This is surely the sort of support which farmers were expecting when they voted to revert to pre-common market conditions. They form just another group misled and let down by this government's rhetoric.

A nerdy date

 The computer science department of a US university informs us that at noon today the Julian Day rolls over its digit in the ten thousands place, becoming 2460000. This happens about every 27 and a half years

From the House of Lords newsletter

 "On Thursday, the House begins it's [sic] detailed check of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill at committee stage." 

Honestly, they're letting just anybody into the House of Lords media team these days.

Seriously, there should now be some serious examination of this dangerous legislation where, unlike in the Commons, even party appointees will be able to speak objectively on the subject.

 

Destruction of an ancient city

 The second set of after-shocks reported yesterday delivered a further blow to an ancient Turkish city which was a model of interfaith tolerance. On Sunday Supplement on 12th February, about 6 minutes in, Times correspondent Hannah Smith related:

Anatakya is a city right on the Turkish/Syrian border [...] a really special and unique place. because it's a mixed city. It's got Christians, it's got Muslims, it's got Jews. It's been a place of refuge for hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees over the past twelve years. [...] It's just the most beautiful ancient city. Now there's nothing left of it.

Smith has no doubt where the blame lies for needless loss of life. 

The state's response has been entirely inadequate. When we got there, most of the people who were working at the collapsed buildings were not professional. 

[AFAD, the official disaster agency, was slow to get to any of the towns along the line of the earthquake; and]

 a lot of the new buildings, particularly in the poorer places, the poorer parts of the country are not being built up to scratch. Everyone knows also about [president] Erdogan's links with the construction companies. You know, these constructors, in particular the five biggest construction firms - they are known here as the "gang of five" - these are owned by businessmen who have conglomerates. What they do is they buy up newspapers - they take them over forcibly - and newspapers, television channels, they give Erdogan and his party blanket propaganda and good coverage and in return they get all the state contracts for construction and everyone has known for a really long time that there has been corruption, there has been incompetence. And we've known that a disaster like this is coming.

  

Sledgehammer to crack nugatory nut

 Peter Black has already commented on the Labour/Plaid co-operative's micro-management of a social issue, and I am with him 100%. Friday's BBC News brought another example of their complicating legislation, this time in the political field. 

Welsh ministers and Plaid Cymru are working on the fine detail before publishing a proposed Senedd reform law by autumn 2023.

BBC Wales has been told further changes agreed include:

• requiring candidates for Senedd elections to be resident in Wales;

• a ban on party defections so MSs who are elected to represent a party will not be able to resign and join another party in the Senedd - they will have to instead sit as independents;

• independent candidates will have to disclose their membership of any political parties in the year ahead of an election

The first proposal is clearly aimed at one individual, Neil Hamilton MS, who has chosen to retain his English residence. However, it seems unduly restrictive when one considers how the border weaves between England and Wales, cutting across transport links. 

It is noteworthy that Scotland, which has the same electoral system for her parliament as Wales has for the Senedd, has not chosen either of the other two measures. It is a symptom of the group-think and paranoia of Labour and the Nationalists that they want to constrain MSs in this way. It is rather like the hard-line Islamist line of "once a Muslim, always a Muslim" and of punishing any apostasy. 

It may also create more problems than it solves. Suppose there is a radical change of policy on the part of a Senedd party. Perhaps Labour in Wales changes its policy on Europe to mirror the Europhobia of the current Westminster leadership. There will be some Labour MSs who cannot in all conscience be whipped into line on this. Their natural retreat would be to the Liberal Democrats - but the proposed legislation would prevent this. Or take a current issue, that of deterring the use of private vehicles. The Conservatives would welcome Labourites who felt that traditional motoring was a crucial issue. 

The proposers clearly have in mind politicians who join the party which offers them most prospect of advancement and/or remuneration. Maybe there are too many of these around, but there are also politicians of conviction and conscience. Consistently, political surveys reveal that the general public does not like the party system. Labour and Plaid are seeking to reinforce it.

The answer, of course, is to do away with the party-based additional member system, not to revert to a first-past-the-post regime, but to a fair system which puts more emphasis on the individual representative and less on his or her party, if they have one.

Ancient and modern barbarism

 The Scythians are probably better-known and -celebrated in Eastern Europe than further west. One thinks of an early work of Sergei Prokoviev, the Scythian Suite. However, as an article in Discover, headed "Who were the Ancient Scythians?" explains, they had a major effect on Europe's early history. They were nomadic raiders, ruthlessly efficient in their deployment of cavalry, which they had developed into a sophisticated weapon. The article concludes:

Scythian metalwork was likewise varied and sophisticated, including many iron, silver and bronze works. But Scythian objects wrought in gold have always been particularly coveted, especially in Russia. The Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg, is home to possibly the largest and most valuable collection of Scythian objects. But evidently, that hoard wasn’t enough. In May of 2022, Russian forces occupying the city of Melitopol in Ukraine looted a history museum, making off with one of the country’s largest collections of rare Scythian gold. Its current whereabouts are unknown.

So general practice is second-class?

 I sympathise with Dr Georgina Budd, whose situation was publicised by BBC Wales last night, in being denied her choice of clinical specialism. However, that she should believe that general practice is inferior to hospital work is worrying. Could this be one of the reasons why there is a shortage of GPs throughout England and Wales?

Shakespeare commented on pointless warfare

 From Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 4:

Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and others.

HAMLET Good sir, whose powers are these?
CAPTAIN They are of Norway, sir.
HAMLET How purposed, sir, I pray you?
CAPTAIN Against some part of Poland.
HAMLET Who commands them, sir?
CAPTAIN 
The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.
HAMLET 
Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,
Or for some frontier?
CAPTAIN 
Truly to speak, and with no addition,
We go to gain a little patch of ground
That hath in it no profit but the name.
To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
HAMLET 
Why, then, the Polack never will defend it.
CAPTAIN 
Yes, it is already garrisoned.
HAMLET 
Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats
Will not debate the question of this straw.
This is th’ impostume of much wealth and peace,
That inward breaks and shows no cause without
Why the man dies.—I humbly thank you, sir.

Poor man's kedgeree

Tip the contents of a John West (or own-label) tin of tuna into that rice you could not finish after last night's curry. Stir frequently over a moderate heat for fifteen minutes. Serve piping hot. To be safe, make sure that the rice is less than 24 hours old.

Welsh government transport strategy is divisive

 The "easy read" version of yesterday's announcement by the Welsh government is in a pdf here. Its aims are a restatement of last year's document and what I would describe as "mam and cawl", difficult to disagree with. What has sparked controversy is what follows in the Government's Roads Review, also published yesterday. The headline is that, while existing commitments will be honoured, the future road-building programme will be scrapped. It has been difficult to find details on the Web, but reports on Radio Wales suggest that while the Heads of the Valleys scheme will be completed, major schemes in North Wales which dominated the future roads programme, will be scrapped unless they fit the new criteria. The most significant criterion is that no new road construction shall generate extra traffic. So the proposed third crossing of the Menai Strait will fall. Needless to say, this is aggravating the political north-south divide and strains within the Labour/Plaid partnership. In response, Labour points out the cut of 8% from the UK contribution to the Welsh budget in respect of highways forcing their hand.

Environmentalists have welcomed the proposed new strategy, though with serious reservations about the effect on people living outside the metropolitan areas. Infrequent or unreliable public transport services in rural areas need to be improved urgently if the aim of reducing car use is to be achieved. 

The Westminster government has taken a different line. It is not against personal car ownership as such, but is insisting that the future is electric. However, neither London nor Cardiff are facilitating the network of charging stations which will be necessary. 

Putin spreads false propaganda to undermine NATO

 There must have been some paranoia in Russia when the former satellite of East Germany came automatically under the NATO umbrella upon German reunification in 1990. However, the Kremlin has misrepresented and exaggerated NATO's perceived eastern expansion, using all the practised tools of the old Cominform. This propaganda has increased under Putin in order to justify to his own people and to sympathisers abroad his own attempt to recreate the empire of Catherine the Great.

Deutsche Welle has an article detailing Putin's efforts and debunking some Russian myths.

Since Ukraine's Maidan protest movement and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia has tried to influence public opinion with targeted disinformation campaigns. While the extent of these efforts both at home and abroad has been hard to quantify since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly one year ago, experts tell DW that their intensity and scope have increased.

One narrative, begun even before the war, has been particularly persistent: That the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) — the 30-member European and North American military alliance established after World War II — is not only threatening Russia, but may even wish to invade it.
[...]
For example, in a televised address a few days before the invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that NATO was "expanding more and more," with its military infrastructure encroaching upon the country's borders. There is some truth to this. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, 14 Eastern European countries have joined NATO, four of them bordering Russia. Ukraine requested the chance to join via NATO's Membership Action Plan in 2008, and the country's initiative to join has only intensified since Russia's invasion.

It is also true that NATO has made logistical preparations in its Eastern European member states, in addition to preparing airfields for the rapid reinforcement of troops. However, this was also in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, which was illegal under international law. The NATO alliance continues to respect the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, which prohibits the additional permanent deployment of substantial combat forces in NATO accession countries. 

But that has not deterred Putin from his claim that NATO is threatening Russia. Putin has also alleged that Ukrainians have perpetrated genocide against Russian-speaking people in the illegally annexed "republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk for years, and that these areas must be "denazified." Such false claims have been aimed primarily at a domestic audience. But the narrative has also had some impact in the West.

Sadly, it has taken in those old socialists who seem to be under the impression that Putin is still a communist. President Luis de Silva of Brazil has been one such, though one hopes that President Biden was able to open Lula's eyes on the latter's recent visit to Washington. Modi's support for Putin is of a different nature. The Indian prime minister sees Russia as the only reliable bulwark against threats from China and Pakistan. This is another front on which UK diplomacy has been found wanting in recent years.

Chuck Yeager's ton

The first person to officially fly faster than sound in level flight would have been 100 today. 

There are those who believe that a British pilot could and should have beaten him to the feat. UK designer Fred Miles had solved some key problems relating to transonic flight, secrets which had to be shared with the Americans under a war-time agreement. The Miles M.52 incorporated those features and was due to start test flights when the project was cancelled. It is probable that this was a decision taken by prime minister Clement Attlee, whose major failing was ingratiating himself with the US Democratic presidency.

The telescoping of time

 A couple of programmes on BBC TV recently, including this Timeshift episode by Dr Lucie Green, have recalled the great flood of 1953 which devastated parts of the east coast of England and also the Netherlands. What struck me about the scene-setting narrative was the statement that Britain was still trying to recover from the effects of the second world war. This is entirely plausible - it was only eight years, right? - to today's programme editors, but it did not seem like that at the time.

The bulk of wartime rationing had come to an end by 1949. New motor-car designs, the Standard Vanguard in 1947,  the "moggie" Morris Minor in 1948 (celebrated in a recent IQ crossword) and the Jowett Javelin between those dates, had appeared. We had a state-of-the-art cinema (about which I have previously blogged) in Wallasey. And the crack in Auntie Betty's sitting-room wall had been fixed thanks to the War Damage repayment scheme (though I never did find out what German action had caused it in the first place). So for me the war was far behind us - and in early 1953 there was a coronation to look forward to.

There again, these are the recollections of someone who was still young at the time. No doubt the war still overshadowed my elders and betters, though it was not obvious. Now pop songs that seem to have been released only yesterday are already regarded as classics. It's all down to the telescoping of time with age, whether or not we are afflicted with dementia. The effect has long been observed, but it is only recently that clues as to its physiological basis have been found, as in this research. So I hope my younger friends and colleagues will forgive me if I occasionally assume knowledge on their part of some obscure event which occurred before they were born.

Tories' "green crap" attitude deters AstraZeneca investment in England

 The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has abandoned its plans to build a new facility near Macclesfield, Cheshire. Instead, it will push on with plans for a new manufacturing plant in Ireland. Among the reasons cited for the change of direction were a lack of commitment to delivering green energy, of regulatory experts and of manufacturing incentives. AstraZeneca's chief executive also said that access to clinical trials was an obstacle, indicating that trials were delayed because the NHS is overwhelmed.

It is a sad comment on the state of UK government that the chosen partner for pioneering vaccine development by the Oxford Vaccine Group sees no future here, even after the supposed clean-up by Sunak and Hunt.

Bacharach's one big failure

 Fifty years ago, Burt Bacharach had a successful partnership with lyricist Hal David, a productive working relationship with Dionne Warwick and marriage to the lovely Angie Dickinson. But he had an ambition to emulate the great American song-writers of the past with a successful musical. The attempt was Lost Horizon, a spectacular failure. 

[It was] a musical take on Frank Capra's 1937 film about a group of plane crash survivors who discover a utopian city. Bacharach and David, who started their fruitful partnership in the late '50s writing hits for Gene Pitney and Perry Como, wrote the songs together, including the title track. While "Lost Horizon" the song was a minor hit (#63), sung by Shawn Phillips, Lost Horizon the movie was a disaster. The kindest review came from The New York Times, which called the film "a big, stale marshmallow." 

 Bacharach kind of saw it coming, at least from a musical standpoint. He disapproved of how the music was being handled and let everyone know it, causing him to be banned from the dubbing studios. The composer turned his ire on his songwriting partner, who wasn't as vocal about the situation and left Bacharach feeling unsupported. Bacharach, who arranged and produced all of the music, demanded he get a bigger share of the royalties; David refused, and their professional relationship ended on the spot. To make matters worse, Bacharach reneged on a deal to produce a new album for Dionne Warwick, inciting a lawsuit with both the singer and the lyricist. Bacharach, who already had troubles at home with his marriage to Angie Dickinson, nearly left music behind for good. [more here]

It says a lot for his personality that he managed to patch things up with David and Warwick, and that (from my recollection of a 1990s TV documentary) Dickinson lent him support even after the divorce.

Before all that, in 1956 a big break was being signed up by Marlene Dietrich as her musical director. Noël Coward planned on Bacharach directing the music for his one-man show, which had been a great success in Las Vegas, for later tours. It seems that Dietrich asked for an introduction and then snaffled Bacharach from the Master. 

With Bacharach's passing, one more link between the worlds of classical music and pop has been broken. One wonders when there will be another composer who brings a distinct melodic gift to bear on popular music.

 

Turkey/Syria earthquake: there may be more to come

 This must be the most lethal earthquake for a century. Certainly, the most destructive earthquake that I can remember, Agadir, made headlines round the world and that was in 1960. The death-toll  from Türkiye and Syria has already passed that from Agadir. The family geologist is no longer on hand to provide definitive advice, but I gather from a TV interview with one seismologist that the quake occurred on the East Anatolian Fault but there are other sections of the fault that have not moved. He expected them to do so, but it may be years before this occurs. There may be time enough for the authorities to check on the resilience of buildings in the area. It has been widely reported that much of the recent loss of life was caused by a failure to build to government standards drawn up in the aftermath of previous fatal earthquakes.

Later: this website records deadlier earthquakes in Haiti, China and Sumatra. So it would be more correct to say the current one is the most lethal in Europe, Africa or the Near East for the last 100 years.

The people-smugglers' business model

 In Monday's Home Office Questions in the Commons, a minister responded that new legislation aimed at the business model of the people-smugglers was on the way. One hopes that it is better-directed than the previous effort which, by shipping refuge-claimants and economic migrants alike to a third country, punished the victims rather than the perpetrators. It was rather like attacking the business model of those committing banking fraud by freezing what was left of the victims' assets.

Gothic Pioneer

 The name of Ann Radcliffe who died on 7th February 1823 meant nothing to me until I looked at her bibliography on wikipedia. She was, in fact, the author of the totemic gothic novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho. It is interesting that she published under her own name at a time when female novelists were generally reluctant to do so. Perhaps her Establishment connections emboldened her.

International indices

 News came over the weekend that El Salvador had leapt to the top of the incarceration league with the opening of a new super-prison. With potentially 2% of her population locked up, she has overtaken not only Turkmenistan and Rwanda, but also USA, for long the world's leader. So World Population Review's latest table is already out-of-date. But where does the UK figure in this table? I had long believed that we had the second highest incarceration rate in the world, which has led to Liberal Democrats long campaigning for removal of many non-violent offences' ceasing to be imprisonable and for constructive alternatives to prison. For some reason, World Population Review does not include us in its data. The UK government publishes figures: England & Wales, 159 per 100,000; Scotland 162. Those would place England & Wales level with Malta and Scotland with Botswana, well below 100th place on the international table, below even New Zealand, which seems fishy, I suspect that there is a difference between definitions of "adult population". The Ministry of Justice uses the age of 15 as the lower limit, whereas 18 would surely be more realistic. 

Corruption perception figures were also published recently and Uruguay celebrated rising to rank alongside Canada, confirming her position as the least corrupt nation in the Hispanic world. The UK has slipped to 18th jointly with Belgium and Japan. (El Salvador is joint 116th on the list, by the way,)

Finally, the Polish government announced that the nation will soon overtake the UK in GDP per head. Certainly, President Duda was feted at the recent World Economic Forum and Poland is enjoying a reverse brain-drain. This trend was bound to affect us anyway, but Brexit has caused us to suffer disproportionately. The latest World Bank figures show that there is still a GDP gap, however. There is an even bigger gap (UK at 26, Poland at 46) in the Worldometer table, which presents a fuller picture, taking other indices into account, but that reflects the situation in 2017, before Brexit and before the latest Polish surge. Certainly, we will have to work hard just to maintain our standing in view of the IMF's latest economic growth projections.

More green pioneering projects in Wales

 CAT (the centre for alternative technology) is almost part of the establishment now, but it was not always so. Richard King's "Brittle with Relics" reminds us that even many of its original prime movers saw themselves as part of a commune. There was a feeling among nationalists that it was yet another example of the English hippies invading, taking advantage of cheap land in Wales. However, thanks largely to the work of Cynog Dafis MP and later AM, there has been more acceptance except for a hard core. Moreover, the English component has been diluted over the years as there has not only been more local involvement but students from abroad have taken an active part.

Now there is Graig Fatha, Ripple Energy's first wind-farm. Ripple Energy raises the capital to build wind-farms by offering shares to the general public and business. The incentive is to lower ones energy bills, sustainably, while being part of an inclusive ownership community. 

Sweet success

 Seventy years ago on this day, sweet rationing in the UK came to an end. This event was accompanied by bags of self-congratulation on the part of the Conservatives who had defeated Labour in the October 1951 general election. Many old favourites returned and new chocolate products launched (I remembered how disappointed I was with the short-lived Caley's "Cuba"). 

The last item to come off rationing was meat, in 1954.

Motherhood and athleticism

 As an armchair watcher of elite tennis for longer than I care to calculate, I have marvelled from time to time at how the likes of Margaret Smith Court, Yvonne Goolagong Cawley and more recently Victoria Azarenka have returned to the arena as strong if not stronger after having given birth. Now an article in last Saturday's i has given an explanation. Magda Eriksson, the captain of Chelsea's women's team writes about team-mate Melanie Leupolz:

Melanie has surprised herself with her physical condition since coming back at the end of November. [She] is not the first team-mate I have seen bounce back after having a baby A couple of years ago my Sweden colleague Elin Rubensson recorded her best sprint test speed six months after giving birth.

I am fascinated by this and Georgie [Bruinvels, head of performance] at the club explained to me this week that during pregnancy, a woman's heart rate and the oxygen-carrying capacity in her blood increases - after all, her heart has to pump for two. For athletes who continue to train during pregnancy these benefits can last longer then the usual six to 12 weeks after giving birth and bring performance improvements.

It therefore seems all the more mean of the Lyon management to stop paying Sara Björk after she got pregnant, the story that inspired Ms Eriksson's article. Thankfully, the Iceland captain won her case when she took her club to court.

Organised crime and government rubbish policy

 When Ken Clarke, John Major's last chancellor, imposed his landfill tax, he was warned that it could lead to illegal dumping. However, even his 1996 critics would have been surprised by the size of the illegal industry which is thriving through unapproved disposal of refuse.

It has taken the deathbed confession, in a remote corner of the kingdom, of a pawn in the game to expose the extent of the scandal. National parks are not safe from the blight. If you have not been following the story on Radio 4, or cannot be bothered with podcasts, please tune into the omnibus edition of Buried at 9 p.m. on this Friday and the next.

Landfill tax is not the only cause of this racket. There are unscrupulous operators who have dangerous material on their hands who, rather than pay what is necessary for its safe disposal, will have it dumped illegally. Ideally, enforcement of the law has to be tightened, but at least the government could look at the implications of the landfill tax.

Why is the Welsh Labour/Plaid government running with the Tories' freeport scheme?

 Last May, the Welsh government reached an agreement with the UK government to establish a freeport in Wales. BBC reported the incentives offered:

Welsh ministers agreed to support freeports in Wales after the UK government agreed it would be based on a "partnership of equals" between the two governments.

UK Ministers also agreed to provide up to £26m of non-repayable starter funding for any freeport established in Wales, which represents a parity with the deals offered to each of the English and Scottish freeports.

Bidding closed in November. The front-runner is a multi-port (including Port Talbot) scheme backed by some large industrial companies as well as Neath Port Talbot CBC. Apart from the appearance of greenwash in its main selling-point, there are drawbacks to freeports in general which should give pause to a government which should be creating high-quality and better-paid jobs. Richard Murphy, Professor of Accounting Practice at Sheffield University Management School, lists ten on the taxresearch.uk website:  

1) Freeports are bound to reduce the protection for workers. Light touch regulation always does in the end. Employers NIC is already going. Maybe it will be pensions next, and then what? as desperate measures are taken to make this policy work.

2) Freeports increase the risk of criminals using the port, whether for drug or human trafficking, counterfeit goods or other illicit activity.

3) Having a border around the port will increase paperwork and costs for those using the port. Just look at Northern Ireland.

4) Regulation in freeports is going to be outsourced to the freeport operator. Really? Is that wise? Surely this creates the most massive conflicts of interest? Won’t they turn a blind eye to deliver their own economic success?

5) Unless anyone knows what jobs are going to be created in a Freeport, why do it? What jobs are going to be created in each freeport rather than be shifted into them?

6) Freeport jobs are usually "shed" jobs that usually attract fewer  women. Is that the basis in which we wish to build economic development?

7) Freeports in the UK  were abandoned in 2012 by David Cameron because they did not work. Why repeat the mistake now?

8) Jobs could simply be moved into the port with no real gain at all, and real losses in local areas that force employees to travel further to work.

9) It is still not clear how local authorities gain - and they may lose out from business rates cuts in freeports.

10) These are tax havens at the end of the day. The government will get less money - and when this government says that it needs to raise more tax that means someone else will pay. Why should we all subsidise those who want to free ride us  by using a freeport?

[My emphases and adjustments to formatting. The text has not been changed - FHL]

Private Eye's running history of the setting-up of England's prime freeport, Tees, adds to the list: the enablement of acquisition of land and other property (including publicly-owned property) by the scheme's promoters at a discount to its potential value.

It is clearly too late to stop the imposition of a Welsh freeport. I hope that the government will make the best of it and choose an area which will suffer least. In my estimation, that rules out Neath and Aberavon.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak hangs his reputation on this ripping wheeze, as Denis Healey might have put it. There will be plenty of time before the next scheduled general election to assess freeports' performance, which is unlikely to be inspiring. One must hope that the next government is willing and able to unwind the schemes.