Freedom Fighter

As published the The Suffolk Magazine, August 2018 edition - www.suffolkmag.co.uk

Herewith my original article;

Stephen Britt is one of the most recognisable business figures in Suffolk. He is was a leading Vote Leave campaigner, a passionate Brexiteer, one of BBC Look East’s Brexit Panel, an outspoken newspaper columnist and the scourge of public sector bureaucrats everywhere.
No wonder his Twitter handle is Chatty Brexiteer. As a consequence, he is one of the easiest people to interview.
“I’m a libertarian. I believe in freedom: freedom of expression, freedom to choose - not wanting others to tell them me what to do all the time.
“That said, I didn’t know what a libertarian was until a few years ago. In a sense, as I detached myself from party politics I became more aware of this general old-fashioned liberalism shall we say? There are so many ways in which these –isms overlap, so I need to be careful” he asserts earnestly.
“I think being a small businessman is the key here. For me it’s all about making my own decisions when I want to make them, how I want to make them and not being told by other people. Libertarianism sums me up about 80 to 90% of the time.”
Steve and his wife Linda run Anchor Storage, a logistics and warehousing company based in Kenton, near Debenham founded by him and his father 31 years ago.
In spite of competition from far larger operations, Steve has ensured that Anchor has prospered in that time.
“Suffolk is convenient because of the sector of the business we’re in: nearly half of the UK’s imports come in through the port of Felixstowe so convenient is a good word! Everything we need is here on our doorsteps.
“We’re trying to provide bespoke services to our customers and so offer opportunities for people to store one package upwards. We don’t go for the big boys, nothing to be gained there.
The profile of the Anchor’s customer base reflects the changes in consumer tastes over those three decades. Initially, the company was in the bulk fruit juice and peanut market, with a strong presence in frozen and chilled goods as well. After that, they dealt with lots of Hi-Fis and white goods, followed by natural wholefoods and related products.
Steve takes up the story. “In the early noughties, we had our first internet-oriented customer and it took off from there. Now that represents 90-95% of what we do. These days, the two main sources of imports are China and Taiwan. It’s as simple as that.”
And how have his relationships with the public sector been over the years of running this business?
After a moment’s hesitation, Steve offers this tale of woe. “It certainly hasn’t been good and I don’t think it will ever be. Bureaucrats just don’t understand the true mindset of the small businessman.
“Look at the planners – they are 30 years behind in terms of our sector. They should have seen the opportunities in the 1970s and 1980s when the port of Felixstowe was going great guns and provided for a number of big distribution parks in Suffolk. Now they’ve all gone into the Midlands. What a missed opportunity that is for this county. It could have brought employment, more businesses and better infrastructure sooner.”
But hang on a minute. Surely as a libertarian, Steve believes in a small state and yet the building of roads and railways has traditionally been funded by Governments? Isn’t this a contradiction, not least as he was until recently chair of Suffolk Chamber’s Transport & Infrastructure Board which has been pushing for massive infrastructure upgrades in the county?
“There’s no circle to be squared here. I do see it as the role of the state to supply infrastructure or the means by which it is provided. The state tends to do most of the roads these days and we relied latterly on the private sector providing rail infrastructure and the same for broadband and mobile connectivity, although BT is of course an ex-state monopoly” he adds darkly.
For Steve, the other key issue on his agenda is Britain’s place in the world once the country leaves the European Union.
A long time Eurosceptic, he threw his all into campaigning for a leave vote in the 2016 referendum and remains, if you see what I mean, an effective voice for delivering on Brexit on the BBC in the East’s Politics show as one of their Brexit Panel.
“For many who voted to stay in the EU, it’s all about fear of the unknown - very much so. As I’ve been involved with international trade for so long, I do understand a little more about it. It’s quite a straightforward issue in my mind. I want to leave a protectionist EU and let them get on with it. At same time we need to wave the flag for free trade.”
As might be expected from a libertarian, Steve is hugely in favour of free trade.
“I want a clean Brexit with very clear lines. I don’t want to create more bureaucracy -  I want to slash it, massively. I don’t’ want to be importing laws from EU.
He believes that it will mean a system of mutual standards recognition and ideally no tariffs “You will not buy anything which is not up to the standard you want and at the price you are prepared to pay.
“We’ll be working to the same standards the day we leave the EU as the other 27 so no problem there and that accounts for 40% of our trade for a start. Our negotiators will be  signing deals from 29 March next year which will come into force from 1 January 2021.
“Those will be key, but my hope is that we will be able to say to other countries, we’ll not apply customs duty to our imports if you don’t levy import tariffs on our exports into your country. As far as the EU is concerned, we haven’t needed these checks at our ports for the last 25 years so why should we reintroduce them? It makes no sense.” 
Steve emphasises that Import tariffs are just another way of raising tax and he cites the fact that bicycles attract a customs duty of 14%. “That is a tax on the UK purchasers of those bikes” he growls in exasperation.
One aspect of the leave campaign that he is most uncomfortable with relates to the issue of immigration. For him, unlike Nigel Farage or Arron Banks, this has never been at the forefront of his mind. Indeed, as a libertarian, he is very critical of the present Government’s obsession about arbitrary migration targets.
“My immigration policy is very simple: we need those people to come to this country to work. We need doctors, nurses, I.T. professionals  – all sorts of qualified people.
“It is crazy that there are even limits as to the number of non-EU workers who are allowed to come in every month. These spurious targets were set years ago between 2010 and 2016 and I’ve got a pretty good idea who was responsible for setting them and they were wrong.
“They were set in response to uncontrolled EU migration as a result of Blair’s ‘open-door’ policy, which we had absolutely no control over, which is why they did it. In hindsight, it’s clearly the wrong move and we’ve had ministerial resignations as result. That said, we can’t have people coming here when they haven’t got a job to go to.”
How do those on the Remain side of the panel and more generally view his outspokenness?
“Some people said some things to me shortly after the vote, but I’ve had some great discussion with people on the Look East Brexit panel. Some of the things I’ve heard there have educated me and opened my eyes a bit more.
“In one case we’ve seen the EU for what it really is when research funding was withdrawn as soon as we voted to leave. We’ve also seen another side: that of a Spanish nurse who’s been here for 17 years, is married to a British woman with his children born here, but who is now fearful if he can stay here or not. It was disgraceful that the Government took so long to grant right to remain to those EU nationals already living here.”
If all this isn’t enough, Steve looks likely to assume a national role this coming autumn.
“By the grace of God and subject to election I will be installed as the Master of the Worshipful Company of Carmen in October. The Carmen were founded 501 years ago during the reign of Henry VIII and promised to furnish 'the kings carriages', to 'clense, purge and keep clene all the Stretes of …Donge' and to carry 'fewell…wynne, oyle, woads…within the said Citie and Suburbes'. 
Our main focus these days is transport excellence and charity, offering benevolence for people in the transport sector, both domestic and military.
“It’s a real honour for me. I’m following in my father’s footsteps as it was 25 years ago that he was Master. Also, this will be my 45th year in the company having been apprenticed to my Father in 1973. I will be representing not just my Livery but the whole transport industry.”
We are sure to hear a lot more of Stephen Britt over the next months and years.

Ends.