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.

It's not about arbitrary quotas!

As published in the Suffolk Free Press, Thursday, May 10, 2018;

 I campaigned for Brexit for many reasons. One of these was for a more enlightened immigration policy.

Surprised? I don’t blame you.

The narrative from the liberal elite was that Brexiteers like me were all racists, closet or otherwise. We continue to be vilified by Remainers, desperate to find any excuse to reverse the British people’s democratic decision of 23 June 2016.

But for me, this issue is all about what works best for this country – and this region. It is certainly not about returning to some fantasy society straight out of an Ealing comedy, where everyone was white and knew their place.

Quite simply, we need the right numbers with the required skills of non-UK workers to ensure our economy prospers.

The ‘fortress Europe’ policy of the European Union has meant that we’ve had only the most limited influence over one type of person (EU nationals) arriving here, whilst another group (non-EU nationals) are subject to very high barriers of entry.

My great hero, the US libertarian philosopher Ayn Rand, put it this way: You want to forbid immigration on the grounds that it lowers your standard of living — which isn’t true, though if it were true, you’d still have no right to close the borders. You’re not entitled to any “self-interest” that injures others, especially when you can’t prove that open immigration affects your self-interest.”

At a time of record employment numbers and a worsening skills shortage, it is a national priority to operate an immigration policy that makes it as easy as possible for the right types of workers to arrive here – and be welcomed here.

And I do mean welcomed. A free trade Britain, detached from a bureaucratic and defensive EU, should become a homeland for hard-working and entrepreneurial peoples from across the globe.

As a society we need to embrace those waves of workers and their families, from the Windrush generation to the present day, who have boosted this country’s economic and social wealth. I was appalled at the Government’s shilly-shallying in only guaranteeing at the last-minute the right of EU citizens and their families resident here on 29 March 2018 to remain.

Nowhere is this need for workers more pressing than in the land-based agricultural sector, including horticulture, which is still such a vital part of the East Anglian economy Norfolk and Suffolk economies.

The Seasonal Agricultural Workers’ Scheme (SAWS), which regulated the number of non-UK workers that could come here was scrapped in 2013. Since then, the sector’s trade associations have been lobbying the Government to reinstate it as a matter of priority.

Reports suggest that there is just enough labour available to ensure that fruit doesn’t rot on the branches and vegetables remain in the ground – for this year. From 2019, the sector is facing a collective D-Day unless it can bring in the right workers with the right skills and aptitudes.

Of course, there wouldn’t be quite such an urgent need to fill vacancies had we a rising generation that was harder working, less inclined to think certain types of work as beneath them and not suffering from inter-generational welfare dependency.

There is an equal duty on the part of recent arrivals to contribute to their host society – but that requires the rest of us to be far more willing to incorporate them into our everyday lives and social networks.

So, we need to move away from arbitrary quotas to an immigration system that is dynamic and welcoming of the best talent across the board. In short, a free trade and fair trade Britain should be concerned less about headline numbers and more, much more about the inward flow of skills, knowledge, capacity for hard-work and flair.

And that’s what a post-Brexit immigration policy should look like.

So many reasons to be optimistic

As published in the Suffolk Free Press, Thursday, April 12, 2018;




 
To be honest, I struggle with ‘experts’. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that ‘experts’ have a disproportionately negative impact on how we view ourselves and this country. In my opinion ‘experts’ are frequently bad for Britain.

You will note that I have deliberately placed the word ‘experts’ in inverted commas. This is because, in many cases, their opinions are no more – and sometimes far less – based on relevant expertise than those who are actually doing the things the ‘experts’ have opinions on. An academic and theoretical understanding of an issue can quickly become out-of-date, especially in the fast-moving world of business..

I’m not against listening to people with knowledge and experience – far from it. But ‘experts’ frequently overreach themselves and assume that their insights are infallible and of infinite validity.

I think the reason for this is that those in authority have a very narrow view as to what constitutes knowledge.

‘Experts’ are very good at playing the knowledge game. They present their insights in a formal way, using language that the powers that be, mainly politicians and bureaucrats, can cope with. In other words, they recognise a type of knowledge that can be written as a policy paper or as an academic account.

But the great and good and their favoured ‘experts’ totally fail to recognise the kind of knowledge that exists among those who actually do things: whether that be running businesses, being a community nurse or filling potholes.

Such knowledge is usually tacit – people just know what’s right and what works – or it’s informally expressed and so doesn’t get treated seriously.

That’s why ‘experts’ are often wrong and ‘ordinary’ people – you, me and the man on the Clapham Omnibus - are frequently right. As George Orwell said, “to see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.”

Nowhere has that struggle been so intense – and ‘experts’ been proven so wrong -than over the issue of Brexit.

I backed Brexit because, from my business experience, I saw that we can be a freer and more prosperous nation by not being tied into a single protectionist trading bloc.

But then I’m an optimist and have faith in the British people’s capabilities and willingness to work hard and well.

Compare that with the constant stream of negative opinions from ‘experts’ about what Brexit would mean to the economy.

Yet, in virtually every single case, they have been proven wrong.

According to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, our manufacturing sector is enjoying the longest spell of rising output in 23 years.

Exports are at an all-time high according to the Trading Economics website. Indeed, in one month alone (January 2018) they increased by 1.6% over the previous month.

The export of goods to the EU grew by only 0.8%, but that to South Korea and the US was up by 20% and China by over 4%. Good signs for a truly global trading Britain.

Closer to home, Suffolk businesses are enjoying a sustained boom. The latest figures from Suffolk Chamber of Commerce’s quarterly economic survey – based on the views of real businesses and not ‘experts’ – suggests that business is booming across our county.

According to the 170 local firms who responded, the quarter on quarter figures also show a further strengthening in business performance and sentiment from Q3 to Q4 2017.

Manufacturing firms in particular are doing really well in terms of domestic and overseas sales and orders and recruitment plans.

The only main concern is that, possibly as a result of this strong performance, a very high percentage of Suffolk businesses are struggling to recruit staff. Unless this is addressed soon it could become a brake upon the further economic success of the county.

 

So, you now understand my views on ‘experts’. My solution to this problem is simple. ‘Experts’ should only be allowed to offer their opinions if they can e clearly demonstrate recent involvement in the real world.

Now, I’m more than willing to help out. Any ‘experts’ that want to see how a hard-working warehousing and logistics business works, are welcome to contact me.

Over to the ‘experts’.

 

Ends.