Saturday 14 January 2006

Good news from Cumbria

When one read things like this, it's very tempting to despair of our economic future:
THE number of staff employed by the public sector in Scotland has increased by 7,000 in the last year and now stands at 487,000.
I'm sure that it's much the same down south.

Then I saw this heartening story in today's FT. Read the whole thing to see how an entrepreneur kept fighting even when faced with seemingly overwhelming odds:

It is a year since record flooding submerged the Cumbrian city of Carlisle, but the memory is still fresh for Paul Ashley, whose industrial door manufacturing business, Clark Door, was sunk under seven feet of polluted water.
Would that ever growing army of public sector "workers" have coped? Mr Ashley did:
However, through a mixture of good local contacts, teamwork, business support and sheer determination, the company was able to get back to 80 per cent of its production capacity within six weeks without losing a single customer.
And for anyone who is thinking along the lines of "exploiting" capitalist, consider this:
Clark Door employs 80 people, many of whom suffered personally with damage to their homes. But the swift action to rebuild the site meant that no one lost their jobs.

"I told those whose homes were flooded to sort that out first. If they had got their mind somewhere else, they were no use to me."

Perhaps I'm too much of a pessimist. When people like Mr Ashley finally shrug, all of those public sector workers won't know what's hit them.

(Incidentally, if Scotland ever does become independent one must hope that Cumbria will choose to rejoin the Kingdom of Strathclyde.)

1 comment:

David Farrer said...

Comments made on previous template:

dearieme
My dear chap, I loathed Rangers and Celtic supporters on an equal opportunity basis. Dumfries seemed a dangerous place whenever those teams were in town to challenge the might that was Queen of the South: not so when Hearts or Hibs were in town, or Aberdeen or even the Jags.
18 January 2006, 00:24:02 GMT – Like – Reply

Lefty O'Criminal
Dearieme is doubtless referring to the fact that Glasgow is an Irish Catholic Labour pesthole with a greatly diminished Scottishness due to Irish immigration. Catholics provide 15% of Scotland's people and 30 % of its prison inmate population. The bastards are Republicans, love Irish nationalism and hate England but when asked to vote to give the Scots independence, they always vote Labour like the priest tells them. They are scum and should be shot.
17 January 2006, 02:03:24 GMT – Like – Reply

David Farrer
Hang on, by my reckoning that's an increase of 1.46%, hardly out of the ordinary.

But Scotland already has just about the highest per-capita state expenditure in Europe and we're talking about an increase in staff numbers when we have a static or falling population. And I bet the payroll is rising by an even higher percentage.
16 January 2006, 17:43:43 GMT – Like – Reply

APL
Shooting Parrots: "Hang on, by my reckoning that's an increase of 1.46%, hardly out of the ordinary."

1.46% more of something you can not afford *is* something to be worried about!

Shooting Parrots: "Less than inflation for example. Or your council tax bill."

Which are both, by the way, government tax of one sort or another.
16 January 2006, 09:53:44 GMT – Like – Reply

dearieme
May I say, as someone from the great metropolis that is Annan, that Cumbrians, or at least rural Cumbrians, seemed less foreign to me, in childhood, than Glaswegians? And I speak as someone who was bounced on Dutch and Norwegian knees before ever I'd met an Englishman.
16 January 2006, 00:40:30 GMT – Like – Reply

Shooting Parrots
Hang on, by my reckoning that's an increase of 1.46%, hardly out of the ordinary. Less than inflation for example. Or your council tax bill.

Sense of proportion please!
14 January 2006, 20:26:47 GMT – Like – Reply

Bishop Hill
Couldn't we just send all politicians to Wales and then rebuild Offa's Dyke?
14 January 2006, 19:38:19 GMT – Like – Reply

Jack Maturin
Personally, David, I hope the horrible state construction of 'Cumbria' is broken down into its natural order of Cumberland and Westmorland, and both secede from the British state to become independent kingdoms of their own, or even stateless territories. BTW, who's going to become King of Strathclyde? Is Sir Sean still available? As long as it isn't the dreadful Kirsty Wark, Queen of the Scottish public sector, you should be Ok.

I also can't wait for Scottish independence. Then we can frogmarch all those Scottish Westminster politicians back over the border. Hopefully you'll have a wee burn handy, to drown them all in. Though of course, death is too good for them.

I suspect Gordon Brown is slightly worried about this feeling amongst Englishmen, hence his laughable 'British Day' nonsense, to de-emphasise his own Scottishness and prove how scared he is of fellow social democrat David Cameron.

There's a thought. 'Cameron' sounds a bit Scottish. Can you have him too?
14 January 2006, 17:28:52 GMT