Friday, May 22, 2009

Lord Bonkers' Diary: The benefits of free trade

A second day at Bonkers Hall.

Tuesday

Spring has come to Rutland. Budget day finds me strolling on the quayside at Oakham, and I reflect upon the benefits brought by Free Trade.

Once we scanned these waters for Viking longships or German U-boats; now the world’s shipping arrives crammed with the good things of the season: wheels of Stilton and toppling towers of Melton Mowbray pork pies; tender asparagus from the Vale of Evesham and plump sticks of rhubarb from the West Riding of Yorkshire; richly patterned carpets from Persia and peppermint rock from Hunstanton and Herne Bay.

As I remarked to our own Vince ‘High-Voltage’ Cable the other day, whatever economic problems we face, the world must never again descend into protectionism.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South-West 1906-10.

Previously in Lord Bonkers' Diary

1 comment:

  1. whyever not ? The Persian rugs could be replaced by the products of Kidderminster and the West Riding.

    Once we've rebuilt the factories.

    ReplyDelete