Freeports

[BoroMart]

That's a complete fallacy and you know it. Not one person wants to see the UK fail.

The latest news that Freeports aren't what we were told they should be should come as no surprise. On a brexit built on lies. This is just another one to add to the mix. It's sad to me the way the British public let's itself be conned

these brexiteers are so hoping that freeports are a silver bullet to all lifes problems, even though they had never heard of them 3 years ago

 

[Redwurzel]

BM

Ref Cornwall

It has lost its tin/copper mining industry, except for a training school for mining industry @ Cambourne. There is still China Clay but it has declined. Redruth and Cambourne are larger but similar to Loftus and still economically depressed.

However the rest of Cornwall is doing OK on the back of tourism/second homers/retirees moving there. This option is not realistically open to Teesside especially places like South Bank, Eston and Grangetown which need new manufacturing and service jobs.

 

[BoroMart]

I would like posters to see the pro's as well as the con's and although I despise what the Tories are doing to us, I am over the moon that we have been issued a free port status and what it could possibly do for this area. Ask the people of Newcastle or Sunderland if they would like to swap it with us.

the proof is in the pudding, as we stand right now, there is no net benefit, lets see if this is a damp squib or sunlit uplands. I have a habit of not trusting a Tory statement because I take my cue from history

 

[ForssAwakens]

If it brings jobs to the region I can't see the harm.

Maybe I am missing something.

Brexit, no brexit, the region needs paying jobs.

That isn’t the point being made here. It’s the government claiming one thing and the reality being different.

no isn’t welcoming the jobs that will come by pointing that out, and especially not in my opening post

 

[Adi_Dem]

In your opinion is there an alternative?

An alternative to a Freeport as the only means of regeneration of deprived areas? Would have thought so.

 

[Laughing]

That isn’t the point being made here. It’s the government claiming one thing and the reality being different.

no isn’t welcoming the jobs that will come by pointing that out, and especially not in my opening post

Well if that's the main point welcome to politics. I am no tory supporter but every party puts achievements into the best possible light. Of all tory deceptions this one seems mild to me and may, despite the exaggerations, bring some benefit to the region.

 

[Redwurzel]

Too many people including some posters on here are playing political games.

In the absence of ideas from the anti Freeporters on how to level up.

To me it requires tax advantages, public investment in selected schemes in Teesside's case industrial/infrastructure, movement of public sector jobs to areas of high unemployment (an example of the opposite was closing the Middlesbrough Tax Office and moving the work to Newcastle), realignment of council tax/business rates. competitive exchange rate, competitive energy charges (instead of burdening energy users with green taxes use grants to cut carbon rather than high taxes). Freeports could be part of tax advantages, but don't have to be.

Surely able bodied people should not have to rely on welfare payments as their main income source or be forced to move in large numbers to much more properous areas of the UK. I had to do it, but I still don't think it was right and even good for the country.

 

[SmallTown]

these brexiteers are so hoping that freeports are a silver bullet to all lifes problems, even though they had never heard of them 3 years ago

I thought it was an about the fish. Turns out it's all about the Freeports. No wonder they get upset when we point out they aren't what they were sold

 

[Adi_Dem]

In the absence of ideas from the anti Freeporters on how to level up.

What absolute guff. Taken to its logical conclusion that means that Freeports can only be criticised if there is an alternative presented. Another ridiculous and circular argument that betrays the weakness of the argument. As above, it’s gone from bananas to fish to Freeports. Just an utter nonsense. No wonder we are in the state we are.

 

[ForssAwakens]

What absolute guff. Taken to its logical conclusion that means that Freeports can only be criticised if there is an alternative presented. Another ridiculous and circular argument that betrays the weakness of the argument. As above, it’s gone from bananas to fish to Freeports. Just an utter nonsense. No wonder we are in the state we are.

Pretty much what I was going to articulate but deleted half way through

Initial point - the Freeport’s aren’t what the tories said they were going be

Response - you don’t want jobs for teesside

I don’t see how you can get to that conclusion for the point being made, but nothing surprises me on this board