{"id":2676,"date":"2022-03-30T14:48:37","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T14:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/far-right.co.uk\/?p=2676"},"modified":"2022-03-30T14:48:37","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T14:48:37","slug":"sleepwalking-again-its-time-for-the-conservative-party-to-ditch-the-walking-dead-cabinet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/far-right.co.uk\/?p=2676","title":{"rendered":"Sleepwalking again\u2026. it\u2019s time for the Conservative party to ditch the \u201cwalking dead\u201d Cabinet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s be honest about it \u2013 there are only 4<\/strong> modes of transport \u2013 road, rail, ship and aviation \u2013 so the Transport Secretaries brief is neither extensive or complicated.<\/p>\n

Therefore, in our view, the fact that the P&O Ferries situation even occurred \u2013 is a damning assessment of the competence of our Transport Secretary.<\/p>\n

Back in 2005, Irish Ferries reflagged it ships to Cyprus<\/strong> (another \u201cEC member country), which allowed them to immediately replace local Irish crew with East European Agency staff \u2013 greatly reducing their wage bill \u2013 as well as allowing them commercially to undercut their shipping rivals who were \u201cplaying by the rules\u201d on salaries.<\/p>\n

In 2021 Irish Ferries came to Dover to fight for the Dover Calais traffic <\/strong><\/p>\n

The trade unions warned that this would result in \u201cunfair competition\u201d<\/p>\n

But Doug Bannister \u2013 chief executive of the Port of Dover \u2013 welcomed these \u201csalary pirates\u201d with open arms \u2013 declaring \u201cWe are delighted to welcome Irish Ferries to Dover.\u00a0 This announcement gives the millions of customers across the UK and the Republic of Ireland who value the intrinsic benefits of the shortest sea crossing to Europe, the prospect of even more choice\u201d<\/p>\n

And less than a year after their arrival \u2013 their price cutting based on low agency staff costs (below UK minimum wage) was having the desired effect on gaining traffic \u2013 offering a family in a BMW a return Dover \u2013 Calais in April for \u00a3135.\u00a0 This was 20% lower than could be offered by P&0 and DFD.<\/p>\n

So, it seems that it was a \u201cdamned if you do and damned if you don\u2019t\u201d dilemma facing P&O\u2019s ferries Chief Executive Peter Hebblethwaite \u2013 as whichever course he took \u2013 would have a drawback.<\/p>\n

And like it or not \u2013 he took the tough but right decision for his Company.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And we hope that our Transport Secretary \u2013 instead of \u201cbashing\u201d P&O for embarrassing him \u2013 will take instead the correct position of making all ferry companies working in British waters \u2013 have the same \u201cplaying field\u201d \u2013 i.e. be tough on Irish Ferries to allow P&O and DFD the chance to prosper based on safety, and customer experience<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s be honest about it \u2013 there are only 4 modes of transport \u2013 road, rail, ship and aviation \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,11,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/far-right.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/far-right.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/far-right.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/far-right.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/far-right.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/far-right.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2678,"href":"https:\/\/far-right.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676\/revisions\/2678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/far-right.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/far-right.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/far-right.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/far-right.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}