Chips on Yarmouth Market

Competition - Ha!  Ha!

I am a member of a very small, very exclusive club – I like Gt Yarmouth, always have. It has always seemed to me to be more a large village, rather than a small town. (It is, actually, the third largest town in Norfolk) When I lived near Yarmouth in the 1970’s the shopping trips were always to Yarmouth and no shopping trip was ever complete without the purchase of some chips from Yarmouth market. It’s good to know that the market is still alive and well and the chip stalls remain open (https://www.great-yarmouth.co.uk/shopping/market.aspx)

However, after only a few months of shopping in Yarmouth I noticed a really odd thing about the chip stalls on the market. They all sold their chips at the same price. I expect they still do so today. It just seemed odd that not one of the 10 or so chip stalls would cut their price to try and get more custom.

Then again, Yarmouth folk are funny, they will swear that the chips from their particular favourite stall are the best. I was never hung up on this, I’d just go for the one with the smallest queue.

But, where was the competition? It was explained to me (dummy foreigner) that the Yarmouth chips stalls, or more precisely the permits to run the chip stalls, were like the Yarmouth version of Standard Oil, the American Tobacco Company, the International Mercantile Marine Company, and the match companies controlled by Ivar Kreuger, the Match King. De Beers had a dominant role in the supply of diamonds.

Other trusts were formed by several companies, such as the Motion Picture Patents Company or Edison Trust which controlled the movie patents. Patents were also important to the Bell Telephone Company, as indicated by the massive litigation that came to be known as The Telephone Cases. - Wikipedia

The Yarmouth chip stalls were handed down within the family. No-one else could start a chip stall or buy a chip stall and therefore provide some healthy competition. Is it any wonder that all chips were the same price?

And now the news is filled with the demise of Carillion: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/22/carillion-privatisation-myth-councils-pfi-contracts

What’s the connection?

Back to Yarmouth. In the 80’s the Gt Yarmouth Borough Council built the Marina Centre. In a prime location on the sea front it was supposed to breathe new life into the town and provide somewhere for the beleaguered holiday-makers to go when it rained. It had a swimming pool (with a wave machine), an indoor sports area and eateries all under one roof. It cost some millions to build and the council provided the money, or they borrowed it I can’t remember which. In any event, instead of using the council’s own personnel to manage the Marina Centre (they have a perfectly good Tourism and Leisure section to this day), in their wisdom the GYBC (Gt Yarmouth Borough Council) employed a management company (like Carillion?) to manage the Marina Centre. The local paper, the Yarmouth Mercury, then ran stories every week for years about how the Marina Centre lost money – and lots of money – every year.

Strangely, it never occurred to them to find out why the fee paid to the management company almost exactly equalled the Marina Centre deficit.

It was easy really. When the GYBC or any government body actually manages something there is nowhere to pass the buck.

Yarmouth rate-payers who had a poor Marina Centre experience would ring their borough councillor and complain. The councillor would pick up the phone and speak to the management company, The councillor would then be able to tell his constituent that he had made the appropriate inquiries. Nothing got done but the council could pass the buck. That’s what they paid the management company for.

Sound familiar? It ought to for that’s what has been happening since the 80’s – not just in Yarmouth but everywhere. Companies like Carillion have been paid to take the flak. The government talks and talks about competition being a good thing, but works like hell to make sure it doesn’t happen.

Only the NHS escapes the management company malaise.  But, for how long?  I'm sure the government would love to unload the NHS on to Carillion, and they would if they thought they could get away with it!

The government talks and talks about how small businesses are the life-blood of the economy, yet they dish out multi-million pound contracts to very large companies which are no better than the robber-barons of old. For Carillion read Standard Oil.

Take the ill-fated and doomed NDR (the road to nowhere). When the Norfolk County Council were looking for someone to build this white elephant, their choice was limited at best. The contract was worth over 200 million pounds. Now me, you and Paddy with a few shovels and spades cannot build the NDR. Only a few companies have the resources which enable them to bid for the contract. Where’s the competition? There is no practical competition.

Eventually Balfour Beatty got the contract – though they were a lot smarter than Carillion (or maybe the NCC were a lot more stupid than the national government?)

https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/news/2017/11/councillors-to-consider-revised-ndr-budget

The point is competition for these type of contracts is just a myth designed to reassure the public and assuage the mega-morons in the Tory shires (and line a fair amount of Tory pockets at the same time through dividends and pension companies).

Only large companies have the resources to take on large building projects. Only the government has the resources to finance large building projects. Only the government itself can provide competition for Carilllion or Serco or uncle Tom Cobley and all.

This is now in vogue. “Let’s bring it back in house! Is the cry.”

From the same folks who sent it out in the first place.

Flying elephants are more likely to be spotted.

Laugh? I thought I’d cry!