WEEKEND COLUMNISTS Look after number one first? In a world that continues to be economically challenged, where businesses are failing and people are losing their jobs, protectionism is rearing its (very) ugly head. Here in the UK, in the recent European elections, much to my and many other people’s disappointment, we even elected to the European Parliament two representatives of the British National party, a political party that likes to remind everyone that “Britain is full”.
As a sometime student of economics, I am a supporter of free trade and find protectionism in all its forms very backward-thinking. I have wondered, as I see all this protectionism creep in, what David Ricardo (1772-1823), the champion of comparative advantage, would have made of it. Ricardo would have been the most unpopular person in Britain if he had been alive today. Not only was he a fat-cat stockbroker, he was also an MP. And the BNP would have hated him: not only was he opposed to protectionism, he was also a foreigner. His family were Jewish, of Portuguese origin, and had moved to the UK from Holland. He wasn’t even that popular with his own flesh and blood; he ran off, at 21, with a Quaker girl and had eight children with her, apparently resulting in his mother never speaking to him again.
Ricardo would have had no truck with a recent advertising campaign run by a butter brand in the UK to persuade domestic consumers to switch from buying New Zealand produce. He lived in a time before people got worked up about food miles and carbon footprints, but even if he were alive today he would argue that New Zealand had a stronger comparative advantage when it came to dairy farming. And New Zealand’s dairy farmers also deserve support for coming to the rescue in the second world war. In October 1943, New Zealand introduced butter rationing with an allowance of 8oz per person per week, so that it could supply US troops and the UK instead. There are many platforms on which our butter industry could stand to promote their brands without knocking New Zealand.
New Zealand came to the rescue in the second world war in other ways, too. As regular readers know, this column has been a strong supporter of the campaign to put up a suitable memorial to the New Zealander Sir Keith Park, the senior commander of the Royal Air Force Sector 11 Squadrons (11 Group), who defended London and the south-east of England during the Battle of Britain. He also served the people of the UK further when he commanded the RAF in Malta (1942-43), and then under Mountbatten in 1945 when he was Allied Air Commander-In-Chief of south-east Asia. So I am delighted to report that the planning committee of Westminster City Council has approved the two applications that the Sir Keith Park Campaign had submitted to them, the first for a permanent installation in Waterloo Place, and the second for a temporary installation on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. I and the many supporters of the campaign were delighted that the planning committee approved both applications.
Readers of this column who have supported the campaign can congratulate themselves that, in less than two years, a few words on the page have become a reality. Subject to the final permission of the mayor of London and the government, the permanent statue will be erected in September 2010 to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, while the temporary one is expected to be unveiled before Christmas, on the fourth plinth, for six months.
So, thank you to everyone, all around the world, who has supported the campaign. A very satisfying result. And thank you, New Zealand, for lending us your talent and sending us your butter during the second world war – and not looking after number one first.
