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Savage indictments I

28th May 1983, Page 34
28th May 1983
Page 34
Page 34, 28th May 1983 — Savage indictments I
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

IF THE FIRST-EVER RHA Road Tanker Convention is to be judged by the quality of the speakers it attracted, then it has to be declared an unqualified success.

Geoffrey Rippon MP was obliged to withdraw because of the impending election but his replacement Roger Opie — a Fellow of New College, Oxford, former economic adviser to HM Treasury, former member of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission and Prices Commission — gave a very stimulating talk entitled "The British economy and its future."

The speaker who preceded Roger Opie was Alan Halfpenny of ICI and he too concerned himself with the British economy, but from a different viewpoint — that of a customer of many of the assembled tanker operators.

Mr Halfpenny is the distribution manager of the Petrochemicals and Plastics Division of Imperial Chemical Industries and his division alone spends £85m annually transporting chemical products internationally. "Of that some E22m is spent on UK and European transport services," said Mr Halfpenny. He described some of the effects the recession has had on his division of ICI. "In 1982 we lost in excess of £100m," he said, "and there is no doubt that the future of the workforce is under threat unless profitability improves. The first quarter of 1982 has given us better results."

Alan Halfpenny said that his economic advisers at ICI told him that the turning point in UK economic activity was passed two years ago and "steady but unspectacular growth" was predicted up to 1985 when another "downturn in the business cycle" was expected. "My requirement for all kinds of transport is now increasing steadily," he said.

He also had some comments about the industry's poor public image, the uplifted weight limit and ICI's relationship with its transport suppliers. ICI is keen to use 38-tanners but their introduction will be slow, he said, and wondered why there had been no capital grant concession for all hauliers buying 38-tonners in 1983. "There seems to be a complete lack of understanding in the government of the spin-off benefits from 38 tonnes," he said, citing the steel and chemical industries as those most likely to benefit.

Two questioners, Anne Preston of Prestons of Potto and Ken Jones of Buckley Tankers, were keen to learn more of ICI's plans for 38-tanners, asking respectively what percentage of ICI's transport business will be for the higher weight vehicles and whether ICI was encouraging its hauliers to reinvest. Alan Halfpenny was guarded in his replies but left no doubt in the delegates' minds that ICI would encourage the use of new 38tanners.

At the outset of his presentation Roger Opie admitted to having no knowledge at all of 38tanners or the haulage industry.

"I am an academic," he said, "which means I approach every question with an open mouth."

Using graphs and charts taken from the Central Statistical Office's Economic Trends Mr

Opie gave his audience a prehensive description of he saw as being wrong wi. British economy.

He described the idea th sharp fall in Britain's domestic product since was a result of world recE as "bunkum". "The fall ir (economist's jargon for oi is our own fault," he assurE tanker operators and poin1 graphs which showed thi pan's industrial productior tinued to climb while the the USA's was completely phase with that of the UK.

Referring to charts +A showed that gross domesti duct per person employe( risen since 1980, Mr Opie u cricketing analogy. "If you the last two batsmen and the average of nine then batting average will impr he said. "On exports we a per cent less competitive than we were in 1 Furthermore, there has be success whatever in contn the growth of the mc supply."

Roger Opie's greatest col was with the level of unem ment and he saw no prosp( an improvement. He referr the recent allegedly suppre Manpower Services Con sion report which predicte said, no fall in unemploy until the 1990s,

"Would he advocate le the EEC?" he was asked. "1 out knowing the terms could be negotiated that i possible to answer," he

"but I am no longer keE leave."

"Import controls?" "Yes, Plied Roger Opie. "I think B needs to be more like Fran this respect. Of course the culty is that it is illegal."


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