Campaign for Balanced Trade

World trade is a wonderful thing, the total UK trade deficit  was 32 Billion pounds, however, the deficit on goods with the rest of the world in 2024 was a whopping 226 Billion pounds. 

The UK is not competing in the global race, we can't grow tea or match Chinese labour rates, much of what we consume needs to be imported, but there is plenty we can do to close that gap.

We should all do what we are best at and trade as friction less as possible.  It's great the Italians make pasta and the Swiss makes watches.  I dread to think if it was the other way around.

The UK I feel has lost it's way somewhat, in business if my rival improves their offering to the market, I too need to improve, UK industry faces many headwinds, and badly needs to improve.

Toyota and VW produced better quality cars at a better price than British Leyland for example, in a world of competitive markets it's survival of the fittest and British industry has not been match fit for some time now.

Consider if you will a farm, our labour rates are high, the value of our land is high, so we import crops and to pay for them, the farmer has to sell or mortgage a little piece of his land to pay for them each year.  

One day there will be nothing left.

Not that we are at that point, far from it, but it is time to stop selling pieces of our farm and figure out how we can be more productive and lower our costs so we can compete on a global scale, we need the equivalent of a diet, some training and some support.

The cost of doing business here is far too high, why open a factory in the UK when our energy is 5x the price of the US.  Our business rates, in dire need of reform, we must find 24 Billion pounds from elsewhere and help our factories and high streets.  

1.  Energy - The easiest win is in energy policy, in 2024, we imported 15% of our electricity costing 250 million pounds, this is dwarfed by 70 Billion in fuels.  This 70 Billion alone puts the UK into a sizable surplus overall. 

We buy more from Norway than any other country and we share the oil field with them.

Absolutely potty when we have the resources to be completely self sufficient in energy and the energy sector, pays our workforce, pretty well.

2.  Public procurement - There is a huge difference between price and cost. We import coal from Japan to fire the blast furnace in Scunthorpe whilst not granting permission to mine that coal in Cumbria. I read the other week that army uniforms are being made in China.  As a tax payer, I would sooner pay a little more from the public purse to support the local manufacturing.  Our left behind communities stand testament to the costs on society, when we opt for cheaper prices.

3. Productivity - Both the public and private sectors are woefully behind.  GDP per capita in the US is $69,288.  In Britain we are $49,290 ( £37,044 ).

The average American worker is 29% more productive than we are.  We have a lot to learn in the UK!.

In our view, we are here because consecutive generations have been unawares of the problem as we let bit by bit slip away from us.  Our campaign highlights this issue and urges the powers that be to look at the problem in hand. For the sake of the prospects of future generations, we must do better.