Green economics best for Norwich Market, say Lib. Dems.
April 9, 2007 12:00 AM
Jeremy Hooke, Cllr for Thorpe Hamlet
In a letter published in the Evening News on 7th April, Cllr Jeremy Hooke, Liberal Democrat councillor for Thorpe Hamlet, wrote:
"I am glad that Green Party Councillor Tom Llewellyn (E News 31/3) has brought up the economics of the Provisions Market, because it gives us Liberal Democrats a chance to point out the basic misunderstanding of economics that undermines their whole credibility as a serious political party.
"Cllr Llewellyn says that he would have preferred the old market to stay. That sounds plausible until you realise that the drains of the market were completely shot, the wooden stalls were nearing exhaustion and the market was in real danger of being closed down on grounds of no basic hygiene.
Lib Dems initiated the refubishment of Norwich Market, opposed by the Green party
"Any refurbishment would have cost the Council a packet, and lasted only a few years. The new market has an expected life-span of 60 years and represents money very well spent.
"But the Green Party`s more serious misunderstanding concerns the letting of stalls. They would like to vet incoming stalls so that they represented Fair Trade, locally produced, organic products and healthy food (giving the impression that other stalls sell un-healthy food!)
"Again that sounds plausible and the Liberal Democrats who created Norwich as a Fair Trade City would support some of the sentiments, but the practicalities of the situation would have a negative impact on the viability of the market.
"Cllr Llewellyn and the Green Party want to ensure that the stalls sell the right product, using the right materials and matching some imposed criteria. He said that he did not wish "to be too prescriptive" which brought the biggest ironic cheer of laughter of the whole Council meeting last Tuesday because that was exactly what he was doing. He was using the language of the command economy where Big Brother knows best.
"Then the Green Party clearly want to fetter the free flow of the market, without realising two important factors. First that it survives by the wit and innovation of the stall-holders. Their task is to meet the needs of their customers, many of whom do ask for Fairly Traded, organic and local goods. The law of supply and demand has to be given some credibility.
"The second point is that any trader is already subject to a plethora of controls, rules and regulations. They must comply with the highest standards of cleanliness, trading standards and safety. To impose on them, even with the very best of green intentions, some other stipulation would seriously undermine their capacity to trade successfully.
"The Liberal Democrats, being the practical green party in Norwich, would take the alternative line of raising the profile of sustainable shopping so that consumers automatically ask for the sustainable products.
"Stall-holders would then react by having these products for sale, and being free to trade in direct response to market-forces. The art of persuasion is a much more forceful sustainable tool than the imposition of ideas from some politicians of an idealistic turn of mind who frankly have little idea how the real economy works."
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