Dimple in cheek

Dimple Whisky was the favourite tipple of my 1970s first girlfriend’s father. Whenever Annabel and I were abroad, it was a must to bring back a bottle of Dimple from Duty-Free. I think in fact we only went abroad twice in those days, so Christmas and his birthday presents had to be sourced from local shops. With his birthday being 29th February it was not too costly.

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I am on a Brexit Rant.

We all know 52% (+/-1%) of British voters put their cross against “Leave” purely on the basis that since 1st July 1999, nobody has experienced a proper continental European holiday.

No more duty-free shopping for travel within the EU or better the European VAT area. To make it worse, the Europeans invented all sorts of loopholes so that cherry-picked areas weren’t included and thus could still offer duty-free:  Helgoland, Germany; the Canary Islands, bits & pieces of French territories. And all we Brits were allowed were places like the Falklands and The British Antarctic Territories.

Most of the duty-free obsession of the Brits was shamelessly misused for excessive profit-making by the airports and ferry companies. The prices for the goods, duty paid, in many continental countries was cheaper. And of course, led to the mass day trips by ferry to Calais in the late ’80s and ’90s.

Today after the evening dog walk, dropped into the local supermarket (Image factor several points behind Aldi/Lidl). You won’t find much choice but the quality close to par with Aldi. As with most supermarkets, you probably won’t find any British food products nor drinks on the standard wine and spirits shelves. Occasionally they have a limited one week offer for say Chivers jam. Today not even Kerrygold Irish cheddar, the only cheddar you are ever likely to see anywhere, was on display - it was sold out.

However, in the racks of “special” offers were two boxes of “Dimple Golden Selection” including a free glass for €19.77 about £17.50. I can’t find it listed in any UK duty-free shop page but on Amazon UK for £33.89. Knock 25% off that price and you are still at over £22.00.

The two boxes were there last week and had seemingly not found buyers. Close by was another tray of special drink offers- Metaxa and Captain Morgan Rum. The numbers on these are frightening.

Metaxa 700ml costs £20.00 in ASDA today, £23.09 at Luton airport Duty-Free for the equivalent amount, while our supermarket has it for £7.79 (€8.88).

Captain Morgan was in 1.5-litre bottles but taking the equivalent amount in UK available sizes, it costs £29.25 at Tesco, £18.00 at World Duty-Free serving most UK airports. Here £15.78 ( €17.99).

You can well imagine that UK airports plc,  Channel Ferries plc, Eurotunnel plc, Dover Harbour Authority, Dover Council, the Drinks industry probably support Brexit a little bit.

Dimple & Captain Morgan both belong to the company I worked for, for 15 years and Metaxa was one of their brands back then, now sold on.

I will also rant about an unbelievable short interview on Sky News with the boss of an apparently renowned London smoked salmon business – H. Forman & Son. He was asked last night about Brexit following the CBI publishing their concerns. His comment:

“Brexit was about the little man, it was about individuals, it was about small business people who were fed up with all the regulations and they sort of feel “cycled” by it and they want to be set free, we want to trade with ANYONE in the world. We don’t want to be tied into some club with ridiculous rules often that bears no relevance to us.”
 
BOY OH BOY.  Look at his website proudly claiming that his company has been trading so successfully around the world for the last 50 years and announcing with great pride that they had recently got the right to have their London Cured Smoked Salmon protected by the EU “Protected Geographical Indication” and showing the coveted EU, star-spangled logo! You can even watch a video message from Boris Johnson congratulating Lance on the achievement.

Take a brief look at the map to see where they don’t do much business – Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Poland, the Baltic countries, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, Alaska, New Zealand as well as the Sahara, Mexico, Chile, Korea, Japan, Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, Burma, Vietnam and a few other Muslim countries.

Dear Mr Forman, please give us one, just one regulation that you will be free of, to finally allow you to sell big time into these countries. JUST ONE. And while you are thinking about that, please consider how many of your customers, who will all be at the very top of the income bracket,  will care a half-penny about the cost of Brexit.