What's in store now?
www.edinburghnews.com Mon 13 Jan 2003 Peter Clarke
NOBODY knows what is going to become of Safeway. Today Sainsbury joined the bidding. Wal-Mart (Asda) can afford to pick up the supermarkets out of its petty cash. Allan Leighton, the former leader at Asda and now supremo at the Post Office, is also thinking of a bid.
This is all an exciting start to 2003 but unless you are an owner of Safeway shares the storm may seem remote. Yet it will touch as all.
Wherever the dice fall it seems our supermarkets will be given a creative shoogle to our wider pleasure with ever better bargains.
An unhappy strand to the story is the mysterious and capricious presence of The Competition Commission. Instead of trying to impede the market they should get out of the way.
If there are real barriers to competition it is through local councillors conspiring to stop new stores opening. The Commission simply refuses to look at the brutal cost impositions of the Common Agricultural Policy. It is too delicate to consider such matters.
Sir Ken Morrison, who started this rumpus by his cheeky bid for Safeway, must be chuckling. He no longer looks like a winner but what fun he’s had.
Prayer answered
THE markets are offering a collective prayer of thanks to Saudi Arabia for cajoling its OPEC cartel members to enhance the flow of oil. The problem is not Iraq, though that is adding jitters. The problem is the general strike in Venezuela. It is a weakness in the United States that it remains dependent on imported fuel when it has dozens of oilfields it has not opened to production.
It is possible the assault on Iraq will create some unexpected side-effects. One must be the application of new techniques to extract oil or enhance wind and water power sources. Oil will remain the dominant source of energy but it does look odd that the US regulates its own oil corporations so tightly it cannot extract its reserves.
The caricature is of a Texan President in the pocket of the oil giants. The reality is far more baffling and a little comical. Hugo Chavez in Caracas is almost as dotty a Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. Why is the world subject to such deranged people?
Stand in line
IN our hearts we think the railways’ days have gone. Yet the fans of metal tracks continue to beguile us. You would need a frozen soul not to be charmed by the scheme to link Edinburgh to Galashiels and then Carlisle by re-opening the old Waverley route. The arithmetic may be questionable but the idea is a delight.
Rather more arresting is to notion of reconstituting the Central Railway up from St Pancras through Leicester and up to Leeds and Manchester. The Central line was the last main route to be built in Britain and atrophied after World War One.
The idea is to rebuild it as a major freight artery that really will minimise lorry traffic. For the moment the project remains unadorned by detailed prices but instead of being an amusing steam line for a few railway buffs it could become a primary artery making a connection through the Channel Tunnel.
Most big projects wither under the sloth of planning procedures. The advantage of the Central line is that it needs no permissions. The Treasury need not spend any of our money. The markets are hungry for adventures.