WANTED: 68 CHEFS FOR THE LAKES

Local people vanish and tourists go hungry

Newspaper columnist Ross Brewster, the Sunday Times and MP Tim Farron last weekend painted grim pictures of the Lake District as it is now, after Brexit and Covid have done their worst.

Ross Brewster is nostalgic for Lakeland village fetes, for May Days, and carnivals of fifty years ago which all, sadly, have vanished from the calendar because the local people who organised them have vanished too. 

On a similar theme, the Sunday Times devoted nearly half a page to details of another vanished Lakes group: the workers who staffed the many restaurants and cafes.

“Wanted 68 chefs for the Lakes . The tourists are going hungry” said the Sunday Times headline.

Local MP Tim Farron (Westmorland and North Lonsdale) is concerned about both vanished groups.

He talks darkly about about Lakeland Clearance. Surely not clearances as devastating as the the Highland Clearances of two hundred years ago?

Possibly he has table clearances in mind- the sort of cups-and- saucers` clearances performed by waiters a hundred times a day.

Mr Farron is campaigning for a change in the planning laws to keep the local people in place locally.

And for hungry tourists, he wants a post Brexit relaxation of visa rules to allow EU citizens to return to Britain and fill the employment gaps.

Sadly, there are fewer and fewer of the these employment gaps.

Clearances of whatever kind have triumphed.

Restaurants are no more.

  Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227