METS – what a great show
I get confused by METS most years. No matter how bad the world economy seems during the year, METS always comes up with a pretty positive outlook.
Well; let’s qualify that a little. While us ‘western’ economies are suffering, places like Brazil and east Asia are still doing very nicely, thank you.
This year the Tuesday and Wednesday, as usual, were heaving with people. But the major difference was the visitors this year were all really positive about the future.
This is in contrast to what seemed to be general UK view of business. Wandering around and exchanging idle gossip here and there, it seemed most UK people were gloomy about the future.
Many feel the Tullett Prebon London Boat Show in January will be one of those shows where the aisles are a little too wide for comfort. The week before I wrote this, National Boat Shows sent out an email asking North Hall exhibitors if they would like extra space.
Let’s hope we don’t end up with stands full of ladders, magnetic window washers and other wonder devices that should really have no place at a boat show.
Most are worried about UK growth stalling out, together with predictions the High Street is set for a gloomy Christmas. Most stores already have sales, leaving margins tight and due to get tighter in the post-Christmas sales.
On top of those concerns we have the threat of industrial action at a time when the country can least afford it.
The eurozone remains a distraction to us. A resolution to its continuing sovereign debt crisis still seems a long way off and this could be awkward for us and other countries that export into the eurozone.
President Obama makes no secret of his worries about the eurozone – it represents some 14% of US export sales.
But the economic situation still has me wondering what it’s all about. I can’t work out if this is the death of capitalism because it can’t sustain the demand for continual growth.
Or is it the death of socialism because they’ve simply spent all the money…
Right now we have the eurozone wringing its hands because it seems only just to have realised that one economic policy doesn’t suit 27 countries. And we have the prospect of Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy redefining the eurozone.
That would give us even more of a problem. We can’t really stand outside shouting “Oi – you can’t do that,” when we’re not willing to get stuck in ourselves.
And that’ll lead us to another bunch of arguments among ourselves. Do we jump in or out?
Sounds more like the Hokey Cokey to me. Happy Christmas everyone…
Peter Nash is editor of Boating Business
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