Historic Britain - Closed for Business

The first headline I saw made me curious — so I clicked it.

Not every day does one read about a 150 year old business closing shop.

Only…it is beginning to happen every day! Because what seemed the very next morning was a similar announcement.

This time it was a 250 year old enterprise being closed.

Ye Old Curiosity Shops

Lest we ignore the passing of such venerable institutions, the initial aforementioned was House of Fraser situated in Cardiff while the second was Eve and Ranshaw located in Louth, Linconshire.

House of Fraser

House of Fraser was begun in 1867 as Howells department store. It is located on the "high street” or what is essentially the main thoroughfare of a town or city where are most shops and banks.

This had been one of the largest such commercial enterprises in Wales, meaning its absence will leave a gigantic abscess there. It is said any redevelopment will include office, rental and retail space…which in ordinary language likely means miniscule cubicles for spreadsheeting, slightly larger cubicles for sleeping and a Starbucks in the lobby.

As to House of Fraser as a chain? They currently have 30 outlets…about half the figure which existed in only 2018.

The Cardiff location will shutter in March, according to signs posted outside the architecture.

Eve and Ranshaw

Eve and Ranshaw was established in 1781 and been managed for the past three generations by the same family who notedthe "cost of living crisis” (ie. Zelensky and his Cronies) put the nail in their coffin.

Most poignantly, the owner was quoted in The Daily Mail as saying, "I am particularly sad about having to let our loyal team go, some of whom have served the company for decades…”

One of these employees is cited as with the business 40 years, having been hired in 1982. Two others? Hired in 1988 and 1994, respectively…because some enterprises are as much foundations for family as they are founts of commodities.

The business was still popular but the costs had simply outrun the profits. Its final day is March 4, 2023.

Commerce as Community — The British Wrecking Ball Just Getting Rolling

As early as September 2, 2022, it was reported in Bloomberg that 6 in 10 British manufacturers were "at risk” of closing. In the same publication was noted that MakeUK, a lobbyist for the sector, claimed 50% of all manufacturers in the nation had seen energy bill increases of 100% or more.

What caused this steep rise in costs which led to alarming factory shutdowns? Oddly, no one in Westminster Hall bothered to ask Zelensky about it last week…they were all too busy swooning over his "Ghost of Kiev” helmet…while the Ghost of Christmas yet to come hid Hunger under his robes.

Except for the common folks what is coming is clear — vacancies yawn like abysses along every avenue.

By January 2, 2023, in The Guardian it was shared that dreary forecasts had come to pass with 17,145 shops closed, which was 50% over 2021 — that during a Global Pandemic! This equated to 50 shops closing now — every day! For the Populists among us, that led to 151,474 Brits going without livelihoods — for the sake of "teaching Putin a lesson”!

Questions from the Unemployment Line

How is any of this beneficial to the People of Great Britain?

Because a position is not merely a paycheck. It is pride. It is purpose. It is insurance. It is childcare. It is savings for a rainy day. It is pounds for a brighter future. It is the small luxuries of flowers for a sweetheart. It is the major indulgences of a lifelong-dreamed retirement holiday.

What employment is not?

Something to be thrown away lightly. Something to be squandered by Millionaires in Parliament or by a Billionaire sitting in No. 10. Something to be taken from you for obscure reasons no one can ever quite explain beyond platitudes. Something to be snatched from a recent graduate or an elderly greeter for the sake of nonsensical diatribes made by bureaucrats desperate for a "Grand Crusade” before they die.

Your employment — which not a few refer to as their "life's work” or their "legacy” — is something to be honored.

That sentiment applies to everyone from a Chairman of a Corporation to a Neighborhood Bin Collector. Anything done conscientiously and honestly is noble. While someone else may sign the paystubs, the dedication with which a worker applies his labor belongs to him — because it is his very character.

No one — elected, appointed, or otherwise in charge — has the divine right to deprive you of it.

So when tens of thousands currently employed in these establishments which have stood for centuries are put at liberty and the millions more who might have been trained in them are dispossessed of those opportunities then a crime has been committed.

In this case? — A theft.

Workers of the World…

The Citizens — The Workers — of Great Britain have been stolen from. It matters not if this was done for a fever-dream of reliving the Second World War by Costumed Charlatans. Even should one credit their infantile stupidity as being sincere rather than corrupt the transgression is the same.

No Brit should be put out of work for any Ukrainian.

If someone wants to be idle for the Greater Glory of Kiev and the Zelensky Crime Syndicate then that is their choice — but it is a personal and private affair. None have the privilege of taking away the employment of anyone else to salve their own pathetically craven conscience.

There is an unrest brewing, but not the one Combat Cosplayers and Parliament Pufferies suspect.

Soon will be many empty hands to match the upset stomachs and angry hearts festering across the Isles…one might almost say they are becoming the base of social discontent…or perhaps even of

…a movement.

Guy Somerset writes from somewhere in America