LATEST BREXIT DISASTER – 20 YOUTH HOSTELS TO CLOSE
BREXIT and the pandemic – but mostly Brexit - has led to
the sale of 20 Youth Hostels in England and Wales, it was reported last month.
This is the latest own-goal for those 17 million Leavers who
voted for the UK to abandon the European Union in 2016, the consequences of
which are still unfolding.
There are many reports charting Britain’s fall to
impoverishment since then, which the Pandemic, the Russian war on the Ukraine and
inflation have added to.
The opposite view – that everything is now rosy since
turning our backs on Europe – is laid out in a wooly government report which has the hand of the liar and architect of Brexit ex-MP Boris Johnson all over it and seemed to me about as real as castles in the air.
So, fair to say the closure of hostels is Johnson’s fault. By the way, it is reported that this silver spooned professional bull shitter has earned £1million from three dinner speaking engagements since leaving office this year.
Meanwhile, leaving the EU has cost the UK £40 billion in
lost tax revenue and the benefits of trading as a member of the EU.
Despite the claim that the UK would no longer rely on the EU
for trade, the EU remains our main trading partner. However,
the cost of importing and exporting goods has soared because we no longer enjoy
the trading benefits that came with membership.
Complex bureaucracy to move goods across borders has replaced frictionless trade and resulted in a number of UK businesses folding.
Our economy is now 5.5 per cent smaller than it would have been has we remained with in the EU.
Now Brexit is impacting on one of the jewels of the British
tourist industry, the Youth Hostels Association (YHA), founded in England in
1930.
The YHA story broke a month or two ago in The Guardian with
a story by John Harris, and in the Telegraph and across social media.
The Guardian learned from insiders how Brexit has hugely
reduced the numbers of school trips from abroad, so hitting a crucial part of
the Association’s revenue.
Since Brexit many foreign schools have found it too
difficult to negotiate the complex bureaucracy now in place to visit the UK since
the ending of free movement - a key proponent of the Leave campaign which
wanted to keep foreign workers out.
As a result the YHA may have to shut a third of its 150 hostels.
There are 20 up for sale and 30 more listed as likely to go the same way.
It is hoped that buyers will want to keep running the
facilities as independent hostels, but it is feared many will be turned into
luxury homes. And that will be truly ironic, disgraceful, given that the movement was
originally formed to enable youngsters of limited means to escape the towns and
cities and discover the countryside.
“Youth” hostels? Its misnomer these days for the Association
has for years welcomed all ages and all nationalities through its doors. At one
time the rule was you had to arrive under your own steam - on foot, cycling or
canoe!
Falling attendances saw the Association relax this rule long
ago in a bid to boost visitor numbers and now hostellers no longer have to get a sweat
on and can arrive in cars and coaches.
This altered the dynamics of the hostel somewhat, as those
of us arriving tired but fulfilled from our exertions and requiring nothing
more than a good meal and the plain comforts of an armchair in the common room,
came face to face with “others”, who arrived cold and looking for
entertainment.
Yet the original spirit of the organisation still holds
good, “to encourage young people (of all
ages) to a greater knowledge, use and love of the countryside.”
The list of hostels to go on the market include: Patterdale
in the Lake District, the Peak District village of Eyam, Poppit Sands in West
Wales, the Somerset town of Minehead, Cheddar in the Mendip Hills, Kington in
Herefordshire, and at Haworth, West Yorkshire.
Like many, I have enjoyed staying in hostels, mostly on
cycling tours over the years, enjoying the simple pleasures.
 |
| Castleton Losehill Hall Youth Hostel in the Peak District National Park. |
We rode away the next morning on a light dusting of snow,
forked lightning streaking across the sky and thunder echoing off the mountains.
I spent a night at Slaidburn on the Lancashire Fells, where
I was the only guest and invited to share dinner with the warden and his wife.
They waived the usual requirement of overnighters, to complete a task before
leaving, sweeping the dormitory for instance.
Or, as was the case in Castleton hostel, Derbyshire, where club mate Dave Davis and myself were landed with the washing up to spare youngsters in a school
party. The warden thought it unfair to expect kids, mostly aged about
10 and 11, to wash up heavy pots and
pans of porridge oats and dozens of plates and dishes.
At Abergavenny I was again the sole occupant and after a
hard days ride was perfectly content to take my rest alone in the common room
that evening, listening to the solitary and solid tick of the grandfather clock towering
in the corner.
And two and half miles from home is Tanners Hatch, a
delightful old cottage on the edge of the woods reached by bridleways over the Surrey
North Downs. Tanners was graded simple with one dormitory for men one for women
at the time, although it looks to have been tarted up since then and is now
classed as a “one star hotel” with apartments. There is also camping. Back in the day you did your own cooking. The
toilet block was outside and there was only ice cold water to wash in.
My family once spent an enjoyable night there with other parents and their children on a primary school nature outing. We listened to
wild life expert tell us about the creatures of the night, owls, bats and
badgers. We visited a badgers’ sett in the woods.
Our genial host was the warden, the late Graham Peddie MBE,
a remarkable and generous character who also ran Pit Stop for the homeless in
nearby Leatherhead.
Good times.
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