Eighteen ‘Ramsgate ferry operator’ contracts handed out at street stall in paddling pool challenge

That's the new ferry service sorted

Some 18 people were awarded ‘ferry operator’ contracts at a street stall event in Ramsgate yesterday (January 26).

Members of the East Kent European Movement set out a paddling pool representing the English Channel and anyone who successfully steered a ferry full of medicine and olive oil from the EU to the UK was awarded with a Certificate of Competence to become the next Ramsgate ferry operator.

The ‘contracts’ were in reference to the £13.8million deal from Government to Seaborne Freight for extra ferry capacity post-Brexit on its yet to launch Ramsgate/Ostend service.

The company, which government says will only receive the cash if the service is running by March 29, has yet to charter any ships and still needs to sign a deal with Ramsgate and Ostend ports.

It is, however, currently advertising for Ramsgate staff.

Margate EU campaigner Rob Yates said: “We were making fun of the £13.8m contract that was awarded to run a ferry service to a company that has never done this before and has no boats.

“We decided to undertake our own procurement process to award Ferry Operator Certificates.  The rigorous testing involved guiding a ship containing medicine and olive oil from the EU side of the paddling pool to the UK side without crashing into the local MP on a private yacht and without falling into the water.

“In total we awarded over 18 contracts, so if Seaborne Freight cannot deliver then the people of Ramsgate may be able to support.”

The stall also ran a Brexit-meter which, organsiers say, revealed a relatively close contest between No Deal and Remain.

Find out more at www.Europeanmovement.co.uk or Thanet 48% on Facebook.

11 Comments

  1. East Kent European Movement ,what a bunch of silly people playing childish games.
    And what was the result of the Brexit-meter,sounds like it was still a ” leave”.

  2. The number of votes was roughly:
    Leave with no deal: 40
    Stay in the EU: 100
    That’s 2 5:1 In favour of remain. Not really a close contest !

  3. Leave means leave why all this nonsense just get on with it silly people it was a democratic vote not all of us agreed with the outcome but its done so just suck it up and stop with the melodramatic’s.

    • You do know that if we leave on no deal people will actually die because of the issue over certain critical medicines? Please don’t take my word. Check the facts.

  4. Wait, you guys are arguing about a straw poll conducted with stickers on a piece of card? No wonder we’re in this mess.

  5. This is just another silly stunt by Remainers who can’t accept the result of the referendum. It means absolutely nothing. What’s really disappointing is to see young children being indoctrinated and used in this way. Many shipping companies operate without their own ships. They charter or lease them. One of the Directors of Seaborne is also a Director of a company which charters ships. If I were running Seaborne I wouldn’t be signing anything until we know for certain whether we are leaving without a deal and whether we will still be leaving on the 29th.
    Will all of these silly people apologise for their negative and ignorant attitudes if the service is up and running on time?

  6. So let’s not wish a ferry company to start up and offer some much needed jobs, be negative and not worry about potential growth for a port, it’s shops and trade it may bring and keep giving a stupid amount of money every week to the E.U.

  7. We voted fair and square to leave so remainers grow up and except the result or I now that’s have another vote and say the remainers win ,except it. I now after that other vote we have another vote because the leavers werent happy . I know that’s have another vote……we had one vote with one result like it or not that’s the way the country voted. It’s wasn’t a best if 3 !! or 4 or 5 !!!!

  8. This was a clever idea. Showing imagination.
    I’d like a Ferry Contract and I think I qualify because I haven’t got a ferry(owned or hired), I have never run a ferry company but I would like lots of money. The perfect candidate!
    If a Ferry Contract is not available, I would like to open up a post-Brexit vacuum cleaner factory with government grants, or a landrover production facility, or a factory making parts for Airbus, or an investment enterprise in the City of London. I haven’t got experience in any of these fields but nor will anybody else after Brexit as they will have moved back into the EU or even further abroad to Singapore which has just signed a trade deal with the EU. In Singapore,they don’t seem to think that having a proper trade deal with the EU somehow threatens their “sovereignty”.
    So I will have to ask for vast amounts of UK government grants to start up my enterprise, and I will insist that the workers are paid rock-bottom wages and have minimal holidays and pensions (you have got to be “globally competitive” after all) before I cream off my own huge slice of cash and , in the fullness of time, I will close the whole place down and move abroad. Sorry to all the staff , of course, but we always said that there would be some “temporary difficulties” after Brexit. Not for me, though. I may intend to take advantage of Brexit to make loads of cash but that doesn’t mean that I would actually vote for it!! I get other people to do that for me.

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