Morecambe - Harbour Gardens and Midland Hotel

            The Postcard

A postally unused postcard bearing no publisher's name. The card, which has a divided back, was printed in Great Britain.

Morecambe

Morecambe in Lancashire was a thriving seaside resort in the mid-20th. century. It was home to the largest Pontins resort in the country. While the resort of Blackpool attracted holiday-makers predominantly from the Lancashire mill towns, Morecambe had more visitors from Yorkshire (due to its railway connection) and Scotland. 

Mill workers from Bradford and further afield in West Yorkshire holidayed at Morecambe, with some retiring there. This gave Morecambe the nickname "Bradford on Sea". Between 1956 and 1989, it was the home of the Miss Great Britain beauty contest.

Morecambe suffered a decades-long decline after a series of incidents that damaged tourism and the local economy. Two piers were lost: West End Pier was partly washed away in a storm in November 1977, and the remnants were demolished in 1978; Central Pier, damaged by fire in 1933, was removed in 1992. 

Pontins closed in 1993. In 1994, The World of Crinkley Bottom attraction in Happy Mount Park closed only thirteen weeks after opening. The ensuing Blobbygate scandal, a financial disaster after projected visitor numbers did not materialise, led to a legal battle between Lancaster City Council and TV star Noel Edmonds, costing North Lancs taxpayers £2.6 million. 

The closures of Bubbles, Morecambe's swimming pool, and the Frontierland fairground soon followed.

On the 5th. February 2004, there was a major loss of life in Morecambe Bay when at least 21 Chinese immigrant shellfish harvesters were drowned after they became trapped by the incoming tide.

In December 2017 a local general practitioner and community health activist claimed that children in Morecambe were suffering from malnourishment, and implied that cases of rickets had been observed as a consequence.

The "Morecambe Budget"

Enoch Powell made a speech in Morecambe on the 11th. October 1968 on the economy, setting out alternative, radical free-market policies that would later be called the Morecambe Budget. 

He suggested ending all foreign aid; ending all grants and subsidies in agriculture; ending all assistance to development areas; ending all investment grants; abolishing the National Economic Development Council; and abolishing the Prices and Incomes Board.

The cuts in taxation would also allow the state to borrow from the public to spend on capital projects such as hospitals and roads, and on the firm and humane treatment of criminals.

Powell used the financial year 1968–69 to show how income tax could be halved from 8s 3d to 4s 3d in the pound (basic rate cut from 41% to 21%), and how capital gains tax could be abolished without reducing expenditure on defence or the social services. 

These tax cuts required a saving of £2,855 million, and this would be funded by eradicating losses in the nationalised industries and denationalising the profit-making state concerns. 

Powell also suggested ending all housing subsidies except for those who could not afford their own housing.

Taken on: April 21, 2024

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