When the Queen’s Speech of 1989 heralded the Margaret Thatcher’s Ports Privatisation Bill it looked as if all the Trust Ports would be sold. In the same year I was selected as Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate and I campaigned against the moves being made by the Government to sell Dover .

The Bill was enacted in 1991 but by that time the Tories had dumped Margaret Thatcher, John Major was at the helm and the 1992 General Election was visible on the horizon.

My campaign was boosted by encouraging comments from the then, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, the Queen Mother and we enlisted the welcome support of Vera Lynn.

I invited Labour front benchers, Glenda Jackson and Joan Wally to Dover where we launched our mass petition campaign, held a big press conference and hoisted a large “Dover’s Not for Sale” placard – a prop which we’ve resurrected a number of times and most notably in the run-up to the last General Election.

That campaign was prompted by another memorable press conference when the Tory Transport Spokesman, Tim Yeo, visited Dover to proudly announce that an in-coming Conservative Government would sell the port to the highest bidder and all the money raised would come to the town.

The good people of Dover weren’t fooled by that proposal and they aren’t being fooled by the current privatisation bid which the Chief Executive of Dover Harbour Board has mounted. At Mr Goldfield’s public meeting in the Town Hall not a single speaker showed any support for his sell-off plans and most were highly critical.

It’s not surprising there’s hostility to the Board’s proposals. After all, none of the Board members live in Dover, their Chief Executive has only been in place for a dog’s watch and suddenly they are telling us that they want to sell our port, which has been a very successful strategic public asset for over 400 years.

Mr Goldfield says privatisation is the only way to fund T2 and put cash into community projects but neither statement stands up to a moments scrutiny and anyway, he has now admitted that there would be no obligation for a new owner to develop the port, build T2 or support Dover’s regeneration so why is the current board hell-bent on selling up ?

That’s one of the questions that NorfolkLine, SeaFrance and P&O pondered last week.

I started working out of Eastern Docks in 1979 and I’ve represented Dover for the last 13 years – I’ve witnessed lots of tiffs and disagreements in the port but the ferry companies’ public attack on DHB is unparalleled in the industry and it could signal the end of Mr Goldfield’s privatisation ambitions.

In the early nineties, when a rather different Board was resisting pressure from a Conservative Government to sell Dover a very senior executive told me – “If P&O want the port privatised we’ll be privatised, if they don’t we won't”… and that’s just as true today as it was then.

© Hawkinge Gazette and Channel Coast News 2010