Margaret Thatcher inspired my life, my business and my writing

I was a young thirty-something when Mrs Thatcher came to power in 1979. Three years before, Louise and I had left London to join the family business in Taunton.

At that time, the country was an economic basket case while The Castle had plodded along as a respectable middle-of-the-road hotel in a West Country market town.

I was ambitious for the business. Most of all I wanted a decent restaurant to attract people to the hotel. A dangerous wish in the English provinces where serious dining rooms were often graveyards for ambitious restaurateurs.

For me and many like me, Margaret Thatcher was an inspiration. She instilled a spirit of self-belief and enterprise. She gave us the freedom to be brave. To be radical.

After the misery of the 1970s, this fresh outlook on life was invigorating. And it had a transforming effect on the hospitality industry. Unless you were French, British chefs were sneered at as kitchen skivvies. But as the Eighties progressed, they suddenly became media darlings. Mrs Thatcher’s sheer energy and conviction revived our country’s lost pride and restored Britain’s greatness in the eyes of the world. Foreign visitors to our shores also began to realize that you could eat well here!

At The Castle, we won a Michelin Star in 1984 and by 1989 I had published my first volume of Great British Chefs.  

Mrs T’s battles to win the day for Great Britain were global. Mine were rather more domestic! But her example lives with me and I mourn her passing with millions of my countrymen.

Kit Chapman, Proprietor of The Castle at Taunton and Author of My Archipelago

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Kostas Vaxevanis, Champion of Freedom, Democracy and the Greek People.

A week ago, Mr Kostas Vaxevanis was an obscure editor of an obscure Greek magazine called Hot Doc. No one had heard of him.

Today he is a hero of the Greek people, and lovers of freedom and democracy.

This is the man who narrowly escaped a five-year prison term for publishing 2,059 names of rich Greeks who had tucked away a billion and more in Swiss bank accounts to evade paying tax in a country crippled by debt and on its knees. Thanks almost certainly to the outcry from a foreign and free press, an Athenian court acquitted him of breaching Greece’s privacy laws.

The scandal, of course, is that the Greek government knew all about these wealthy tax dodgers because Christine Lagarde had given them the list two years ago. But they kept it quiet, anxious to protect their political allies and fellow cronies.

That’s Greek politics and politicians. Meanwhile, ordinary Greeks go hungry and the soul of this wonderful nation festers in its own rottenness.

Kit Chapman, Half-Greek and Philhelene, Proprietor of The Castle at Taunton

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Election Day in Greece (3): Eurozone reprieved.

You could almost hear a collective sigh of relief in the capitals of Europe as Antonis Samaras delivered his victory address in Athens last night. The Euro is safe for another day!

The world’s media had gathered to bring us the news live, with a running analysis from a parade of pundits. Rarely is a small country granted such a scale of attention! We watched the whole circus from the peace of our island home with the lights of Skiathos Town blinking at us across the bay.

What happens next? I am confident Mr Samaras will be successful in forming a working government with the support of Passok and, perhaps, one or two of the other more moderately inclined parties.

As for me, I’m getting back to my book, Digby Jones’s Fixing Britain, The Business of Reshaping our Nation – a text which should lie on every government minister’s desk. It’s had me shouting at David Cameron and George Osborne to get real!

Kit Chapman, author of My Archipelago and proprietor of The Castle at Taunton 

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Election Day in Greece (2): 17 political parties, 17 ballot papers!

At the school-turned-polling station, the voters of Skiathos came pouring in. By midday the perspex ballot boxes were filling up fast.

The atmosphere was relaxed, informal, orderly. A young police officer kept a discreet watch on proceedings as people climbed the staircase to the airy first floor classrooms. Some eight had been set aside for the vote, a notice at each doorway indicating your registered name’s position in the alphabet and, therefore, which room to enter to collect your ballot papers.

Yes, ballot papers in the plural. And each voter was handed seventeen! One for each political party contesting the election! (In the May election, voters had a choice of twenty-two parties!)

The procedure goes like this. You enter the booth. Choose one of the seventeen sheets of paper, each branded with the name and logo of the party up for election. Fold the ballot paper of your choice and insert it in an envelope. Discard the other sixteen. And drop your envelope in the perspex box.

Later, I ran into a local businessman. Why, I asked him, do you need seventeen ballot papers? What’s wrong with one ballot paper listing seventeen party names and a stubby pencil to mark your preference?

“This is Greece”, he replied!

Kit Chapman, author of My Archipelago and proprietor of The Castle at Taunton

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Election Day in Greece: Europa holds her breath.

Two weeks of calm on the Sporades archipelago have broken. A stiff wind unsettles the sea as I gaze across the Bay of Skiathos. Poseidon is rattling his trident. His brother Zeus, first among the gods and god of the weather, reminds us that it was he who carried off Princess Europa in the form of a bull.

Mythology remains a powerful force in our imaginations. As the Greek nation goes to the polls today, Mount Olympus is warning its people to beware. To be wise in their choice.

The result is anyone’s guess. Opinion polls are inconclusive and many of the islanders I have spoken to will be entering the polling booths undecided.

Nevertheless, the smart money is backing Antonis Samaras, leader of the main conservative party, New Democracy, to form the next government as Prime Minister. And this time round, I am assured, a government will be formed!

The Greek economy is heavily dependent on tourism, an industry under seige in the present crisis. Samaras, an economist by background with an MBA from Harvard, has promised to stimulate the ailing hospitality trade and boost jobs by cutting sales tax (VAT) from a crippling 23% to just 5%. It is a policy which has found favour (and one which we in the UK have been campaigning for through the British Hospitality Association and Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine).

Samaras is also clear amout Greece’s position inside the Eurozone. “The Drachma means death,” he told Greek television.

But what of the voters on this Aegean island as they crowd into church this morning, rehearse their Orthodox liturgy and then troop into the polling station at the school on the port? Well, they’ll mark their ballot papers as the mood takes them, then fill the cafes and bars before returning to their families. Life will carry on… while the political spotlight falls on Athens.

On television screens all over Europe this evening, politicians and business leaders will be watching anxiously for the outcome to emerge from this small and proud nation.

Kit Chapman, author of My Archipelago and proprietor of The Castle at Taunton

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Comedy and tragedy in the Greek debt crisis. A Mamma Mia wedding with a chocolate climax!

On the beautiful Aegean island of Skiathos – the first in the Sporades archipelago – you might never gather that Greece was in deep crisis. Neither would you have the faintest notion that the country was in the grip of an historic general election in a week’s time. No electioneering posters. No party political rallies. Not a politician to be seen anywhere.

Life carries on as normal. The local shopkeepers grumble about their trade, but no more than they ever have done. The cafes and bars are busy. And the island’s wedding tourism bonanza continues to thrive in the wake of the hit movie Mamma Mia which was filmed here.

Problems of national sovereign debt? Problems of hardship and austerity? A problem inside the Eurozone? What problems? Where? Apparently not here!

Yesterday evening we were sipping an ouzo in our favourite cafe on the quayside by the Old Port when an English wedding party passed by – bride and groom leading a procession of family and friends.

Suddenly there was a great commotion as Dimitri and Tassos, our friendly hosts, busied themselves in a rush to present the newly-weds with the house speciality, an unusual chocolate pastry I have never been tempted to try.

This extraordinary piece of culinary sculpture is fashioned in the shape of the male organ – an erect chocolate penis attached to a pair of chocolate testicles! And for a dash of extra drama, our two friends added a flare ejaculating a twelve inch plume of fire and a Greek flag on a cocktail stick which sprouted from the pastry’s right testicle!

The happy couple loved it! And the Old Port erupted in laughter and applause!

While a Euripidean tragedy unfolds in Athens, here in Skiathos life is pure Aristophanes!

Kit Chapman, Proprietor, The Castle at Taunton. Author, My Archipelago 

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Brussels fiddles while Athens burns.

Greece, my Motherland, is close to anarchy and social collapse.

The Greek people – the poorer classes that is – are close to despair. Meanwhile, the rich have been quietly shipping their cash reserves out of the country… an estimated 85 billion euros over the past few months.

Much of this wealth is landing in London. Estate agents in Knightsbridge, Mayfair and Belgravia are having a ball, among their clients the Greek Orthodox Church.

As an amateur observer, and with Europe’s finance ministers holding yet another round of talks, all I see is more muddle and confusion. What’s clear to me is that Greece now faces her final death throes as a member of this exclusive Euro-Club. The senior members of the club have had enough, their patience exhausted. All along they blame Greece. And now the well of goodwill has dried to the point where Greek and German ministers have been trading insults.

Brussels, Germany and the other northern European states are as much to blame for this mess. Greece may have cooked the books to gain entry to the club, but equally the bureaucrats and politicians in Brussels were criminally negligent in their due diligence, one pompous fool declaring that Europe could not deny the land of Plato and Aristotle membership of the Eurozone.

Anyway, how any sane economist could imagine the successful convergence of so many disparate economies and cultures is beyond me.

Brussels has dithered and continues to dither. Unless Germany takes a determined lead to rescue Greece – unlikely! – the proud land of Plato and Aristotle will be shamed and bankrupted before the end of 2012. 

In my last book, My Archipelago, I describe what I saw as a child in Salonica, Greece’s second city, just after the war. Now, as a pensioner, am I to witness once again the homeless; beggars; children scavenging for scraps in the streets and gutters?

Greece deserves better from her friends and neighbours.

Kit Chapman, proprietor of The Castle at Taunton and author of My Archipelago.

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Liam Fox, then Oliver Letwin… Educated and clever. But devoid of common sense!

I have no interest in the relationship between Liam Fox, our ex-Defence Secretary, and his friend Adam Werritty. Indeed, I was an admirer of Dr Fox. But it beggars belief that he should feel free to engage Mr Werritty as an unofficial advisor and, in doing so, not compromise his credibility as a senior minister.

The case of Oliver Letwin, Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, is equally alarming. What does he think he is doing dumping official papers in bins in St James’s Park? My wife, ever cautious, gets cross with me if I dare to bin old bank statements, credit card slips and insurance policies! Hardly state papers, these innocuous documents are shredded or burned!

I just find it incredible that two clever, educated public figures could be so extraordinarily naive in this wicked world of ours. With simple errors of judgement like these, one can’t help questioning the competence of David Cameron’s government.

Over 25/27 November, The Castle at Taunton is hosting a Weekend of Politics & Politicians. Our speakers will include Martin Bell, John Gummer, Douglas Hurd, Michael Meacher, Chris Mullin and Clare Short. I wonder what they will make of all this?

Kit Chapman, proprietor of The Castle at Taunton and author of My Archipelago.

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An urgent call to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to slash VAT

Dear Chancellor,

I am the proprietor of The Castle at Taunton, a 44-bedroom hotel and restaurant which has been run by my family for over 60 years. Go to www.the-castle-hotel.com

You may be aware that my industry has mounted a united, rational and carefully presented campaign appealing for a reduction in the rate of VAT levied against the hospitality trade. The evidence for slashing your punitive 20% rate is compelling, so I shall not rehearse it here.

Instead, let me give you a grass-roots overview of the operating climate inside my business – a climate shared by many thousands of  other independent hoteliers and restaurateurs in the chilly provinces. (Not to be compared with the comfort of London where business remains relatively buoyant).

In three years our VAT-earning top line income has shrunk by over £400,000. PAYE employees have been cut ruthlessly – a further loss to the Exchequer. On top of the VAT hike to 20%, last April you raised employers’ NI by 1%. The effect was to wipe £10,000 off our bottom line – cash badly needed to employ a local firm to undertake various overdue repairs and renewals in the hotel.

Meanwhile, our operating costs rise inexorably: insurance, business rates, food, heat, light and power. We cannot match these increases with price rises. Our customers are being squeezed as hard as we are.

The great buzz-word of the moment is “GROWTH”. From Washington to London (and Liverpool at the Labour Party conference), to Berlin and Frankfurt, we are suddenly hearing this great hymn to “GROWTH”. Isn’t it blindingly obvious that the troubled economies of Europe and America, and our debt crisis at home will never be resolved without stimulating demand – “GROWTH”?

Chancellor, I appeal to you to consider the arguments. The Prime Minister was in New York last week campaigning to put the “GREAT” back into Britain… including Britain’s tourism industry.

Now give us the means to do it. VAT at 20% is unsustainable and makes us uncompetitive with Europe.

Kit Chapman, proprietor of The Castle at Taunton and author of My Archipelago.

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“Bring back the Drachma and be happy!” A Greek taxi driver’s answer to the Eurozone crisis.

Like rabbits caught in the beam of a headlight, we are all numbed by the turmoil of financial markets and the deepening crisis inside the Eurozone. We all nurse an uncomfortable sense of fear, unsure of what the threat to our livelihoods is likely to be.

Worse, our leaders are as dazzled and confused as the rest of us. Angela Merkel’s political capital in Germany has been diminished by another election defeat as she tries to persuade her reluctant people to fork out more of their taxes to bail out Greece and some of the other southern European states.

In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi looks as if he may default on his deficit reduction programme as his country is paralysed by a general strike. And in Greece, the arch-villain of this mess and the nation which cooked the books to win its entry ticket into the Eurozone, the government continues to argue with the International Monetary Fund.

Meanwhile, outside the Eurozone, the British government (speaking with forked tongue!) is promoting the idea of total economic union, or to put it bluntly, that the Euro-nations move towards the formation of a federalized state – a “United States of Europe”.

For Greece, this kind of scenario means the country would become a small province inside a greater-Germany. Given Greece’s tortured history of foreign occupation, its fierce national pride and its independent will, the very idea of outside control is anathema. There are already outspoken fears among ordinary Greeks of civil unrest, even civil war.

A few days ago, my wife and I travelled as passengers in the cab of an Athenian taxi driver. With a captive audience of two northern Europeans, he needed no prompting to launch his private manifesto, and in doing so, he was speaking for his fellow-Greeks.

Constantinos was round, proud and passionate. Like all Greek taxi drivers, he drove like a lunatic – often taking his hands off the steering wheel to answer his mobile phone or to gesticulate wildly in his determination to make sure we had grasped his point of view.

We passed a large ancient olive grove. “Ah!” he said, taking his eyes off the road to face us. “Delicious Greek olive oil! The best in the world!”

“In Europe – you in Germany and in England – your economy strong. You plenty of money… big houses… po po po! But you have stress. Big stress. Here, in my country, we smile. We are happy.”

By now, Constantinos was in full cry. “The Euro”, he said, “it ruined everything. Ruined our economy. Now we are poor. Before we had the Drachma. We had plenty money, plenty tourists. We happy. My English no good. But this is my philosophy.”

For millions of Greeks, the prospect of a devalued currency they can call their own and a country that is sovereign means so much more than having to bow to the will of the IMF, Germany or any other foreign body.

But a return to the Drachma would also shake, even destroy, the foundations of the whole European project.

Kit Chapman, author of My Archipelago and proprietor of The Castle at Taunton.

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