The UK is on a dangerous course The UK is on a "dangerous course" said Mark Dickinson, general secretary of Nautilus International in a talk at the Houses of Parliament last week. Hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Maritime and Ports Group on the UK's shipping policy or rather, lack of it, Mr Dickinson said that despite appearances, governmental policy was chipping away at the foundations of the UK's industry.Along with a lack of coherency and detrimental tax regimes, there have also been deep cuts to maritime safety. Training and coastguard budgets have been slashed, there is the likely loss of the Marine Incident Response Group and uncertainty over the search and rescue helicopter service.Mr Dickinson said, "The waters around the UK are not only busier with increased commercial and leisure traffic but face increasing navigational hazards as a result of offshore oil and gas activities, renewable energy developments and the acknowledged increased frequencies of extreme weather conditions. At the same time, global and regional seaborne trade has expanded dramatically and merchant shipping operations have been transformed in the past 25 years."Bigger and faster ships present a whole range of new challenges in terms of monitoring and regulation, and dramatic accidents ...
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