Dr Ashok Kumar

Labour Party | Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland

Article for the East Cleveland Advertiser

One of the biggest changes to our world that I have witnessed over the last 10 – 15 years has been the speed at which computer technology and the use of mobile phones has spread across all areas of daily life. One sometimes wonders how we used to manage without e-mail, a mobile phone in our pocket or handbag, or the ability to use the internet to work, shop and browse. Indeed, I also wonder about how amazed Charles Babbage, the inventor of the computer, and Alexander Graham Bell, the father of the telephone, would have been had they known how their dreams had conquered society.

I don’t pretend to be a prophet, but one thing that is certain to happen in the coming years is the continued spread of these technologies. With that in mind, I was very happy to have been asked to open a new shop, Communic@te, on Guisborough’s main street, Westgate, last week. This is not an ordinary shop, but a leap forward to meet the consumer demands of the coming decade. Given the fact that mobile phone technology and the use of personal computers will be come even more meshed through the application of new infra-red switching devices which can transfer data from computer to phone, and the birth of new ‘palmtop’ personal organisers and computers which will need mobile phones to send and receive messages, the need to bring together these presently separate application under one trading roof is self-apparent.

That is where this new store and its owner, Bob Drabble have scored. Bringing together activity from two existing shops which specialised in personal computers and mobile phones is a marketing act for the future. I am personally delighted that this has happened in Guisborough. This shop has managed to leapfrog the big multinational retail competitors and shows that Market Town traders are as good at exploiting market opportunities as the big boys based in the out of town retail parks. I know that Bob Drabble’s good humour and pleasant manner will also help shoppers immensely as they pick their way through purchases of new, often initially complicated, phone and PC systems.

The Government have given backing to market town renewal and regeneration though programmes such as the Market Towns Initiative – a programme being successfully run in Guisborough – and this new development shows how such programmes can run alongside home grown entrepreneurial zeal on the part of local business people for the benefit of everyone in our community. I wish Bob and his team well for the future.

Dr Ashok Kumar M.P.