It is tempting to track down one of the gardeners from Askern Town Council and ask what he or she thinks about the prospects for bulker freight rates. It may seem an unfair question to put to a municipal worker of this South Yorkshire town — famous in Victoria times for its spa and later for coal mining.
But the retirement payments of the council's gardeners, along with a host of teachers, refuse workers and clerks, now depend partly on global shipping activity.
