Will anybody else commit to buying British?
Discussion
I'm no economics expert but I can't help thinking that we would be stronger as a country if people were more nationalistic in their purchasing choices. Helping to perserve the countries industries and jobs, even if it meant paying more.
Now I know it's not realistic to expect people to be able to buy British everything but are people willing to try to by more home grown products?
My commitment for 2009 is to buy my new archery bow from a UK manufacture rather than American or Korean. What's yours?
Now I know it's not realistic to expect people to be able to buy British everything but are people willing to try to by more home grown products?
My commitment for 2009 is to buy my new archery bow from a UK manufacture rather than American or Korean. What's yours?
Established 1984 said:
I'm no economics expert but I can't help thinking that we would be stronger as a country if people were more nationalistic in their purchasing choices. Helping to perserve the countries industries and jobs, even if it meant paying more.
Now I know it's not realistic to expect people to be able to buy British everything but are people willing to try to by more home grown products?
My commitment for 2009 is to buy my new archery bow from a UK manufacture rather than American or Korean. What's yours?
To be honest, are there any british manufacturers of non specialist stuff?Now I know it's not realistic to expect people to be able to buy British everything but are people willing to try to by more home grown products?
My commitment for 2009 is to buy my new archery bow from a UK manufacture rather than American or Korean. What's yours?
I tend to buy whatever is best within my budget without a thought to where it has been produced.
Unless its food when I prefer local produce all the way, but thats the one exception where quality tends to mean local, where more cost equates to better value
Most mainstream stuff regardless of the nationality of the company is produced in the far east anyway, so unless you want something specialised as has been mentioned, then its not easy.
I would say that 90% of the contents of my house came from outside the UK
Unless its food when I prefer local produce all the way, but thats the one exception where quality tends to mean local, where more cost equates to better value
Most mainstream stuff regardless of the nationality of the company is produced in the far east anyway, so unless you want something specialised as has been mentioned, then its not easy.
I would say that 90% of the contents of my house came from outside the UK
Established 1984 said:
I'm no economics expert but I can't help thinking that we would be stronger as a country if people were more nationalistic in their purchasing choices. Helping to perserve the countries industries and jobs, even if it meant paying more.
Now I know it's not realistic to expect people to be able to buy British everything but are people willing to try to by more home grown products?
It's a fine idea until you compare costs - ie how much a British worker needs to live on (bearing in mind roughly 50% goes in taxation) vs how much a worker in China, Thailand, India etc needs to live on. Now I know it's not realistic to expect people to be able to buy British everything but are people willing to try to by more home grown products?
Rather than buying British as such, I try always to buy from as local as source as possible. Support your local community type of thing. I've been doing this for a couple of years now, and when I started it I thought I'd generally be paying higher prices.
In fact I've learned that the reverse is true. The big stores seem to have managed to convince us that their buying power enabes them to supply us with stuff much cheaper than the local high street, and I reckon it's largely untrue. Just recently we bought a new vacuum cleaner (Dyson as it happens) and got it 50 quid cheaper than Currys, without the hassle of having to drive 10 miles to the nearest shopping centre.
In fact I've learned that the reverse is true. The big stores seem to have managed to convince us that their buying power enabes them to supply us with stuff much cheaper than the local high street, and I reckon it's largely untrue. Just recently we bought a new vacuum cleaner (Dyson as it happens) and got it 50 quid cheaper than Currys, without the hassle of having to drive 10 miles to the nearest shopping centre.
When it comes to buying stuff to make my jewellery with, I tend to stick with British suppliers. Obviously my crystal beads come from Austria, but I will source them from a British bead supplier. Plus I will only buy my metal bits from a select couple of suppliers as that way I know the nickel content is within EU regulations.
As to glass beads, well for special beads I try to get them straight from the maker, and will only deal with UK glass workers.
As to glass beads, well for special beads I try to get them straight from the maker, and will only deal with UK glass workers.
For most households, the biggest purchase aside from houses is cars and, for most budgets, there's a reasonable amount of choice of British made kit;
Ford
GM
Honda
Jaguar
Land Rover
Nissan
Toyota
I think that over the last 20 years, successive governments have really failled small and medium enterprises - just look at how complicated tax & NI issues are as an example - to the point where it's stifled innovation. The knock-on for larger manufacturing business is there have been fewer small companies to act as subbies, and also fewer small innovators to be bought-up and absorbed into larger concerns. All this b
ks about being "business friendly" makes my piss boil.
Cut taxes, simplify read tape and shut down Business Link, DTI and all those other joke 'support' QUANGOs.
Ford
GM
Honda
Jaguar
Land Rover
Nissan
Toyota
I think that over the last 20 years, successive governments have really failled small and medium enterprises - just look at how complicated tax & NI issues are as an example - to the point where it's stifled innovation. The knock-on for larger manufacturing business is there have been fewer small companies to act as subbies, and also fewer small innovators to be bought-up and absorbed into larger concerns. All this b
ks about being "business friendly" makes my piss boil.Cut taxes, simplify read tape and shut down Business Link, DTI and all those other joke 'support' QUANGOs.
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