Buy British: our salvation?

[hollydog]

V88Dicky said:

Let's use your statement as a template for, let's say Jaguar. ps I've corrected your grammar and spelling for you, you can thank me later


Design = Ian Callum....Check

Built = Coventry/Castle Bromwich.....Check

Makes the UK money = £1000000000 profit per annum.....Check

Sorry not true there are still parts that jag import to build the car .

[V88Dicky]

hollydog said:

Sorry not true there are still parts that jag import to build the car .

So that'll be just like every other motor manufacterer in the world then?

I can't see what your point is

[king arthur]

freecar said:

You still haven't told me how I can enjoy a nice cup of British tea without relying upon imports.

I don't think anyone is saying you should stop drinking tea. It's all about why buy imported stuff when there is a perfectly good British equivalent.

[Chicarito]

V88Dicky said:

So that'll be just like every other motor manufacterer in the world then?

I can't see what your point is

I'm confused by it all, to be honest.

We've had claims that we should 'buy British' and someone used a Jag. as an example.

So, that's 'buy Indian, made in Britain'.

You may as well buy a Honda Accord. At least that won't break as often.

[V88Dicky]

Chicarito said:

I'm confused by it all, to be honest.

We've had claims that we should 'buy British' and someone used a Jag. as an example.

So, that's 'buy Indian, made in Britain'.

You may as well buy a Honda Accord. At least that won't break as often.

How would buying a Jaguar be construed as buying Indian, unless you are incredibly cynical? It's a British brand, made in Britain, doing exceptionall well all over the world, including the UK.

AND it's been coming top or near top in reliability and customers satisfaction surveys for years. A bit like those British built Hondas, Toyotas and Nissans I guess

[Pesty]

V88Dicky said:

Somethings you just can't get, like a British-made TV for example (Sanyo 2008) or a mobile phone (Motorola Startac 1997 ) but most things can still be done.

Until recentyly lots of mobile phones where built in the UK. NEC,Motorola,erricson etc etc. Pioneer msde flat screen TVs in a big factory just off the M62 near wakefield. Loads more electronic factories were around until a few years ago.

All now re located to eastern europe or china. We all bought them didnt stop the companies moveing manufactureing to make bigger profits.

[Chicarito]

V88Dicky said:

How would buying a Jaguar be construed as buying Indian, unless you are incredibly cynical? It's a British brand, made in Britain, doing exceptionall well all over the world, including the UK.

AND it's been coming top or near top in reliability and customers satisfaction surveys for years. A bit like those British built Hondas, Toyotas and Nissans I guess

Not cynical - JLR are as British as Honda, Nissan, Toyota, and whoever else decides to build their cars in the UK.

Just because they were a British company doesn't make them any more British now they're owned by an Indian parent company.

Reliability and satisfaction surveys mean very little - people expect a Jag. to be a bit problematic and temperamental - so when they get one that's pretty average, they shoot to the top of the survey results.(Another discussion for another day - but how would you explain why a Skoda Octavia scores much better than the VW Golf on which it's based?)

[Disco_Dale]

The campaign back in the 80s was a bit of a joke - I remember seeing the sticker proudly displayed on the tailgate of many a 3 year old, already rusty British car...

Back then it did have a chance of making an impact because we did still make quite a lot of stuff, not just cars but white goods, consumer electronics etc.
Nowadays we make 9/10s of FA and when we do get a successful manufacturer they're off to the far east/India in search of even bigger profits at the first opportunity (see Dyson for a good example)

As far as I can see, such a campaign would be pointless today. Even the companies that stand to gain from it have no loyalty to their country, why would the consumer?

[tamore]

why are people making such an issue of this? there is an order of want .....

1) buy goods manufactured wholly in the UK. involves seasonality in the food sector.
2) buy goods designed in the UK and assembled in the UK, but with some imported components
3) buy goods assembled in the UK, but with foreign ownership and components
4) foreign stuff

there are a few shades of grey between these broad bands, but the higher up towards no1, surely the better for the UK economy? if you want january strawbs (they taste awful) and far eastern trainers, then go nuts, it isn't going to stop. however, education of the masses to encourage purchasing goods which boost the uk economy has no drawbacks.

[tonym911]

Thanks for expressing it so well. I do find the antipathy towards this simple proposal quite puzzling. The argument that we shouldn't encourage UK companies to be successful because they'll only 'run off' abroad to be more successful doesn't stand up to much examination.

[BigBen]

Chicarito said:

V88Dicky said:

How would buying a Jaguar be construed as buying Indian, unless you are incredibly cynical? It's a British brand, made in Britain, doing exceptionall well all over the world, including the UK.

AND it's been coming top or near top in reliability and customers satisfaction surveys for years. A bit like those British built Hondas, Toyotas and Nissans I guess

Not cynical - JLR are as British as Honda, Nissan, Toyota, and whoever else decides to build their cars in the UK.

Not quite the case unless Honda, Nissan, Toyota design and develop their cars in the UK thus employing thousands of skilled workers on top of those employed as part of the manufacturing process.

Ben

[Dr Jekyll]

marshalla said:

But when you import something, some of the cash ends up going overseas - never to return...

Sterling which is spent on imports comes straight back to the UK because there is nowhere else to spend it.

[king arthur]

Disco_Dale said:

Nowadays we make 9/10s of FA and when we do get a successful manufacturer they're off to the far east/India in search of even bigger profits at the first opportunity (see Dyson for a good example)

Dyson always gets it in the neck for this, but it's not quite that simple. IIRC he found that he couldn't source particular components in the UK and had to get them from Malaysia, then when he wanted to expand the factory he kept getting refused planning permission. So in the end it was easier to move all the production to Malaysia. It wasn't just about making more profit.

[ExChrispy Porker]

king arthur said:

Dyson always gets it in the neck for this, but it's not quite that simple. IIRC he found that he couldn't source particular components in the UK and had to get them from Malaysia, then when he wanted to expand the factory he kept getting refused planning permission. So in the end it was easier to move all the production to Malaysia. It wasn't just about making more profit.

That's right he wanted to make major investments, but the local councils kept turning him down.

[Cyder]

BigBen said:

Chicarito said:

V88Dicky said:

How would buying a Jaguar be construed as buying Indian, unless you are incredibly cynical? It's a British brand, made in Britain, doing exceptionall well all over the world, including the UK.

AND it's been coming top or near top in reliability and customers satisfaction surveys for years. A bit like those British built Hondas, Toyotas and Nissans I guess

Not cynical - JLR are as British as Honda, Nissan, Toyota, and whoever else decides to build their cars in the UK.

Not quite the case unless Honda, Nissan, Toyota design and develop their cars in the UK thus employing thousands of skilled workers on top of those employed as part of the manufacturing process.

Ben

Absolutely, not to mention the hundreds of UK suppliers these companies source from which in turn employ thousands more people.

Just because the 'profits' might not be kept in this country the amount of revenue this country earns throughout the whole process must be phenomenal.

In fact, we are currently working hard to localise part supply from so called cheaper countries (India, China etc) to the UK as we can often get a higher quality part, and thanks to the savings in shipping costs a cheaper part as well by the time it is delivered.

[Chrisw666]

bicycleshorts said:

thinfourth2 said:

You are so wrong its almost funny

We produce some of the best seafood in the world but we export about 90% of it. Shell fish is closer to 100% export it is easier to buy scottish razor clams in the far east then it is in Scotland.

Scottish Salmon is sought all over the world

British beef is first class, our bacon is excellent, our pork is excellent, english lamb is good, Shetland lamb is better then any other in the world, we produce alot of venison, there is a farm 5 miles from aberdeen which produces buffalo. The local games birds are excellent.

Sausages, black puddings, haggis, pork pies etc

Our root vegtables are great but seasonal.

The english apple is the best in the world and the english apple industry is the foundation our the rest of the worlds apple industry. English pears are great.

In scotland we produce loads of soft fruit such as strawberries, raspberries, tay berries, brambles, gooseberries etc. In england there is even more.

Loads of mushroom farms which produce first class.

Scottish whiskey, english cider and english ales

British cheeses are as good as anythng that comes from france

And of course there is asparagus which if picked locally is excellent. Once you have tried UK produced asparagus the crap you get imported into tescos is just green stuff.



Get your arse out of tescos and get down you local producers

Good post.

+1 I like that a lot.

I will admit to doing a large amount of our food shop in Tesco etc, but earlier this year I started buying all of the meat we eat from a local butcher that is supplied locally and from a local farmers market where the food is utterly outstanding quality and I don't mind that it costs me a few £ more than the supermarket because the waste we get from that food is non-existent.

Over the next couple of months we plan to gradually change our shopping habits to make even more of our food locally sourced and if the meat is anything to go by much better quality.

[Dr Jekyll]

Has nobody here heard of comparative advantage? The more trade the better as far as I'm concerned, and if we don't import, we can't export.

[King Herald]

singlecoil said:

I think a buy British campaign would be a good idea. It wouldn't work, of course, but that's no reason not to try.

Those who would seek to benefit from it need to be consistent though. For instance, anyone who makes stuff in the UK and wants people to buy it because of that needs to think carefully when making their own buying decisions

When British Leylandii was going down the toilet many years ago, wasn't there a tv documentary news report thing that showed 75% of the cars in the car park were Japanese or of other foreign extract?

I'm sure there was a perfectly good explanation for it....

[tonym911]

Chrisw666 said:

+1 I like that a lot.

I will admit to doing a large amount of our food shop in Tesco etc, but earlier this year I started buying all of the meat we eat from a local butcher that is supplied locally and from a local farmers market where the food is utterly outstanding quality and I don't mind that it costs me a few £ more than the supermarket because the waste we get from that food is non-existent.

Over the next couple of months we plan to gradually change our shopping habits to make even more of our food locally sourced and if the meat is anything to go by much better quality.

good man

[mccrackenj]

obob said:

Can't grow mangoes, tea, pineapples, coffee. There's a few vineyards but probably not enough to meet demand. These things I have everyday.

All the high quality stuff is fair enough but how many people can afford a pair of Loakes shoes for a couple of hundred? It's all low volume stuff as we can't produce stuff at decent value.

I don't wear anything else, and I don't pay anything like £200.

http://www.herringshoes.co.uk/

Far better value long term than cheap sh!te.