Buy British: our salvation?

[PRTVR]

Dr Jekyll said:

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.

The Germans definitely haven't heard of it, but their economy is doing far better than ours.

[Chrisw666]

tonym911 said:

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

It actually requires a bit more thought and effort than I realised it would, but it has forced a lifestyle change, more cooking, trips to nicer places to shop, and trying things we would normally never look at or would only have on a fixed price restaurant menu.

[Puggit]

I'm sitting in a French supermarket carpark right now. Of the 30 cars in my view, 3 are not French (a BMW, a VW and a Ford).

[mad4amanda]

I think the op and others have it right.
Weseam to be the only country who dont realise that if you dont support nationally produced items then the money flows outwards. However there needs to be local ( big society dare I say action ) by the likes of us buying British produce when we can , and national like the farce over Bombardier trains. No other country would have made that decision and the new government fumbled and dropped the ball when they had a chance to show the average man the way.
It needs to change and asap. In the course of my work I am amazed at how many small engineering companies there still are in my little corner of kent still producing good quality stuff like gas fires and wood burners and shop fittings and as one guy put it "anything that can be made out of metal".
I also see the other side the fruit grower in Marden who has acres and acres of orchards but cant sell his apples to the supermarket because they are not sufficent quality ! These apples taste great as good as any Ive tasted but can have some blemishes - you know like apples used to . He has considered just selling up oor grubbing out the orchards selling them off as seasoned logs and the like and if he does the landscape of what is refferedto as the garden of England will be changed forever, just like has happened around maidstone/barming where orchards and woods are quarried for stone that we could get from existing quarries the reinstatement ends up with large plain fields, no woods, no orchards, no wild asparagus growing under trees.
The good news is this farmer is fighting back by going into freerange pork! living unger the said trees for a good chunk of its life I cant wait to taste it . Its just a shame that we all dont apparently want british apples, if you believe what the supermarkets tell you.
I share the liking of the ranking idea 1 to 4 as what I would like to be able to do. Perhaps one of these clever website people we have lots of in the uk could come up with a buy British website where you can say: I want a washing machine and it will suggest a manufacturer with the most uk content or better still a choice.
Perhaps for foodstuffs it could be even more local ie I live in kent and want to buy local beef? Would suppliers pay a small amount to be part of the database? I dont know but If I was a producer I might.
Much longer post than I intended and Im not a tree hugger or a political type normally but for some reason this stuff matters to me now.

[EINSIGN]

mad4amanda said:

However there needs to be local ( big society dare I say action ) by the likes of us buying British produce when we can , and national like the farce over Bombardier trains. No other country would have made that decision and the new government fumbled and dropped the ball when they had a chance to show the average man the way.

I agree. Where were the riots over the contract for these trains, all seems to have been brushed under the carpet! Direct action seems to work for the hippies in tents everywhere, why dont the real people of this country step up and shout once and a while about the really important issues that would actually help us all!

[Dr Jekyll]

mad4amanda said:

I think the op and others have it right.
Weseam to be the only country who dont realise that if you dont support nationally produced items then the money flows outwards.

How does that work? If I buy foreign goods with sterling, that sterling has to come back to the UK because there is nowhere else to spend it. That's why we can't export unless we import.

[mad4amanda]

so there are no countries with reserves in sterling then?
surely there are countries that have electronic plies of sterling in accounts all around the world?
i am not saying we should not import anything more that the balance has shifted too far.

Edited by mad4amanda on Saturday 12th November 10:59

[Fatman2]

EINSIGN said:

mad4amanda said:

However there needs to be local ( big society dare I say action ) by the likes of us buying British produce when we can , and national like the farce over Bombardier trains. No other country would have made that decision and the new government fumbled and dropped the ball when they had a chance to show the average man the way.

I agree. Where were the riots over the contract for these trains, all seems to have been brushed under the carpet! Direct action seems to work for the hippies in tents everywhere, why dont the real people of this country step up and shout once and a while about the really important issues that would actually help us all!

That is a sad one and just as puzzling as the wind farm manufacturer on the Isle of Wight that went down the pan because the Gov gave the contract to an overseas company

I can't help wondering if all this is far more complicated that we're seeing on the surface though. As much as it pains me to see masses of jobs being lost I wonder if there is some method to the madness.

With the Bombardier train issue, Siemens has a big presence here in the UK (possibly larger than Bombardier) so wonder if there was some other rationale that we're not privvy to.

Not that I'm sticking up for the Gov but the decision seems almost too incomprehensible to be true

[Dr Jekyll]

mad4amanda said:

so there are no countries with reserves in sterling then?
surely there are countries that have electronic plies of sterling in accounts all around the world?
i am not saying we should not import anything more that the balance has shifted too far.

Of course there are, but only if they are planning to buy something with that sterling. Why would anyone sell stuff to the UK if all they are going to do with the money they receive is pile it up and forget about it?

[mad4amanda]

No they seam to keep it for ages before spending it buying up our manufacturing industries dont they?
MG Rover to the chinese, JLR to the indians? British steel to the Indians etc
I remember talking to a Chinese manufacturer of wheels about time and business investment he said westerners think at the most for 5 years, chinese think decades ahead , they play a long game and as such will allways win and ultimately when you own the bank you own the country.
Not exactly my thoughts just what was said as I was buying 100 sets of wheels.

[tonym911]

How about reducing VAT on British-made goods sold here to say 10%? Or is that illegal under EC protectionism rules?

[ninja-lewis]

Fatman2 said:

That is a sad one and just as puzzling as the wind farm manufacturer on the Isle of Wight that went down the pan because the Gov gave the contract to an overseas company

No government contract involved there I believe. Vestas closed the Isle of Wight factory due to the economic downturn, uncertainty about government subsidies, and the falling demand for the (smaller) onshore turbines they produced there.

Due to issues like planning permission and more constant offshore wind speeds, the larger offshore turbines are in greater demand now. As a result Vestas have put a lot of money into research (including in the Isle of Wight) and are now considering building a new factory in Kent to produce the larger offshore turbines.

[Fatman2]

ninja-lewis said:

Fatman2 said:

That is a sad one and just as puzzling as the wind farm manufacturer on the Isle of Wight that went down the pan because the Gov gave the contract to an overseas company

No government contract involved there I believe. Vestas closed the Isle of Wight factory due to the economic downturn, uncertainty about government subsidies, and the falling demand for the (smaller) onshore turbines they produced there.

Due to issues like planning permission and more constant offshore wind speeds, the larger offshore turbines are in greater demand now. As a result Vestas have put a lot of money into research (including in the Isle of Wight) and are now considering building a new factory in Kent to produce the larger offshore turbines.

I stand corrected, thanks

Good to hear they are attempting a comback. Let's hope it keeps the island ticking over a bit more in future (although they're not doing too badly with GKN and Mclaren, amongst others, down there).

[otolith]

Puggit said:

I'm sitting in a French supermarket carpark right now. Of the 30 cars in my view, 3 are not French (a BMW, a VW and a Ford).

The poor buggers - and even after eating their own dogfood, they still have worse current and historical unemployment rates than us and their GDP : debt ratio is worse than ours.

[tonym911]

If the supermarkets would create a 'British made/grown/reared' aisle, I would do as much of our shopping there as possible. And I don't believe I'd be on my own.

[marshalla]

tonym911 said:

If the supermarkets would create a 'British made/grown/reared' aisle, I would do as much of our shopping there as possible. And I don't believe I'd be on my own.

My local butcher actually has a board which tells customers exactly which farms have supplied that day's meat - all within a 30 mile radius of the shop. The greengrocer does the same with fruit & veg. The fishmonger only ever buys from the nearest fishing ports. The only one I can't do anything about is the baker as we don't have a decent local non-chain baker yet, nor do we have a convenient flour mill and wheat farm.

Seems to me that the local shops are onto something, not just buying British, but buying local and supporting their neighbours.

Edited by marshalla on Wednesday 16th November 10:34

[tonym911]

marshalla said:

Seems to me that the local shops are onto something, not just buying British, but buying local and supporting their neighbours.

Most definitely. A shame the Govt can't get behind this in a more visible way without seeming to be protectionist.

[Miguel Alvarez]

marshalla said:

tonym911 said:

If the supermarkets would create a 'British made/grown/reared' aisle, I would do as much of our shopping there as possible. And I don't believe I'd be on my own.

My local butcher actually has a board which tells customers exactly which farms have supplied that day's meat - all within a 30 mile radius of the shop. The greegrocer does the same with fruit & veg. The fishmonger only ever buys from the nearest fishing ports. The only one I can't do anything about is the baker as we don't have a decent local non-chain baker yet, nor do we have a convenient flour mill and wheat farm.

Seems to me that the local shops are onto something, not just buying British, but buying local and supporting their neighbours.

They do that at a pub near where I work. I think it's a good idea.

For my comments earlier I think it's a good idea to buy British where possible. Some things I can't see it happening for various reasons but as a whole it's always going to be a good idea.

[Dr Jekyll]

Miguel Alvarez said:

For my comments earlier I think it's a good idea to buy British where possible. Some things I can't see it happening for various reasons but as a whole it's always going to be a good idea.

Why though?

[chris watton]

I think the UK is still pretty darn good on the design and development side of things/products, but not so hot at implimentation/manufature of the products, which is why we see China getting the contracts for UK designed and developed products. Not sure why, it may be a number of things from tax and H&S regs to overbearing unions, and/or people not wanting to do what may be considered menial work to make the products.