Should we buy British?

[rov1200]

With a severe recession in the offing, people losing their jobs, a big reduction in consumption and production should we be thinking about choosing British made goods if there is a choice? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshi re/7686274.stm

[jno]

no, you should buy good quality goods. People gave up buying British cars because they were rubbish; the Japanese were making them far better. To have gone on buying rubbish just to protect Britain would have been a false economy: the cars would have required more repairs and would have fallen apart earlier, costing you far more money than a nice Toyota. You would have rewarded bad Leyland workmen and punished good Japanese ones and paid a lot of money for doing so. The same is true of other products.

[Doc.Spock.1]

You find something that is stamped "Made in Britain" if you can.

Thanks to thatcher this Country makes pi55 all.

[LoftyLottie]

100% agree with JNO. (I shall stick to my reliable 10 year old Toyota). I buy what I think is good value for money, reliable and well made wherever it may come from. I can't afford to do otherwise.

[LoftyLottie]

So true Doc.

[Gromit]

No.

Your link is a good example why not. 80% of JCBs production is for export so it would hardly make any difference to them if home sales improved a bit. Then, if other countries decided to buy only homemade products, JCB would lose 80% of its sales and then you would see job losses.

We are not alone in going into recession. The rest of Europe, and the US are already there, and that is why companies like JCB are having to tighten their belts.

[ummmm]

I think we should buy british when it comes to food.

[BillySugger]

Tesco's have 6 tomatoes grown in Norfolk for �1.59 or 6 tomatoes grown in Holland for 50p . If you can afford it fine , personally I can't .

[LoftyLottie]

I like foreign food too much to stick to British. I love the variety of food we have these days. I do, however, stick to British free range chickens- in fact British meat in general. I have to watch the pennies, but I would rather not eat meat at all than eat cheap foreign meat and eating loads of veg and only a little meat is quite a cheap option.

[Panic Button]

Sorry Doc, Thatcher was the painful medicine, not the cause of loss of manufacturing. We were toboganning downhill before her.

[Ethel]

It was the unions that crippled industry and manufacturing - we were a laughing stock with Red Ken at Leyland / Austin which still failed despite the millions of tax payers money being pumped in to it.

We all expect top pay and low priced goods. The two don't go together. Sadly the work ethic seems to be lacking in a lot of British people - many people think nothing of 'pulling a sickie' at the expense of the employer, stealing from the employer and wasting the employers' time and money by doing personal things at work such as surfing the net and emailing rather than what they are being paid to do.
There seems to be a general lack of pride in our work.

I buy as much British goods as I can, but my kitchen electricals are German and my tv is Japanese.

[smudge]

Well I'm quite happy with my German car! It drives like a dream - unlike some British cars I've had in the past!

We have a German vacuum cleaner too (Sebo) & it's the best one we've ever had!

I would buy British, but as Doc says - try finding anything decent - well apart from free range eggs that is!

[VINNY100_2]

Well ive had a Henry vacuum cleaner for the past ten years and its still going strong,Ive also noticed being a carpet cleaner almost every hotel ive been in use's a henry..and its British..!!!! as for them cheap tomatoes in tescos...ive been trying to ripen the bu66ers for 3 weeks in the window and there still hard as bullets..!(:O)

[keyplus90]

Me too, agree 100% with Jno. You just can�t buy rubbish only to show that you are a patriot. I would rather refuse to buy that so the quality should get better. Once quality is better then it would not be only me, the whole world would buy that. That is what you call being sincere. Before 1950 people used to think Japanese goods as rubbish then they turned it around.

Gromit � JCB example is good. So much is going outside the country that you can�t find anything here. I have a drill from JCB and need a new battery. Just can�t find it.

[ummmm]

Very true Vinny. I'd pay the extra pound to be able to eat them when they are needed.

[jake-the-peg]

The unions crippled British Manufacturing.

remind me about the final end of Rover.

Something about a bunch of directors and pension fund stuffing wasn't it?

Damn Unions!

[Ethel]

British car manufacturing had been limping and crippled for years before Rover finally snuffed it.

[cazzz1975]

well said ethel, the voice of sense

[jake-the-peg]

Really BMW didn't think so - they still turn out the mini at Cowley.

Clear example of German manufacturing management suceeding where British management had failed woefully

[Gromit]

Likewise Nissan in Sunderland. A well run plant producing a quality build for the right market.

The Old British car industry did not fail because of the Unions. The Unions did not design the poor products and the Unions did not fail to invest in modern plant and machinery. Poor Management and under investment killed of British manufacturers.

[jno]

Ethel, you're thinking of Red Robbo. Red Ken ran London (quite successfully - so Thatcher abolished him). As for the cars, jake has a point: the Germans seem to be doing okay with them. I think postwar conservatism in industrial production was shared between management and labour. Japan and Germany - as the losers in the war - were free to start afresh with new systems and new attitudes.