Helping UK jobs and economy - Buy British?

[mustang1]

The only British things I bought that I truly enjoyed using were:
Psion 3
Sinclair ZX81

And didn't Rover screw Honda over and sell themselves to BMW, who then got tired of Rover's inadequacies and got rid of them?

 

[vernon]

British manufactured things that I have enjoyed owningand using:

BSA Bantam D14/4 Bushman
Psion 3a
Sinclair scientific calculator
BBC computer
Belstaff motorcycle jacket
Carradice saddle bags
Carradice panniers
British Thornton slide rule
British Thornton draftman's table
Lewis Leathers' motorcycle boots with leather soles and kickstart plate
Dawes Galaxy
Triang kids tricycle - still used into early teens for stunts usually ending in injury
Austin Alllegro Vanden Plas
MG Midget

Addendum

I forgot about my
Dave Yates audax bike
Flying Gate replica bike
Mamod steam engines
Meccano
Raglan lathe

 

[Yellow Fang]

I heard regarding Dyson that it made sense for them to move over to the far east because that's where all the components were made. Sad if true, because cities like Birmingham used to be famous for making components for everything.

Despite my comments about the unions in the 70s, I don't doubt management was equally rubbish. Old fashioned British management was pretty top down and reactionary from my limited experience of it. I think most the best brains went to the city.

I believe in Germany they have worker management councils. I heard a British manager of a German company say it wasn't the way he'd choose to do it, but that the system seemed to work.

I favour British goods if there's an option. I bought Caradice instead of Ortlieb. I'm proud of my Brompton's British credentials. If I was in the market for an expensive mountain bike I'd buy Orange. I even look at the Pashley range from time to time and wonder whether it would be a sensible investment buying one of their bikes.

 

[ASC1951]

Of course, but ones assembled in Britain are at least employing British workers.

So Indonesians and Indians don't deserve jobs, then?

 

[MacB]

So Indonesians and Indians don't deserve jobs, then?

at best that's disingenuous and I hope that FF doesn't feel he needs to stoop to your level.......however I don't mind slumming it so bring it on, back that statement up

 

[Fab Foodie]

at best that's disingenuous and I hope that FF doesn't feel he needs to stoop to your level.......however I don't mind slumming it so bring it on, back that statement up

Yoiu're right! I don't feel the need to stoop to that level ... Cheers

 

[slowmotion]

Hope Vision 1.

Henry vacuum cleaners.

Yes, Dysons are actually crap. They fall apart very quickly. Have you ever seen a "builders' clean" crew with a Dyson?

 

[feelfattergoinguphill]

uk trade deficit is running at around 8.5 billion per month or roughly £100 billion a year, our gross GDP is £1500 billion a year(roughly) so our trade deficit is 6.6667 % of total economy and we are growing at roughly 0.2 % a year yes 0.2 %.
Im not an economist and dont claim too know didly but we are sending £100 billion net overseas every year but economy growing by £0.3 billion a year.
We as a nation ie goverment borrowed £143 billion last year....... no thats not what we owe thats how much more we borrowed.Of that total around £43 billion was interest payments alone.HMMMMM
that leaves £100 billion, now where did we see that number before?????

 

[GilesM]

Hope Vision 1.

Henry vacuum cleaners.

Yes, Dysons are actually crap. They fall apart very quickly. Have you ever seen a "builders' clean" crew with a Dyson?

I had two crap Dysons over the years, and a friend who runs a construction comapny kept saying the same as you, I now have a made in Somerset Henry, it's a wonderful thing and cheaper.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I had two crap Dysons over the years...

Wasn't one crap one enough, was the second just to make sure?

 

[GilesM]

The only British things I bought that I truly enjoyed using were:
Psion 3
Sinclair ZX81

I take it you've never tried a British sports car, an Orange full suss mtb covered in Hope stuff, or a handmade reynolds frame.

 

[GilesM]

Wasn't one crap one enough, was the second just to make sure?

You would have thought so, I still don't know why I bought the second one.

 

[subaqua]

Wasn't one crap one enough, was the second just to make sure?

its like buying a citroen BX you needed to have 2 to be sure they were indeed 5H1t. BL cars OTOH proved this with just one owning.

 

[Andy in Sig]

There's a very typically British element on this thread of running ourselves down. The Brits are still one of the leaders when it comes to the bespoke, high quality end of the market i.e. a small part of British manufacturing still churns out quality stuff which is made to last. If you look abroad (where obviously British petty snobberies and enmities do not exist) you will find things like Barbour jackets, country clothing in general and other, mostly traditional, things have a very good name.

You have of course to counter this with things like the disaster that was the British mass car industry.

My personal line is that if something is British made i.e. actually manufactured in the country and as good or better quality than a foreign competitor, then I would tend to buy British out of simple patriotism as it seems to me to be a good thing to preserve UK jobs. OTH I would never have bought a British Leyland car as there is no point in supporting crap.

Dyson has got a lot of mention. Am I remembering correctly in thinking that he was forced to relocate abroad at the insistence of his bank which simply demanded an increase in profits (note: not a move from loss to profit) in order to maximise its returns and to hell with the job losses?

 

[MacB]

I don't think it's necessary to buy British just try to avoid, or minimise, the purchase of goods where you would deem workers to not be getting a fair shake of the stick. A level of competition is healthy but we can't introduce minimum wage, health and safety, etc, etc and then just export our poor practices to other countries.

For example, I'm happy to buy from Germany - Rohloff, Supernova, Schwalbe, Schmidt as I didn't see a viable UK alternative - I also chose Ortlieb over Carradice based on function and form - but I do buy Hope stuff, hubs, stems, headsets, spacers, seatpost clamps

There is no reason that the UK can't compete in more areas but it does require the right sort of investment. It's no good relying on individual entrepeneurs and those with a passion and money. We need to make manufacturing investment more attractive, especially in relation to financial/property speculation. There are a myriad of ways to do this and we can learn from Germany in this. One key thing they do have is far less of a 'them and us' approach coupled to stronger workers protections.