Should we be backing a "Buy British" campaign, to aid economic recovery

[LazyGun]

Interesting article, I thought -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15551818

Government response seems to be that having such campaign would be counter-productive, since if other countries implemented a similar campaign this would impact our exports - Not sure that such logic holds much sway, since other countries already instinctively buy home built products in the main, dont you think?

[Old_Geezer]

I think the country of manufacture should be a factor in deciding what to buy since it can retain wealth in the UK. However it should not be overriding since guarantied support of the consumer reduces incentive to the manufacturer to do well and match or exceed the price/quality ratio of imported goods.

[emmie]

i try and only buy British produce, particularly foodstuffs, but how many British companies are now owned by American multi nationals, and others. seeing how much of our clothing, and other goods are made in china, India, is there a reciprocal arrangement, or as i believe they sell cheap goods, but they don't import as much, as they can make what they need. Not a new thing, but the pound in your pocket doesn't go far, so you have to make the best deal you can

[sandyRoe]

Do we not look to instinctively buy home built products?

[LazyGun]

@Sandy - I am not certain, tbh - If I think about it and have time, I will attempt to find British produce at the supermarket, but I cant say hand on heart that I do that 100% of the time, and the same applies to clothes, i think...

[emmie]

take a straw poll on AB, on what cars people own, perhaps we don't manufacture cars anymore, i have no idea, but i suspect many people who want to buy British goods, have a foreign made car, same goes for most electrical goods.

[youngmafbog]

The problem is our manufacturing industry is not there anymore.
A buy british campaign is good in the long term but short term will do very little.
Personally i always try to buy british particularly fresh produce but that is more do with my hatred of unnecessary transportation. I refuse to buy anything French as they wont touch our stuff and burn our sheep.

[rowanwitch]

I tend to buy local food where possible...apart from a current flurry of italian and greek goodies well feel I have to do my bit to save Europe... not sure about big products as I tend to go by things like Which reports and reviews rather than country of origin.

[Kayless]

I'd love to buy British and advise others to do the same but in all honesty we cannot compete on quality and price. Our manufacturing industry was killed off by Union Dogma and will struggle ever to recover.

[jno]

ah yes, the famous Union Dogma that meant BMC did its sums wrong and lost £30 on every Mini it sold. Since it was a really big seller it was a really big loser. So now they're made by BMW.

Quite how that was Red Robbo's fault isn't clear to me.

[OrdsallSi]

Geezer knows who closed down our manufacturing industry and there was no Red in sight. The old hag in Blue was to blame.
We make very little in this country so it is way to late to start a campaign.

[Kayless]

You mean they wern't on strike every five minutes over stupid things then?? I must have dreamt it! Right oh!

[jake-the-peg]

No we don't manufacture anything

That's why we're the 7th largest manufacturing nation in the world!


Problem with the philosophy is that we manufacture a lot of components which are sold back to us in finished products

[jake-the-peg]

So "Kayless" how come the French (never on strike) still have a significan't motor industry?

How come there are so many motor manufacturing plants in the UK

Simple fact the UK can make great cars - we just can't run car companies.

Rover's a classic example

Phoenix took the money and put it in their pension funds - tarted up the bodyshells of some old models rather than investing in new ones and the result was inevitable

[rojash]

The strange thing is that the British workers always got the blame for the problems with British car manufacturing, and yet when the Japanese, French, et al, opened successful car factories here, it was still British labour, but foreign management. Any logical person would conclude that it was British management that was at fault.

[Kayless]

One might blame management if they where actually allowed to manage. Union laws where so vast and complex that pretty well any management was rendered impossible by strikes at the drop of a hat. Foriegn firms flourished once union power was curtailed.

[clokey]

What a load of crap -K Geezer, Have they never had strikes in other countries you just love to blame the unions for everything.

One evil women wrecked this countries industry and used Mr Plod to club anyone that stood in her way.

The difference with a country like France is the police are in a union and have some sympathy with the working class.

[emmie]

the french strike so often it's a wonder anything gets done.

[jomifl]

Em .. you just beat me to it, the French are on strike all the time. Fortunately it is mostly non-productive 'workers' that strike in France so it has little short term impact. If French farmers went on strike, had weekends off or worked less than 12 hours per day the economy would collapse.

[jomifl]

Too many British are obsessed with cheapness rather than quality, so if a piece of chinese crap costs 1% less than something of quality(possibly British made) they will go for it every time.

[emmie]

so not just here..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...world-europe-11520220