Buy British: Why isn't there a new campaign?

**Millennium3** · 08-11-2011, 09:57 AM

An Issue I have raised on a few threads - it is the only real way out of our economic crisis:

Buy British: Why isn't there a new campaign?

By Caroline McClatchey
BBC News Magazine

The British economy is in the doldrums, with the manufacturing sector flagging, so why aren't there more campaigns encouraging people to be patriotic and buy products made in the UK?

When buying a jumper, a piece of furniture or a bag of apples, do you check to see where it has come from?

Do people care whether it was designed, manufactured or grown by British firms or farms?

These are troubling times for Britain's manufacturing sector, once a relative bright spot in the country's lacklustre recovery, which contracted at its fastest pace in more than two years in October, as new orders plummeted.

But there is unlikely to be a clamour for consumers to start buying British.

In the US, people are used to hearing the phrase "buy American". It is seen as one of the ways of putting Americans back to work.

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**alemcodon** · 08-11-2011, 11:34 AM

although this might help, it probably only contributes about 1-2% of the problem. We need to establish a global market for our products, not just a domestic one -and this product shouldnt be 'freedom' and 'democracy', or liberating the iraqis/afghans etc

A product we get paid for might be better.

There is still a massive global car market, the way i see the government needs to invest/subsidise a car firm to re-establish what was once one of our greatest products trades (along with shipping and planes).

Some indian can make jaguar succesfull.....what are we, and what were we doing? scratching our testicles....

We need to establish a currency based on gold, and only accept gold for our products the same as what Gaddafi was planning with the single africal gold backed currency, we need out of this bogus currency system which depreciates our currnency based on demand - its pathetic, almost like a computer game -that is the root cause of this crisis.

Where is all of britians gold/wealth gone? We allowed the international banks to take it all (by depreciating our currency) - oh yeah and gordon brown sold a huge chunk of it to US about 20% below market price to prevent JP Morgan from collapsing ('cus they short traded billions on gold before the credit crunch). So libya a 3rd world country, has half the gold we do, but only 1/10th of the population, meaning the average libyans money, represents 5 times more gold that what our money does.....and they are 3rd world...what are we? we're in the 5th world right now.

China dictated their own currency rate and were able to establish a global market built from nothing but the fact they didnt let 'the market' dictate their currency was the single most significant contributor to their success.

How can we let the market dictate how much gold our currency is worth, am i the only one on earth that can see this problem?

**Millennium3** · 08-11-2011, 11:49 AM

I would have thought that it is blindingly obvious that UK production is not competitive globally - just take a look at our balance of trade. This is mostly because we do not compete in labour costs and have a great deal of, reasonable, employment protection. We cannot compete globally unless the majority are prepared to dramatically reduce their pay rate to closer to that of a third world nation.

The easiest approach might be to produce a new 'internal' currency of 'so many hours of work'. If one unemployed person did one hours gardening for another doing an hour of ironing. The economy is not effected at all. In fact if this type of activity developed, many unemployed could go a long way to supporting themselves and be much better prepared for employment if a job became available. The government could even take 10% tax [in hours wok].

**angelman** · 08-11-2011, 12:14 PM

Who pays for these campaigns? I would think most likely the DTI or BIS. I wonder if there is a EU law preventing governments from doing this? Anyway, that is a digression (possibly), and I am 100% in favour of a BB campaign. I have converted the wife into only buying British produce (where possible) in the supermarket.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_current_account_balanc e

I suppose that we should be looking at Germany and Japan (as well as any other country in Europe, with the exception of Norway). While the Germans don't have a minimum wage as such (the Japanese do), I am sure that they are relatively well paid, or rather not paid at 3rd World levels. Therefore one could assume that their efficiencies of scale are why they have such a huge current account balance. A new infrastructure after the war?? Maybe that is what we need to look at.

**Millennium3** · 08-11-2011, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by angelman

Who pays for these campaigns? I would think most likely the DTI or BIS. I wonder if there is a EU law preventing governments from doing this? Anyway, that is a digression (possibly), and I am 100% in favour of a BB campaign. I have converted the wife into only buying British produce (where possible) in the supermarket.

List of minimum wages by country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia List of sovereign states by current account balance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I suppose that we should be looking at Germany and Japan (as well as any other country in Europe, with the exception of Norway). While the Germans don't have a minimum wage as such (the Japanese do), I am sure that they are relatively well paid, or rather not paid at 3rd World levels. Therefore one could assume that their efficiencies of scale are why they have such a huge current account balance. A new infrastructure after the war?? Maybe that is what we need to look at.

Germany & Japan have world beating brands that allow their national corporations to manufacture these products at home and still pay good wages [if they are patriotic]. We do not have many of these now, even Dyson's moved production to one of the Eastern EU nations [Poland I think].

I wondered if there were EU restrictions on such a campaign, I use the Co-op for food purchases - they display a Union Jack and seem to make an effort to bring UK produce to their customer.

**Francis Overdere** · 08-11-2011, 01:41 PM

The trouble is that by buying things made in Britain you may well be supporting the British worker but you are also usually supporting foreign owned companies.

There are some British manufacturers on this site and the goods may be excellent quality but the prices will be higher.

STILL MADE IN BRITAIN - Tableware and Pottery

Let's be honest,our car industry went because we could not compete on price with Japan,Europe and America. You got more for your money with a Datsun than a Ford and no one was going to buy a British made car if they could get a foreign car as good or better for less.

The same was and is true of electrical goods and many other things. And all the time people like Dyson move their factories abroad for the cheaper labour it will get worse.

We produce more cars now because foreign work practises are followed not British ones and it save the companies money on shipping and importing.

**angelman** · 08-11-2011, 02:14 PM

FO - any company that is listed is owned by the "world" and no longer a national company.

**Bwana_Mutungi** · 08-11-2011, 05:14 PM

I am all for 'Buy British' but unfortunately it is really not a choice as there are hardly any British products around, and even if so, they are far too costly compared to the almost equal in quality but at half the cost 'foreign' made products lying on the same shelf. Car spares, clothing, jewellery, food, household items, electrical consumer items are mostly imported and sold at a ridiculously cheaper price than the British counterparts, few that are available. Regretfully, maximising PROFIT is the primary business drive in our Capitalist society and the availability of cheap overseas labour and overhead costs are driving the manufacturing and production industries out of Britain or running them into the ground. Afraid we are currently unable to compete with India, China and other far-eastern upcoming nations in this respect.