steve garwood
ginger lion
- Messages
- 7,120
- Location
- Bromley
Next time I have a week off I shall read this ?1 agree. The English, and I have to say from experience the Irish culture (I have an Irish bloodline though I was born and reared in North London) is by and large for the short term gain, ie cheap prices. Not for quality or national loyalty. Our manufacturing quality overall in either countries has never been anything special enough to justify loyalty. There are, or were exceptions, mainly in the very high end market : Rolls Royce, Bentley, Britool, Lister and others. But our normal every day standard has mostly been pretty mediocre so didn't really justify loyalty. Perhaps if our product quality was of the standard that Germany, Sweden, Japan and Switzerland for instance are renowned for we'd have more reason to be loyal.
I try to be loyal to British Isles manufacturing but I find it damn near impossible, for two reasons. The quality is rarely available, at any price and most goods are now produced in China at a much lower cost to the manufacturers than can be produced like for like in the UK or Ireland so UK suppliers buy in, put their own labels on and sell as UK branded. Some Chinese goods are now made to a high standard that would at present be hard to compete with if we did finally wake up to the dire straights we're blundering further into.
Two examples : I occasionally renew kayaking equipment that is worn. My main two suppliers are Palm UK and Peak UK. Top notch quality from both of them but I know for sure that Palm equipment is made in China.
Peak is labelled as made in the UK but I have my doubts.
I recently bought a phone holder for the van. I spent hours researching for what I thought was a good product that was not made in China. I settled on one that was advertised as Swiss made. It arrived ,with small writing ; made in China. I used to try to be loyal to British car makers. I had Commer and Morris vans. Vauxhall, Hillman and Leyland cars. Would they start? Would they get you there and back?
How long till you could look through the growing rust holes in the floor or sills to the road underneath? It used to be said that if you wanted to keep a Jag on the road you needed two. My son has a 4 litre S Type. If it goes two or three months without a visit to the garage it's a miracle. Seems things haven't changed much. I had a Land Rover County. That was similar, loads of character but never long between something needed fixing.
I got rid of Landy and bought a Hilux pick up (Japanese of course). What a revelation, very rarely went near a garage except for fuel. Wife and I now only drive German: BMW M Sport in her case. Merc Vito x 2 in my case. All three vehicles are well over ten years old. Again rarely visit a garage except for fuel. It gauls me to buy from countries that were and in the case of Germany still are our enemies. I would love to buy British but loyalty has to be a two way street. Supply us with decent quality British made goods at a fair price.
However, too late now. Our manufacturing is a shadow and other countries have reaped the benefits.
A last word from me on the subject of Brexit as it has been mentioned as being a bad idea. We should never have let Europe take charge of our independence and destiny. We have one national government that is accountable to us, good bad or indifferent. They can be voted in. They can be voted out and they have a duty of national loyalty to us. They are accountable to being audited for where our tax is spent, squandered, fiddled or wasted. One government is enough to finance and our government is answerable to us. One government should be enough to run any country.
The EU has several government type bodies : The European Parliament, The European Council, The European Commission, The European Court of Justice, that I know of. None of these has a national loyalty to us. None of these, as far as I know is accountable to financial scrutiny or auditing. Can you imagine!?
They are all financed by the tax paying public who has no say in the matter. None of these, as far as I'm able to ascertain is elected by the normal democratic process. None of these to my knowledge can be removed and replaced on the say of the general public.
Europe has never been our friends except for when our young people's blood was being spilt to rescue them in times of war. "Divorce!" We've been at war with one or other of the buggers for most of our history. Their behaviour and vindictiveness towards the country that saved them from anhialation in two world wars has been clearly shown in the wake of the Brexit vote and has only reinforced my views.
