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Buy British! Save jobs!

GeoffGeoff
edited January 2009 in Chit chat
That's a bit jingoistic in an international forum, but look who is urging the fish and chip munchers to spend their money at home

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/4244928/Sir-Alan-Sugar-urges-shoppers-to-buy-British.html

Sir Alan Sugar who led the influx of Chinese goods into Europe.

He always had his computers and Hi-Fi's made there and after taking over Sinclair he gave Timex a small order to tide him over until the Amstrad versions of the Spectrum arrived from the Far East by the containerload.

Do as I say - not as I do :-)
Post edited by Geoff on

Comments

  • ADJBADJB
    edited January 2009
    I don't have a problem with the general idea of protectionism and Buy British but its almost impossible to tell what is British these days.

    Nowadays all you have to do is import something, repack it and then you can stick a "Made in the UK" label on it.
  • guesserguesser
    edited January 2009
    ADJB wrote: »
    I don't have a problem with the general idea of protectionism and Buy British but its almost impossible to tell what is British these days.

    Nowadays all you have to do is import something, repack it and then you can stick a "Made in the UK" label on it.

    don't forget the CE sticker despite the internal power supplies not having any RF filtering fitted so you dump loads of HF noise into the grid that radiates of all the power wiring.
    My rubbish website including the redrawn Amstrad schematics and the Sinclair Wiki.
  • Matt_BMatt_B
    edited January 2009
    You could just go by the usual rule of thumb: If it doesn't work, it must be British. :wink:
  • milemile
    edited January 2009
    Matt_B wrote: »
    You could just go by the usual rule of thumb: If it doesn't work, it must be British. :wink:

    ooo, i don't know, there are plenty of foreign things in this country that don't work. :-D
  • Scottie_ukScottie_uk
    edited January 2009
    Matt_B wrote: »
    You could just go by the usual rule of thumb: If it doesn't work, it must be British. :wink:

    But at least with British goods all it takes is a slap on the side and it works again rather than being completely F*cked on month after the warenty expires.
    Calling all ASCII Art Architects Visit the WOS Wall of Text and contribute: https://www.yourworldoftext.com/wos
  • Scottie_ukScottie_uk
    edited January 2009
    mile wrote: »
    ooo, i don't know, there are plenty of foreign things in this country that don't work. :-D

    Well it wouldn't be the Polish thats for sure. :p
    Calling all ASCII Art Architects Visit the WOS Wall of Text and contribute: https://www.yourworldoftext.com/wos
  • GeoffGeoff
    edited January 2009
    Scottie_uk wrote: »
    But at least with British goods all it takes is a slap on the side and it works again.

    Or a new keyboard membrane :-)
  • Scottie_ukScottie_uk
    edited January 2009
    Geoff wrote: »
    Or a new keyboard membrane :-)

    True, a Spectrum rarely failes due to dry or duff capacitors.
    Calling all ASCII Art Architects Visit the WOS Wall of Text and contribute: https://www.yourworldoftext.com/wos
  • psj3809psj3809
    edited January 2009
    I always try nowadays to buy from the local shops more instead of Tescos etc, more expensive but want to help the local businesses specially in this current climate
  • rahtgazrahtgaz
    edited January 2009
    I think I understand the general idea. But it doesn't stop me from wondering...

    If we don't buy foreign imported products, aren't we effectively contributing to our country foreign debt, even if indirectly? And aren't we creating another problem by reducing consumer confidence levels and effectively contribute to an eventual depression?

    I think the answer to the crisis is maybe in restoring confidence levels and get the consumer to do their thing. Helping the small business, as psj suggests is certainly one of the best ways. Being protectionist is perhaps one of the worst. You will be in fact undermining the local business.
  • WinstonWinston
    edited January 2009
    Protectionism nearly always has unintended consequences that are worse than what the protectionism is supposed to be curing. Famous cases of this are the protectionism in the Great Depression which made it last longer and made it deeper, and more recently, the Bush Administration's steel tariffs which protected US steel workers jobs...but cost *more* jobs in industries in the US that used the steel, as it put up their raw materials cost and made them uncompetitive. The steel industry at the time employed about 180,000 people in the USA, and the protectionist measures to protect it, say the trade unions of all people, cost 200,000 US jobs in industries that use steel because it made them completely uncompetitive.
  • ÆlitaÆlita
    edited January 2009
    Buy what? They hardly make anything in Britain. I'm led to believe that Thatcher crushed the unions and that was that...buy HONDA, they are made in Britain!
    I stole it off a space ship.
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