to ask people to support their country

[tuffie]

If everyone made a pledge to buy more products made in Britain, the country would climb out of recession much more quickly.

I try to buy British and buy local wherever possible . It is difficult though as our manufacturing industry is in a bad way.

I think a fiver Friday is an excellent idea.

YANBU and IMO the bless wasn't warranted.

Dunno, but I do know kraft are in the process of shifting as much of the cadbury's production to Switzerland as they can get away with. (Just read it on the BBC site)

So what's better? A product made in Britain by a foreign-owned company or a product made abroad by a British-owned company?

woopsidaisy Is it wise to buy from a small business if it does not offer value for money?

Does it matter who owns the retailer or is it only the manufacturer which matters?

And will somebody, somewhere, please stop assuming that spending is better than saving and instead start paying savers a decent rate of interest which - if they like - they can spend?

Just asking. We seem to be one step away from issuing ASBOs to anybody with the effrontery to save money.

Personally I wouldn't buy into fiver Friday as I have just involuntarily become a SAHM after losing my job while on maternity leave and money is tight, I can't really afford to spend a fiver every week that I wouldn't have otherwise spent. If a local small business offers me the things that I need at a competitive price then fair enough but sadly this is often not the case, even with petrol factored in its cheaper to go to the supermarket than the local shops.

My mother is very big on only buying British (cars/carpets manufactured in the UK etc) but she also believes there is no need for immigration control. She thinks we should let anybody who wants to live in Britain.

So why does she want to buy British?

I want to help people everywhere in the world. One world and all that, so I don't only buy British.

I am keen on cutting down miles a product has traveled, though. I don't see any point in buying Australian or Chilean wine, when I can buy French.

Problem is we export a lot of stuff. So we're obviously going to benefit from other countries buying British.

If they all decide to only buy their own national products our export business disappears and we'd be worse off....

I don't buy HP sauce any more

Isn't HP American owned and produced in the Netherlands now? I don't buy it either. Nasty stuff.

Yes, the American Heinz company bought the brand from the French Danone company, and closed the UK factory.

Curiously the French government protects Danone from takeover by a non-French company, since it is thought to be a strategic part of the French Nation.

FFS.

I didn t think the European Union allowed member governments to protect their companies from takeover ???
MrGin, I hear what you say about countries only buying their own produce, but it does seem to be weighted against us. So much of our produce appears to be food is made abroad, yet if you go into a French supermarket for example, it is almost impossible to find a UK produced item.

tuffie "I didn t think the European Union allowed member governments to protect their companies from takeover ???"

You were wrong then Look it up.

They have a law protecting "strategic industries"

I can imagine that might mean the energy distribution networks, nuclear power stations, maybe the shipyards that build their aircraft carriers?

But... strategic yoghurt!!!

tuffie in the nature of things (our population and the size of our country) most of our food is going to be grown abroad.

This was big in the 80's and 90's in Australia when we were coming out of a big recession

Buy Australian

It got quite unPc to buy European/China/Taiwan etc.

I think it did make quite a big difference to the economy.

I have to admit even now I live here if I see that green and gold logo I tend to favour it...

I have bought some British wine today. Haven't tried it yet though!!

British wine? Hardcore buying British.

TattyDevine Sun "I have to admit even now I live here if I see that green and gold logo I tend to favour it..."

I suppose it's only fair then that the rest of world stops buying Australian.

Is that OK?

I go on holiday in the UK. Does that count?

I have tasted some truly revolting British wine in the past, but actually our local vineyard now produces some good stuff. I think it is just a case of getting over the historical mindset that Britain can t possibly produce good wine.
I totally believe in buying products from other countries as well, but just feel that we as a nation seem to have SO many foreign produced goods that it would be nice to get a bit of balance back and reverse the worrying rapid decline of our manufacturing and export industry.

I will let you know what the wine tastes like. Not today though as not upto it at the moment.

I always buy Welsh butter.

we don't make anything in the UK anymore though