If we all bought more BRITISH designed/manufactured/assembled goods...

[Mala591]

Wouldn't there be more (and better) careers/jobs for our children/grandchildren ?

So why don't we do it ?

[mdd2]

Some of us saw what Red robbo and his mob did to the British car industry and the poor products and poor reliability that they produced.
Harold Wilson's Government brought in import controls in the 60's and had a drive to buy British which failed.
It would be nice if we could produce more and the products could compete with Germany and the far east in both quality and price

[DCWat]

**** TV’s!

In all seriousness, it’s not that often that I see products that are marketed as British made (unless I’m just particularly unobservant) food stuffs aside.

If I did and the quality was better, I’d definitely buy British.

[tim_noone]

Wouldn't there be more (and better) careers/jobs for our children/grandchildren ?

So why don't we do it ?

The Gin Industry seems to be Booming....

[ClaretAndJew]

Good old British made mobile phones.

[Spiral]

If you accept a global market as inevitable then market forces determine where goods are made. It isn't a lack of patriotic will that results in clothes being made in the far east; it's a demand from consumers for cheaper clothing that results in clothing being made in the far east where labour costs are lower. You can "correct" this by imposing tariffs and import quotas (bad) to artificially make domestic goods competitive, but that reduces the purchasing power of the money in the consumer's pocket. Or you can lower worker wages and standards at home (bad), making domestically produced goods more competitive, but that makes people poorer. Or you can specialise (good), as we do with high-grade or highly specialised industry (think of precision engineered steel, aviation etc), technology, finance, services etc. You've got to make sure your workforce is up to scratch for that to work.

[Siddo]

We are not little Britain though. We live in a global environment. I'm not looking forward to watching tv on a British television, or eating avocados from Lincolnshire as the small minded leavers seem to think is possible.
Let's buy British. Let's make Britain great again, like we used to be....
Let's just make Geoff Boycott minister for Britain....
And no, there wouldn't be better jobs going forward as who on earth would buy, shoddier, less reliable and more expensive produce and consumables?

[jurek]

Not necessarily so Mala591 - in the sense that there just
aren't that many British designed/manufactured/assembled goods
that we, as average consumers/purchasers, could buy or are British owned.
We do have some great designers in a variety of fields but I suspect most of the stuff we currently
buy is manufactured and assembled elsewhere.

Look what happened with Dyson?

You may be able to entice his company to move back to Britain
but can't imagine he would wish to do that.
And, if per chance we could then the price of his stuff would probably
rise by a considerable amount and we couldn't afford to buy his goods.

What need to do is ensure any future Dysons/companies in whatever field get the early backing and support
we can give then and then hope they create the jobs of the future in this country. And products/services we can
afford to buy as well as sell to others. They'd have to be damn good.

[rob63]

Wouldn't there be more (and better) careers/jobs for our children/grandchildren ?

So why don't we do it ?

Because we've all got used to/grown up with cheap imports from abroad.......there's always an economy on the rise operating on cheap labour raring to undercut British wages. Added to us no longer being geared up for low-cost, high volume production these days it would lead to shortages in the shops, particularly clothing & electrical stores, although Curry's wouldn't be much of a loss.

Not sure if working in a sweat shop sewing football shirts is quite what you had in mind for your children/grandchildren

[elwaclaret]

Some of us saw what Red robbo and his mob did to the British car industry and the poor products and poor reliability that they produced.
Harold Wilson's Government brought in import controls in the 60's and had a drive to buy British which failed.
It would be nice if we could produce more and the products could compete with Germany and the far east in both quality and price

It would but that is why the British were quite happy to go and teach the hun in 1914. We couldn’t out manufacture Germany even at the height of Empire. We made the problem a hundred time worse at the start of the Cold War. When “We” were on are arse in the seventies it was not as a result of anything so much as Anglo American money being pumped into Germany to keep the Soviets out, through the sixties and seventies.... money that was needed here.

[CombatClaret]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018 ... 0f0302d2ac

"How much would an iPhone cost if Apple were forced to make it in America?

In the $30,000 to $100,000 range… and no this is not a typo."


"There’s a confusion about China… the popular conception is that companies come to China because of low labor cost. I’m not sure what part of China they go to but the truth is, China stopped being the low labor cost country many years ago and that is not the reason to come to China from a supply point of view…

…the reason is because of the skill… and the quantity of skill in one location… and the type of skill it is. The products we do require really advanced tooling. And the precision that you have to have in tooling and working with the materials that we do are state-of-the-art. And the tooling skill is very deep here.

In the U.S. you could have a meeting of tooling engineers and I’m not sure we could fill the room. In China you could fill multiple football fields....

...It’s that vocational expertise is very deep here [in China]. And I give the educational system a lot of credit for continuing to push on that even as others were de-emphasizing vocational. Now I think many countries in the world have woke up and said this is a key thing and we’ve got to correct that but China called that right from the beginning.

[CombatClaret]

We sell services now, that our specialization and our place in the global economy. That's something which Brexiteers loved to ignore when they said we could trade with the other 80% of the world, the other 80% of the world is poor. There are no farmers in Chad who need Canary Wharf financial products and the few goods we do manufacture are luxury goods designed for similar western developed economies.

The IMF counts just 35 countries in whole the world as advanced economies like our own, 27 are in Europe.
None in Africa
None in Latin America
None in Central America
Just 4 in the whole of Asia which are far away and take a long time to get to.

54 countries in Africa and they're entire GPD combined is only HALF the GDP of France...

And these 27 European advanced economies right next door who are our ideal customers are the same ones we just gave a massive FU to and imposed trade sanction on ourselves when dealing with.

[Rowls]

Wouldn't there be more (and better) careers/jobs for our children/grandchildren ?

So why don't we do it ?

It doesn't work like that.

What happens if you want to buy something that isn't produced in England, for example, an orange?

Well, you can build and maintain a greenhouse and then buy a British orange. This will be very expensive because the cost of production will include the cost of the greenhouse and the cost of maintaining the greenhouse. Imagine the governmet takes on your "British only" mandate and bans all foreign oranges to help British orange growers.

Because these British oranges will be very scarce (even with a greenhouse, growing conditions will not be ideal) the price will skyrocket enormously and i will happen overnight. Almost instantly oranges will become so expensive and so rare that only the very well connected (and no, I don't mean people will 600+ facebooks friends, I mean high powered politicians and businessmen) and the super-rich (millionaires) will be able to afford them.

Nobody else would be able to eat oranges.

Of course, that's an extreme example - you might say "we would only apply the 'British only' rule to things we can easily make/grow here" so let's apply it to manufacturing:

Imagine a British company invents a Thing that everyone wants. The Thing needs a component to make it work. Two companies make the component. One is a British company, the other is a Chinese company. Because of higher wage costs, unfortunately the British component costs twice as much and the Chinese component, even though they are exactly the same.

Under a strict 'British only' dictum like yours the British company is obliged to buy the British component which then pushes up the price of producing the Thing that everyone wants. Suddenly the Thing that everyone wants is too expensive, so people no longer want it.

The British company can't sell the Thing because it is too expensive. So the Thing won't ever get made. And British people (ie. our children/grandchildren) don't benefit from having the Thing because there is no Thing to have.

****

If you like eating oranges (or food in general) and having Things (things like iphone, computers, central heating boilers, cars, Tvs... etc) then trade protectionism is the worst idea out there.

[Rowls]

We sell services now, that our specialization and our place in the global economy. That's something which Brexiteers loved to ignore when they said we could trade with the other 80% of the world, the other 80% of the world is poor. There are no farmers in Chad who need Canary Wharf financial products and the few goods we do manufacture are luxury goods designed for similar western developed economies.

The IMF counts just 35 countries in whole the world as advanced economies like our own, 27 are in Europe.
None in Africa
None in Latin America
None in Central America
Just 4 in the whole of Asia which are far away and take a long time to get to.

54 countries in Africa and they're entire GPD combined is only HALF the GDP of France...

And these 27 European advanced economies right next door who are our ideal customers are the same ones we just gave a massive FU to and imposed trade sanction on ourselves when dealing with.

I really shouldn't bite on a post this ignorant but I can't ignore it.

Do you ever wonder why Africa is poor?

One of the main reasons is because of EU tarrifs on African agricultural produce!!!!

There might not be a farmer in Chad wanting financial services right now but that's because the EU is keeping the poor man down by slapping massive tarrifs on his produce.

If we could buy African food then we'd have rich African farmers queueing all the way to Harare to buy our financial products.

[mdd2]

Think you chose a bad example of Harare Rowls, that nation can no longer feed itself and taking what food they make will only increase starvation and increase the wealth of party members who own inefficient farmland. Do they still grow tobacco?

[Rowls]

Think you chose a bad example of Harare Rowls, that nation can no longer feed itself and taking what food they make will only increase starvation and increase the wealth of party members who own inefficient farmland. Do they still grow tobacco?

I picked it because it was far south. No other reason than that.

There are no bad examples in Africa of the failures of protectionism. Almost the entire continent stands as a near-perfect example of the impoverishing effects of protectionism (from within and without).

Zimbabwe's failures are a masterpiece of the failures of protectionism.

It's a fine example of exactly what I'm saying.

[Cirrus_Minor]

Many years ago I bought a washing machine, I think it was Hotpoint. The advert for it was heavy on ‘Buy British’ and was covered in Union Jacks. When it was delivered I had to open the back panel and remove stabilising bolts. When I did I could see that the motor was made in Germany and that the electronics were made in Japan. So I assumed the only Britain part was the aluminium casing.

[AndrewJB]

The way to do it would be to tax the miles travelled to get here as an environmental levy, and ban goods made by slave, extremely low wage, or unacceptable working conditions Labour. It would take a national plan for it to work. In some areas we’d aim at home grown production and in others rely on cheap imports (in the 19th Cent we gave up food independence to create a manufacturing boom, but that didn’t turn out to be the wisest move, so probably a balance would be better. Home grown renewable power would be a huge help. It’ll take a massive amount of government investment, and close trade ties with Europe. The Italians have a thriving small crafts industry, where people make clothes and furniture, and whatnot, and it’s all very high quality, but it’s expensive, so the culture is of local and quality, rather than cheap and disposable as we have it.

[AndrewJB]

I really shouldn't bite on a post this ignorant but I can't ignore it.

Do you ever wonder why Africa is poor?

One of the main reasons is because of EU tarrifs on African agricultural produce!!!!

There might not be a farmer in Chad wanting financial services right now but that's because the EU is keeping the poor man down by slapping massive tarrifs on his produce.

If we could buy African food then we'd have rich African farmers queueing all the way to Harare to buy our financial products.

It’s our financial services industry that has made africa poor. Debt. We already buy a lot of natural resources from Africa and that is often quite cheap because we’ve engaged with (or helped create and continue) the corruption there making natural resources cheap. Until they rid themselves of the debts we’ve sold them, and the corruption we’ve benefitted from in stealing their resources, they won’t have much money to buy things we make.

So we’re going to need a trade deal with Europe.

[claretblue]

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/li ... nded-farce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT8LsRVN7C4

[Zlatan]

My contribution to this thread... It's no wonder you're all obsessed with "Great Britain" - even google maps thinks East Lancs is the centre of what is great...

[Tricky Trevor]

The use of Dyson, above, is not the best example. He moved production abroad through greed.
Congratulations to him on his engineering skills but his products are seriously over-priced and manufacturing them in Britain would cost more but how much money does he need?

[Spijed]

For all the arguments about exploitation, people want cheap products.

Many are happy to buy a pair of jeans made in Bangladesh, yet wouldn't want to pay extra if they are manufactured in the UK.

[evensteadiereddie]

The management at British Leyland were pretty abysmal at the time of "Red Robbo", let's not forget.
People will buy British if it's cheap and any good. If not, good businessmen like Dyson become even better.

Fear not, Trevor, we have now retaken control and are er, at the mercy of nobody.

[houseboy]

We sell services now, that our specialization and our place in the global economy. That's something which Brexiteers loved to ignore when they said we could trade with the other 80% of the world, the other 80% of the world is poor. There are no farmers in Chad who need Canary Wharf financial products and the few goods we do manufacture are luxury goods designed for similar western developed economies.

The IMF counts just 35 countries in whole the world as advanced economies like our own, 27 are in Europe.
None in Africa
None in Latin America
None in Central America
Just 4 in the whole of Asia which are far away and take a long time to get to.

54 countries in Africa and they're entire GPD combined is only HALF the GDP of France...

And these 27 European advanced economies right next door who are our ideal customers are the same ones we just gave a massive FU to and imposed trade sanction on ourselves when dealing with.

I'd just like to ask some of questions bud: do you seriously believe, deep down, that we will never trade with European countries again? Do you really think that long-standing relations between companies from Britain and Europe will be allowed to fester because the EU are 'angry' at us for leaving? Do you believe that companies in the EU will sit idly by while their relations with British companies are allowed to deteriorate because of EU protectionism? And if the EU destroy those relationships, or damage them badly, do you really think that is is an organisation that we really want to be part of?

Just wondered.

[boatshed bill]

The management at British Leyland were pretty abysmal at the time of "Red Robbo", let's not forget.
People will buy British if it's cheap and any good. If not, good businessmen like Dyson become even better.

Fear not, Trevor, we have now retaken control and are er, at the mercy of nobody.

As I remember it, the product at BL was poor, and there wasn't a lot the workforce could do about that!

[CombatClaret]

I'd just like to ask some of questions bud: do you seriously believe, deep down, that we will never trade with European countries again? Do you really think that long-standing relations between companies from Britain and Europe will be allowed to fester because the EU are 'angry' at us for leaving? Do you believe that companies in the EU will sit idly by while their relations with British companies are allowed to deteriorate because of EU protectionism? And if the EU destroy those relationships, or damage them badly, do you really think that is is an organisation that we really want to be part of?

Just wondered.

I'm not going to get into a debate about what the two of us believe . I posted some facts about the context of the world's economy and our place in it, If you'd like to respond with some of your own I'm all ears.

[CombatClaret]

I really shouldn't bite on a post this ignorant but I can't ignore it.

Do you ever wonder why Africa is poor?
One of the main reasons is because of EU tarrifs on African agricultural produce!!!!

There might not be a farmer in Chad wanting financial services right now but that's because the EU is keeping the poor man down by slapping massive tarrifs on his produce.

Chad had 0% tarrifs on all it's exports to the EU under the 'Everything but Arms' scheme which gives Duty Free access to the 34 poorest nations of Africa.

[Quickenthetempo]

The same principles should be used for buying from local shops, but supermarkets win everytime.

[claret2018]

I'm not going to get into a debate about what the two of us believe . I posted some facts about the context of the world's economy and our place in it, If you'd like to respond with some of your own I'm all ears.

This is no place for facts, as you well know.

[Spijed]

The same principles should be used for buying from local shops, but supermarkets win everytime.

That's why I can't see regenerating high streets ever working.

You can get everything under one roof at Asda, Tesco's, Sainsbury's etc.

[Cryssys]

I really shouldn't bite on a post this ignorant but I can't ignore it.

Do you ever wonder why Africa is poor?

One of the main reasons is because of EU tarrifs on African agricultural produce!!!!

There might not be a farmer in Chad wanting financial services right now but that's because the EU is keeping the poor man down by slapping massive tarrifs on his produce.

If we could buy African food then we'd have rich African farmers queueing all the way to Harare to buy our financial products.

Chad had 0% tarrifs on all it's exports to the EU under the 'Everything but Arms' scheme which gives Duty Free access to the 34 poorest nations of Africa.

I really shouldn't bite on a post this ignorant but I can't ignore it. You got it wrong again Rowls.

Bit like your post where you said the NOTW had been found not guilty of hacking Millie Dowlers phone.

Seems like you and the truth are strangers to each other.

https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/count ... dex_en.htm

[LoveCurryPies]

Automation is the only thing company bosses are interested in. Look at automation in supermarkets and banks. My local Morrisons had only one till operator last week and rows of self checkouts. Personally, I prefer a friendly “Hello” and a little assistance packing my bags. Supermarkets will soon have fully automated warehouses and shelf stacking machines.

Where will all the people who used to do these jobs go?

Robots are now being built to repair themselves when they go round. The more I think about the future, the more I’m glad I won’t be around.

In Roman times there were 300 million people on this planet.

By the year 1800, we reached 1 billion
1930 = 2 billion
1960 = 3 billion
2000 = 6 billion
2020 = 7.8 billion
2035 = 9 billion
2050 = 10 billion
2100 = 18 billion

18 billion people with nothing to do!

[duncandisorderly]

Automation is the only thing company bosses are interested in. Look at automation in supermarkets and banks. My local Morrisons had only one till operator last week and rows of self checkouts. Personally, I prefer a friendly “Hello” and a little assistance packing my bags. Supermarkets will soon have fully automated warehouses and shelf stacking machines.

Where will all the people who used to do these jobs go?

Robots are now being built to repair themselves when they go round. The more I think about the future, the more I’m glad I won’t be around.

In Roman times there were 300 million people on this planet.

By the year 1800, we reached 1 billion
1930 = 2 billion
1960 = 3 billion
2000 = 6 billion
2020 = 7.8 billion
2035 = 9 billion
2050 = 10 billion
2100 = 18 billion

18 billion people with nothing to do!

Why would the growth rate suddenly double after 2050? You have 6-10 billion between 2000 and 2050 (a 4 billion growth) and then suddenly 18 billion by 2100 (8 billion growth)
And between 2000 and 2050 the growth rate in your milestones was actually slowing down (1.8 billion in 2020, 1.2 billion in 2035, 1 billion in 2050) so at best it should be around 13 billion in 2100.

Population growth is slowing down, not speeding up.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2 ... e-century/

https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/ ... -2019.html

https://www.worldometers.info/world-pop ... ojections/

[houseboy]

I'm not going to get into a debate about what the two of us believe . I posted some facts about the context of the world's economy and our place in it, If you'd like to respond with some of your own I'm all ears.

So you don't want to answer the questions then? Do you understand why I asked them? It's not a question of belief. The questions I asked WILL one day be answered by the actions of the EU. If they are willing to destroy those relationships I mentioned on a point of principle in some way then they would stand accused of being what many think they are - undemocratic bullies. If they don't then we don't have very much to worry about do we? Which would make your facts a little meaningless really.
The FACT I think you need to be aware of is simply that if the EU either stop us trading with our European neighbours (highly unlikely in the extreme) or make it very difficult through high tariffs (very possible) then they will stand accused, even by their own member nations, of political/economic bullying/protectionism of the highest order. Which brings me back to the question 'do we really want to be a member of such an organisation'?

[Lowbankclaret]

Couple of points.
In the last couple of years I worked on a multi million pound contract. These are complex manufacturing products.
The most expensive quotes came from India.
Second highest was China.

The main reason, to compete other companies have gone fully robot automation.

Every new project I am involved with is to remove the person and go fully robotic.

There’s a long way to go, however the one thing I have realised is just about every job can be done by a robot. AI inspection is proving to be way more successful than a person doing it.

I really don’t understand how society will function going forward.

[ClaretAndJew]

Universal income for those who have no need to work.

[Burnley1989]

Talking from an Engineering perspective here, and only my opinion.

I think there's a real myth around British made being better, I'm a time served mechanical engineer and I had it drilled in to me from the first day on the job that the British were better engineers than 'foreigners'. I soon found out this was nonsense. Now I'm sure in the past this may have been the case but having worked with a large majority of Engineering companies in the North of England, you do soon see why people buy from abroad, our productivity levels are poor and the willingness to embrace change and technology is poor. We spend far less on technology than countries of a similar status to us which makes us more expensive. Yes, the cost of living is higher in the UK but I'm not convinced you are getting a better product by paying more for it.

I remember being told buying from India and Asia was risky as it was cheap and nasty product, that is far from the truth these days.

[houseboy]

This is no place for facts, as you well know.

His 'facts' were thrown at random mate. I simply asked some questions that would, depending on what he actualy thought, make those 'facts' fairly meaningless. We can all come up with facts dragged from Google and try to look like we know what we are talking about but I prefer to deal with logical argument without consulting the internet before posting anything. I never, or rarely, follow 'links' posted on here for the same reason. If that makes me wrong occasionally (and I am sometimes) then so be it, but at least I don't start feverishly trawling the web for answers before I post. If we were sat in a room debating these issues nothing would get said for people consulting their phones for 'facts' (many of which on the internet are b*ll*cks anyway).

[MACCA]

The same reason lots of people don't support the local family run businesses in their own communities...
MONEY or cost.

Too many tight buggers around.

They're usually the sort that then complain shops are boarded up, places are looking untidy etc, then eventually jobs start to decrease and then there's a domino effect.

You wouldn't realise the effect of spending £20 in your local community shops rather than £15-18 at a major supermarket might have.
That £20 probably has a ripple effect a a further half a dozen family run or local businesses.

On a side note, there's nothing more satisfying for me than seeing a local business or person starting something, grafting and doing well for themselves.

It would be excellent if everyone just tried to visit 1 family run shop/business in their community weekly
( or if you do already add another if possible)

[CombatClaret]

I'd just like to ask some of questions bud: do you seriously believe, deep down, that we will never trade with European countries again?

logic.jpg (104.25 KiB) Viewed 2650 times

[Lowbankclaret]

Talking from an Engineering perspective here, and only my opinion.

I think there's a real myth around British made being better, I'm a time served mechanical engineer and I had it drilled in to me from the first day on the job that the British were better engineers than 'foreigners'. I soon found out this was nonsense. Now I'm sure in the past this may have been the case but having worked with a large majority of Engineering companies in the North of England, you do soon see why people buy from abroad, our productivity levels are poor and the willingness to embrace change and technology is poor. We spend far less on technology than countries of a similar status to us which makes us more expensive. Yes, the cost of living is higher in the UK but I'm not convinced you are getting a better product by paying more for it.

I remember being told buying from India and Asia was risky as it was cheap and nasty product, that is far from the truth these days.

I would agree the UK does not have a monopoly on good/great engineers.

I can name two companies in this area who have invested heavily in recent years, one who’s manufacturing cell is considered the best in worlds class and been visited by many experts who all has to admit that it was the case.

Productivity, I agree with hence the big move to robots.

I would disagree about the cost of living being higher in the UK. We are very competitive on cost due to our lower cost of living.

[Spiral]

The same reason lots of people don't support the local family run businesses in their own communities...
MONEY or cost.

Too many tight buggers around.

They're usually the sort that then complain shops are boarded up, places are looking untidy etc, then eventually jobs start to decrease and then there's a domino effect.

You wouldn't realise the effect of spending £20 in your local community shops rather than £15-18 at a major supermarket might have.
That £20 probably has a ripple effect a a further half a dozen family run or local businesses.

On a side note, there's nothing more satisfying for me than seeing a local business or person starting something, grafting and doing well for themselves.

It would be excellent if everyone just tried to visit 1 family run shop/business in their community weekly
( or if you do already add another if possible)

Conscientious consumerism is a bit of a middle-class virtue, though, is it not? If you're absolutely skint and need new socks you go to the place which sells the cheapest socks. It's a matter of arithmetic, not spirit.

[houseboy]

logic.jpg

I think you just proved my point bud. You can't even use your own humour, you have to nick it off someone else from Google. I don't even understand it. What did I distort exactly? You probably won't answer that either. Maybe you should consult Google again.

[houseboy]

Conscientious consumerism is a bit of a middle-class virtue, though, is it not? If you're absolutely skint and need new socks you go to the place which sells the cheapest socks. It's a matter of arithmetic, not spirit.

Just this. Only people who are comfortable can argue in favour of less comfort, those with no comfort don't have much choice.

[MACCA]

Conscientious consumerism is a bit of a middle-class virtue, though, is it not? If you're absolutely skint and need new socks you go to the place which sells the cheapest socks. It's a matter of arithmetic, not spirit.

Agreed but for 90% of people that isnt the case.

And I'm not talking about clothing directly I'm on about the small local businesses you know like

Bakers
Newsagents
Fruit and veg shop butchers
DIY stores
Barbers
Cafe

It's impossible to purely shop local, but a few more people doing so has a knock on effect to several other businesses in the area, and indirectly helps the wider community.

What's lining the pockets of Mr Sainsbury and Mr Wallmart going to do for the families in this community?

[Bordeauxclaret]

Pay for jobs?

[Corky]

A good example of a company trying to do their bit and do it ethically is Community Clothing and it is on your doorstep. well it is if you live in Lancashire.

Also there are niche products made/assembled in the UK that are internationally sought after. Hi-Fi for instance. What moron would buy a Technics deck when you can go Rega. But as has been pointed out how much is bought in and bolted on I don't know.

[Jakubclaret]

I'd just like to ask some of questions bud: do you seriously believe, deep down, that we will never trade with European countries again? Do you really think that long-standing relations between companies from Britain and Europe will be allowed to fester because the EU are 'angry' at us for leaving? Do you believe that companies in the EU will sit idly by while their relations with British companies are allowed to deteriorate because of EU protectionism? And if the EU destroy those relationships, or damage them badly, do you really think that is is an organisation that we really want to be part of?

Just wondered.

Some actually do, it's complete & utter madness it's funny, because we've left the EU trade will be impossible going forwards despite the billions involved, it's a load of Baloney. Nearly every single negative prediction forecast hasn't transpired.

[ClaretEngineer]

Despite all the humdrum about Brexit ruining Britain etc I am pleased to state that we , a long standing British manufacturer, have been selected to supply one of the major UK DNO’s for the next four years.

There are two other framework agreements with other DNO’s (Lancashire and London) that we are confident we will win. A major coup seeing as other European manufacturers have been selected in the past.

We are also currently investing heavily into R&D for another product (33kV) that is supplied by European manufacturers only.

This also ties in nicely with the “electric car” thread and the infrastructure and equipment issue. I represent the company on a nationwide committee tasked with resolving these issues.

So while we may have limited products of an FMCG or automotive nature (or indeed products that compete with high volume sales), we are at the forefront of industrial technology (stuff you don’t always see).