Jump to content

Recommended Posts

To be fair, we still produce some pretty good food - smoked salmon, cheese, meat, game, fruit etc and their products. They may sometimes be more expensive than the imported stuff in the supermarkets, but still within the reach of most people even if you only have them as an occasional treat.

We are the second biggest car manufacturer in Europe

We are global players in aerospace, pharmaceuticals and erm, arms

We are creating a tech hub in App development only behind Silicon Valley

We have a renaissance in specialist and high end film production and have global expertise in many animation/special effects

We are developing expertise in some very new materials technology graphene etc

We export our TV formats and ideas globally

We are actually doing quite well in a large number of high value growth areas in manufacturing and in many of these 'creative manufacturing' areas

We have also of course still have a ginormous service sector that adds massive value including global leadership in many financial services and related high value areas ( boo hiss from stage left)



...what we don,t have any more is half a million plus miners doing dirty dangeorous jobs producing high pollutant energy, 200,000 in producing steel, a global commodity, or half a million in shipbuilding or dockers.


We aren't doing that bad

I think men's shoes are much better catered for. Northampton is still the centre of Britannia's sole.


Loakes

Grensons

Trickers

Crockett and Jones

Barkers

Altberg hiking boots


It's mostly higher end stuff that carries a premium price because few people think like you RPC and simply want cheap and disposable. It's a consumer issue as much as a manufacturing one.

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> We are the second biggest car manufacturer in

> Europe

> We are global players in aerospace,

> pharmaceuticals and erm, arms

> We are creating a tech hub in App development only

> behind Silicon Valley

> We have a renaissance in specialist and high end

> film production and have global expertise in many

> animation/special effects

> We are developing expertise in some very new

> materials technology graphene etc

> We export our TV formats and ideas globally

> We are actually doing quite well in a large number

> of high value growth areas in manufacturing and in

> many of these 'creative manufacturing' areas

> We have also of course still have a ginormous

> service sector that adds massive value including

> global leadership in many financial services and

> related high value areas ( boo hiss from stage

> left)

>

>

> ...what we don,t have any more is half a million

> plus miners doing dirty dangeorous jobs producing

> high pollutant energy, 200,000 in producing steel,

> a global commodity, or half a million in

> shipbuilding or dockers.

>

> We aren't doing that bad


Think that's stretching it a bit - I was talking more about tangible stuff that ordinary people use day to day and which twenty or thirty years ago could be relied on to be decent quality, and how some brands now seem sell 'Britishness' as an associated idea rather than British materials or workmanship. M&S is an example - the women's clothes on the whole aren't much better quality than you might find on a market stall. Perhaps it's partly partly the Primark / TK Maxx effect, I don't know.


I like the Barbour example; I didn't know they were all still made here.

Well it was my mate's dad who was head of the design team for the main platform (which was made here...errr there, in the UK) for the Rosetta mission. We should be pretty proud of that, huge British input. He's retired now, shows how long these things take.


Here's a photo he took, 15 years ago!!!




She (my friend) lives in Oz now in case that vodafone thingy is confusing.

RPC - not sure if it's your style but http://www.old-town.co.uk/ do, imo, marvellous British workwear of a pre-war ethos.


I have some of their stuff and it's bomb proof.


Hiut Denim in Wales is another great micro-maker of top quality.

steveo Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Pearls, gems, precious metals and coins:

> ?58,544,016,505 (18 per cent of total exports)


This is probably mainly due to people selling off reserves of bullion... it's not like we're exporting huge amounts of jewels or anything.

david_carnell Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> RPC - not sure if it's your style but

> http://www.old-town.co.uk/ do, imo, marvellous

> British workwear of a pre-war ethos.

>

> I have some of their stuff and it's bomb proof.

>


Thanks. I could see myself wearing one or two of these in the right fabric.


Just remembered another great one: http://www.johnsmedley.com/

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • Not miserable at all! I feel the same and also want to complain to the council but not sure who or where best to aim it at? I have flagged it with our local MP and one Southwark councillor previously but only verbally when discussing other things and didn’t get anywhere other than them agreeing it was very frustrating etc. but would love to do something on paper. I think they’ve been pretty much every night for the last couple of weeks and my cat is hating it! As am I !
    • That is also a Young's pub, like The Cherry Tree. However fantastic the menu looks, you might want to ask exactly who will cook the food on the day, and how. Also, if  there is Christmas pudding on the menu, you might want to ask how that will be cooked, and whether it will look and/or taste anything like the Christmas puddings you have had in the past.
    • This reminds me of a situation a few years ago when a mate's Dad was coming down and fancied Franklin's for Christmas Day. He'd been there once, in September, and loved it. Obviously, they're far too tuned in to do it, so having looked around, £100 per head was pretty standard for fairly average pubs around here. That is ridiculous. I'd go with Penguin's idea; one of the best Christmas Day lunches I've ever had was at the Lahore Kebab House in Whitechapel. And it was BYO. After a couple of Guinness outside Franklin's, we decided £100 for four people was the absolute maximum, but it had to be done in the style of Franklin's and sourced within walking distance of The Gowlett. All the supermarkets knock themselves out on veg as a loss leader - particularly anything festive - and the Afghani lads on Rye Lane are brilliant for more esoteric stuff and spices, so it really doesn't need to be pricey. Here's what we came up with. It was considerably less than £100 for four. Bread & Butter (Lidl & Lurpak on offer at Iceland) Mersea Oysters (Sopers) Parsnip & Potato Soup ( I think they were both less than 20 pence a kilo at Morrisons) Smoked mackerel, Jerseys, watercress & radish (Sopers) Rolled turkey breast joint (£7.95 from Iceland) Roast Duck (two for £12 at Lidl) Mash  Carrots, star anise, butter emulsion. Stir-fried Brussels, bacon, chestnuts and Worcestershire sauce.(Lidl) Clementine and limoncello granita (all from Lidl) Stollen (Lidl) Stichelton, Cornish Cruncher, Stinking Bishop. (Marks & Sparks) There was a couple of lessons to learn: Don't freeze mash. It breaks down the cellular structure and ends up more like a French pomme purée. I renamed it 'Pomme Mikael Silvestre' after my favourite French centre-half cum left back and got away with it, but if you're not amongst football fans you may not be so lucky. Tasted great, looked like shit. Don't take the clementine granita out of the freezer too early, particularly if you've overdone it on the limoncello. It melts quickly and someone will suggest snorting it. The sugar really sticks your nostrils together on Boxing Day. Speaking of 'lost' Christmases past, John Lewis have hijacked Alison Limerick's 'Where Love Lives' for their new advert. Bastards. But not a bad ad.   Beansprout, I have a massive steel pot I bought from a Nigerian place on Choumert Road many years ago. It could do with a work out. I'm quite prepared to make a huge, spicy parsnip soup for anyone who fancies it and a few carols.  
    • Nothing to do with the topic of this thread, but I have to say, I think it is quite untrue that people don't make human contact in cities. Just locally, there are street parties, road WhatsApp groups, one street I know near here hires a coach and everyone in the street goes to the seaside every year! There are lots of neighbourhood groups on Facebook, where people look out for each other and help each other. In my experience people chat to strangers on public transport, in shops, waiting in queues etc. To the best of my knowledge the forum does not need donations to keep it going. It contains paid ads, which hopefully helps Joe,  the very excellent admin,  to keep it up and running. And as for a house being broken into, that could happen anywhere. I knew a village in Devon where a whole row of houses was burgled one night in the eighties. Sorry to continue the off topic conversation when the poor OP was just trying to find out who was open for lunch on Christmas Day!
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...