6.2: Made in Britain (but who cares?)

Made in Britain (but who cares?)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4437467.stm

Now MG Rover is about to go down, the last British car company is going down as well. With this, thoughts of a campaign to make Britons buy British are revived. Will this work? Will people buy patrioticly, or buy the best quality? Or buy whatever is cheapest? And what is British? Does every ingredient or part of a British product have to be British? Next to that, there are European laws saying you can not discriminate against imports from other EU countries on account of their origin. But, buying British will influence the British economy and jobs. A tricky issue.

I think a Buy British campaign would not work out. Since the world is becoming so globalised (think of the internet: you can buy anything you like from anywhere you like), people will buy globally. Saying a product is British does not make the product better, so why buy it then? If you are able to buy French (and 'tasty') water in the UK, why not if you do not like the British water? If Polish products are cheaper and of the same quality as the same, British product, why not buy the Polish one? As Alan from England says: 'After the war Made in Britain meant quality, Made in Japan meant junk. Sadly, today it is the other way round.' Dominic Tristram choses to buy British product for ecomical reasons as well as environmental ones. He has a point there: why spend I don't know how much on bringing water from one side of the world to the other, polluting like mad, while there is good British water as well? But I think it is a matter of personal taste, and personal needs.