A Truly British Family - Consumer champions of manufacturing & farming
Buy British and Support British manufacturing & British farming
We have our own views on which supermarket is best for buying British goods but we want to hear yours. We feel that certain stores are making a real effort to supply goods of British origin but others seem to be making little headway at all.
Yes, it is time for another poll and have your say!
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I have just been reading a brief article about a truly brilliant man and all-round committed champion of British manufacturing, John Elliott. John is the brains behind Ebac a large manufacturer of dehumidifiers, and soon to be the UK’s only manufacturer of washing machines. I have had the pleasure of meeting the man himself and he is everything you would expect from a British northern manufacturer; refreshingly bold, wonderfully straight-talking and delightfully opinionated. And this aforementioned article totally sums him up: http://www.insidermedia.com/insider/north-east/91573-
John’s personal cause is called StopGap (www.stopgapuk.com), with which he is campaigning to cut Britain’s trade deficit. Certainly a worthy cause, and one which has meant that he has received his fair share of publicity. In this recent article, John makes a characteristically bullish statement – he believes that Britain, to promote economic growth, should temporarily suspend innovation in favour of producing what people actually need. I am personally unsure about this so I thought it would be a great opportunity for you to have your say.
The hypothetical question is:
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This is a question we get asked a lot and it is a difficult one for us to ignore. I think that there is no hiding the fact that we present an image of a typical middle class family. However, if asked would I brand myself with such a badge? What does being middle class mean? And is there really any excuse for not buying British that comes down to class?
I personally grew up the only child in a single parent family, in a council house in a rather dubious part of Nottingham. I am now University educated (twice) and have a job that pays reasonably well. However, I still, if pushed, consider myself working class. Emily is perhaps more distinctly middle class having grown up in the leafy suburbia of Kent in a model 2.4 children type family.
The argument we hear is that working classes simply cannot afford to buy British. Is this really the case and does any of it even matter when we think about British families supporting our own domestic manufacturing and farming? It is true that some sectors of British manufacturing can be significantly more pricy than their imported alternatives, but we continue to find bargains among all sectors of British production that are not exclusively priced. Adversely, we have actually saved money with quite a lot of money on our usual purchases by buying British.
So the original questions still stands – is buying British a distinctly middle class extravagance that prices out the rest of Britain or is buying more British goods open to all? Have your say:
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