Sizing up British jobs (From York Press)
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Sizing up British jobs
10:01am Friday 10th February 2012 in Letters
I AGREE with the suggestion that we could save jobs by buying British (Letters, February 1).
Just before Christmas, my husband bought two pairs of trousers from Marks & Spencer, both the same size, different colours.
One was made in Vietnam, the other Indonesia. One pair fitted, the other from waist to crotch was very short and the waist would go nowhere near.
Both were the same size according to the label.
In the summer, I bought ladies trousers, both had left legs. Men’s jumpers would seem to fit monkeys, the arms are so long.
Friends bought men’s trousers last year, 34 waist, 29 leg. Having tried them on the legs were short, they took them back to be told they could go two inches longer or shorter. What is the point of putting sizes on if they are not correct?
We spend more time taking things back.
Marks & Spencer’s slogan used to be “Buy British” – what happened to that?
Most things now are made in China. I think people are sick of this.
With so much unemployment can we now go back to Buy British?
Mrs S Draper, Key Way, Fulford, York.
Comments(14)
newscritic
says...
11:27am Fri 10 Feb 12
In fact this should create an explosion in much smaller localised businesses or people simply making things for themselves with machines a bit like a microwave oven/printer combined.
lis0r
says...
12:25pm Fri 10 Feb 12
3D printers are great for rapid prototyping, or small scale, highly customised production, but they'll never win out against bulk manufacturing techniques.
Corran
says...
12:51pm Fri 10 Feb 12
Jezreel
says...
12:55pm Fri 10 Feb 12
In fact the suits she bought are made by the Israeli owned company Plogat (Bagir ) wich has factories in Vietnam, Indonesia,India, Egypt etc. If you check the penultimate para of this link, you will see that M&S are their largest customer. lisOr is wrong. None of them are designed in the UK
http://www.haaretz.c
om/print-edition/bus
iness/riding-polgat-
s-53-share-leap-bagi
r-plans-to-raise-nis
-100m-1.150965
newscritic
says...
1:45pm Fri 10 Feb 12
lis0r wrote:Oh ye of little faith.
Hah, you wish! The machines are pretty dangerous, be it the 120degC+ temperatures involved in melting plastic, the toxic photopolymers, or the invisible lasers that'll roast your eyes out in a second. Also, the cost of materials is often horrendous - I should know, having had to buy a few kilos of exceedingly expensive plastic filament recently for my RepRap.
3D printers are great for rapid prototyping, or small scale, highly customised production, but they'll never win out against bulk manufacturing techniques.
alfie
says...
1:51pm Fri 10 Feb 12
lis0r
says...
3:15pm Fri 10 Feb 12
newscritic wrote:I don't need faith, on account of actually understanding and using the technology.
lis0r wrote:Oh ye of little faith.
Hah, you wish! The machines are pretty dangerous, be it the 120degC+ temperatures involved in melting plastic, the toxic photopolymers, or the invisible lasers that'll roast your eyes out in a second. Also, the cost of materials is often horrendous - I should know, having had to buy a few kilos of exceedingly expensive plastic filament recently for my RepRap.
3D printers are great for rapid prototyping, or small scale, highly customised production, but they'll never win out against bulk manufacturing techniques.
newscritic
says...
3:17pm Fri 10 Feb 12
lis0r wrote:You should do some more research.
newscritic wrote:I don't need faith, on account of actually understanding and using the technology.
lis0r wrote:Oh ye of little faith.
Hah, you wish! The machines are pretty dangerous, be it the 120degC+ temperatures involved in melting plastic, the toxic photopolymers, or the invisible lasers that'll roast your eyes out in a second. Also, the cost of materials is often horrendous - I should know, having had to buy a few kilos of exceedingly expensive plastic filament recently for my RepRap.
3D printers are great for rapid prototyping, or small scale, highly customised production, but they'll never win out against bulk manufacturing techniques.
ColdAsChristmas
says...
10:25pm Fri 10 Feb 12
That said, some years ago Panorama uncovered a scam where a North African sweat shop was sowing in Made in the UK labels into clothing, so you never know how British they really were in supporting our country.
The merchandise / memorabilia for the 2012 Olympic games is being manufactured mostly overseas, mostly China. One thing is clear and that is that our Coalition Government are not doing anywhere near enough to ensure we are able to find and purchase British made goods.
ak7274
says...
3:22pm Sat 11 Feb 12
ak7274
says...
3:24pm Sat 11 Feb 12
Brickyard
says...
4:50pm Sun 12 Feb 12
lis0r wrote:Magaret Thatcher beat the dockers, and opened the door to all this averice and greed, if the dockers still had the power, most of these imports wouldn't get in the country, and therefore would be made here.
You do realise that whilst they're made abroad, they're almost certainly designed here in the UK, right?
That's how the British economy works these days - we do the "clever" bit, then send it off to 3rd world sweatshops to be built. Sadly, some companies aren't as clever as they'd like to believe.
ak7274
says...
6:56pm Sun 12 Feb 12
lis0r says...
11:00am Fri 10 Feb 12
That's how the British economy works these days - we do the "clever" bit, then send it off to 3rd world sweatshops to be built. Sadly, some companies aren't as clever as they'd like to believe.